Date: 5/3/24 3:37 pm From: David Assmann via groups.io <david_assmann...> Subject: [SFBirds] Fort Mason Local Interest
The trickle of migrants passing through Fort Mason picked up pace a little bit today with an ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER and WESTERN KINGBIRD in the Battery; a CASSIN'S VIREO and a WARBLING VIREO (singing) behind the General's House and a BULLOCK'S ORIOLE above Aquatic Park. Many resident birds have successfully nested - HOUSE SPARROWS, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, SONG SPARROWS, EUROPEAN STARLINGS and HOUSE FINCHES are feeding young. PIGEON GUILLEMOTS are on nests in the piers in lower Fort Mason - one of them is possibly nesting inside a pipe under one of the piers. A pair of NUTTALL'S WOODPECKERS drilled six holes in a small tree, and then abandoned them all for a nest hole in a Eucalyptus tree - PYGMY NUTHATCHES are nesting in one of the abandoned woodpecker holes. Meanwhile a pair of RED-MASKED PARAKEETS keep sticking their heads into the woodpecker nest hole, much to the chagrin of the Nuttall's. This morning a COOPER'S HAWK caught a European Starling in the garden and perched with its prey in the large tree on the west fence line for about 90 minutes - during that entire time one of the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS sat 2 feet away from it constantly making screeching noises. The pair of GREAT HORNED OWLS had a successful nest raising one offspring that has now left the nest.
