Date: 1/5/26 1:54 pm From: Joachim Gonzalez via groups.io <jogonzal101...> Subject: [SFBirds] SF CBC: Area 5 (Eastern Golden Gate Park)
Hey All,
We had a wonderful, if a little gusty, day of counting on December 29th.
I'd like to show love to all of our counters! Our crew consisted of four
teams and twelve total counters. Long-time area leaders Matt and JoAnn
Zlatunich were joined by Maya Cibiri, Leo Kim, and Nathan and Max
Theurkauf. Area vet Angie was joined by Karen Miller and Michele Liapes in
the arboretum and, for the first time, we had a group on Lone Mountain in
the morning! They were Roy Leggitt and Courtney Clarkson, huge shout-out to
them.
We had 74 total species, which is on the high-end for our area, and just
three species lower than our all-time high of 77 species last year.
Highlights: 3 Say's Phoebes (2 on Lone Mountain and 1 in the arboretum);
definitely an all-time high count for the species in our area. Western
Bluebirds were present on Lone Mountain for the second year in a row, I
suppose that's a regular wintering site for them. I wonder if they breed up
there. I had a Nashville Warbler in the euks and ornamentals south of the
Sharon Arts Studio near Hippie Hill. JoAnn found a Green Heron a few days
prior at Blue Heron Lake and we finally picked up as it flew in to roost in
the willows just south of the pagoda. Also at Blue Heron Lake were two
Black-crowned Night Herons, the first in our area since at least 2020.
We had several Band-tailed Pigeon flocks with the flight conditions in the
morning, totalling 500. Lots of Robin flocks (nearly 500 total), but very
few residents actually in the park. One of the robin flocks had a
female-type *Piranga* tanager that flew east over McLaren Lodge whose views
were too brief to ID to species.
Downy Woodpecker numbers were way down, we only had 1 in the entire
area(!). Jay numbers felt pretty low, only 17 throughout the area (and only
3 throughout the oak woodlands). Only 2 Varied Thrushes and 2 groups of
Cedar Waxwings (22 total individuals) felt very low.
Sparrow numbers were *remarkably* low. We had the lowest Fox Sparrow
numbers in the last 5 years, only 16. Last year we had 26 which itself was
a near 50% drop from the 44 and 40 in 2021 and 2022. White-crowned Sparrow
numbers were very low, with only 70 in Golden Gate Park. 64 Golden-crowned
Sparrows was paltry compared to the 130, 260 and 190 of 2024, 2021 and 2020
respectively. We only had a single Lincoln's Sparrows and 2 White-throated
Sparrows, when we typically get at least a half-dozen of each. I struggled
to find blackbirds, as they were absent from all of their traditional
locations (Music Concourse, Blue Heron Lake, Whole Foods parking lot/Alvord
Lake), and I finally picked up 7 Brewer's and 12 Red-wings while driving
around the Sunset trying to track them down (9th and Irving specifically).
Warbler numbers were comparable to previous years, with the exception of
Yellow-rumps (15 Orange-crowns, 57 Townsend's, 2 Common Yellowthroats).
Bewick's Wren numbers were healthy, following up our first ever last year
with 4 throughout the oak woodlands this year, reflecting their explosion
throughout the city–where they used to be quite local. In contrast to the
low Downy numbers, we had 4 Hairy Woodpeckers, with a pair near the
skatepark and a pair on Strawberry Hill. Finch numbers actually increased
from previous years, with 15 Siskins and 13 Purple Finches being a nice
uptick from the low single-digits we've had recently. We had over 400
Yellow-rumps, which nearly doubles our highest total since 2020.
