Following up from these messages with a couple updates from Heron's Head:
- LEAST TERNS were present again this afternoon, at least a couple seen
over India Basin and a few more out over the bay. Three small-ish terns
were roosted on the back side of the gravel berm, in a location where I
could only view them distantly. I think they were Forster's Terns but I
couldn't definitively rule out Least.
- I just watched as a BLACK OYSTERCATCHER flew across the water towards the
Recology building and landed on the rusted barge below with the stenciled
name WESTAR XIV. When the bird landed, two still-downy young came running
over to get a taste of whatever their parents was bringing back. So it
seems that while they may have moved off the exposed roof, the
Oystercatchers have once again succeeded in reproducing here.
Cheers,
Liam
On Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 7:39 PM Liam Murphy via groups.io <liammsf=
<gmail.com...> wrote:
> Thanks for these notes Eddie!
>
> On my way out to India Basin today, I saw 4 White-throated Swifts flying
> quite close to the elevated 280 freeway. Since I was driving and in
> traffic, I can't be sure, but the birds were flying in tight proximity, I
> did wonder if they might have been pairs or a family group in the proximity
> of a nest site somewhere in those overpasses. Definitely interesting!
>
> And by the way, 4 or more Least Terns were once again foraging in the
> India Basin around midday. It would be amazing if an area could be
> protected if these birds wanted to attempt to establish a colony on this
> side of the bay. But, as you note, the aggressive pace of redevelopment in
> that part of town makes that seem unlikely.
>
> Good birding, and hoping for more breeding birds in San Francisco!
>
> Liam
>
> On Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 6:34 PM Eddie Bartley via groups.io <eddie=
> <naturetrip.com...> wrote:
>
>> Super cool on the first SF breeding record for Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in
>> the "re-created" hollow in the Presidio, thanks for sharing that good news
>> Dom.
>>
>> Due to the general lack of open space and pittance of quality habitat on
>> the east side of SF (relative to the central ridge and west), breeding of
>> birds is much suppressed on this side of town. Also, it appears the ever
>> burgeoning Raven and Crow populations have eliminated much in the way of
>> backyard songbird breeding compared to 20 years ago. These clever corvids
>> are really good at finding nests.
>>
>> Any bird breeding activity is something to celebrate so I'm adding a few
>> seasonal observations from our Southern Waterfront area ramblings for any
>> folks interested in this sort of thing.
>>
>> *Aqua Vista Park:* About 5 years ago, at some expense and with good
>> intentions the Port of SF installed a Caspian Tern "platform" replete with
>> tern decoys and audio playback (until the solar panel powering it was
>> stolen about a year later). The idea was to replace the dilapidating pier
>> that the terns had adopted and successfully bred at for at least a decade
>> before it finally collapsed during winter storms. Unfortunately the terns
>> never took a liking to the new platform having likely lost their homing
>> mechanism in the two (or 3?) years between the old pier collapse and the
>> new platform installation. The decoys are still there, most all listing on
>> one side now. Noreen and I take a look each spring a time or three in
>> hopes (though less and less each year) that they will re-establish. So it
>> was a fun surprise on two recent visits to see a pair of *BLACK
>> OYSTERCATCHERS *take up territory on the platform. One at a time sitting
>> for long periods of time as if incubating in the exact same location
>> sheltered in part from one of the listing decoys. Quite exposed but who
>> knows, might could work. Coincidentally maybe, this is the first year that
>> we have not been able to detect Black Oystercatchers making a breeding go
>> of it at Heron's Head Park. First noticed an oyster-let there during a
>> butterfly survey about 10 years ago on the dilapidating Lashlighter Pier,
>> which completed it's collapse about four years ago. Oystercatchers then
>> took to breeding on the roof of the Recology recycling center (with many,
>> many Western Gulls) which probably made for an ever-greater exciting first
>> flight for any surviving oyster-lets. Despite those odds, most years in the
>> past ten we've usually seen a young darkish-billed juvenile Oystercatcher
>> foraging along the rip-rap at Heron's Head. Nature can be super resilient
>> that's for sure!
>>
>> *Red-winged Blackbirds, India Basin & Pier 94: *another interesting
>> breeding adaptation is the apparent move of a breeding colony of RW
>> Blackbirds from the very east end of India Basin to Pier 94. Up until the
>> early 2010's at least RWBLs nested in a patch of willows until "The
>> Shipyard" developer apparently decided those willows must go. Maybe they
>> didn't like the occasional campers. Not too long after that, and shortly
>> after the uplands portion of Pier 94 was raised with dredged materials and
>> planted with some natives, a few RW Blackbirds began attempting to nest in
>> the Coyote Brush and Toyon there. We've seen young over the past few years
>> but never as many as this year. Per our eBird reports: seems a few (and
>> only) males show up beginning early December, then more and more males
>> until some females join them about March or April when courtship and
>> nesting is taken on in earnest. We've been out much of June so haven't
>> visited this month but my highest estimate yet was at least 32 individuals
>> with at least 8 young on May 26. Probably many more since, to keep
>> disturbance to a minimum, we tally moving quickly dodging perched alarming
>> males.
>>
>> *White-throated Swifts: *speculative at this point but this past month
>> we have seen several WTSW from the elevated section of I-280 between Caesar
>> Chavez & the 101 split. Could be that they are nesting in the weep-holes on
>> the under-beneath of the freeway - a well documented breeding adaptation of
>> these aviation specialist.
>>
>> Wishing you many happy discoveries!
>>
>> Eddie Bartley
>>
>
>
