Trouble for Some City Birds According to Audubon Count

By Ryder W. Miller

Despite afternoon rains, Audubon Society birders successfully scoured the City Dec. 27 looking for all the birds they could find between San Bruno and The Golden Gate.

The tidings were good and bad. Some of the species experts were concerned about were not seen in high numbers. Only 23 Snowy Plovers were seen at Ocean Beach and only 40 California Quail were observed. In the Presidio 16 were found and four were discovered in Golden Gate Park. There were a total of 20 California Quail observed in San Francisco.

"That is pretty bad. The only place they seem to be viable is in the Presidio," said Dan Murphy, Sunset District resident and former president of the Golden Gate Audubon Society.

The sex ratio was also unfortunately skewed, with 12 males and 4 females.

"Once you get a sex pool like that ... it is likely you are going to see the end of that species," Murphy said. "The odds are against them."

The rain may have been responsible for California Quail not being found in larger numbers, but there is no question among birders that feral cats are a problem for the birds.

Murphy said the weather was overcast on the morning of the 27th, but visibility was excellent. It started to rain at 2 p.m., but most of the counting was done before then. Some of the birders then made their way to the beach to see what they could see. Some of the seabirds seen from the shore included the Ancient Murrelet, Marbled Murrelet and Common Murre.

"The oceanic birds were there because they were blown in," Murphy said. "Seeing them from shore during winter is fairly unusual."

Murphy said the biggest surprise was two birds observed were the Scott's Oriole and Tropical Kingbird.

"They are both desert birds that should be wintering south. They only come north irregularly," said Murphy. "They are out of their habitat area."

It was only the second observation for a Scott's Oriole.

One of the more outstanding sightings was of a Black Belly Plover, with 469 of the 1,032 observed in the neighborhood near the Sunset Reservoir.

Alan Hopkins, current president of the Golden Gate Audubon Society, said other birds observed included the Tennessee Warbler (at Lake Merced), Marbled Murrelets, Ancient Murrelets and White Tailed Kites.

The count lasted until 5 p.m. but the first group started looking for owls at 5 a.m. When the day was over, the birders gathered at the Presidio Log Cabin for dinner and to announce what they had seen during the day. Altogether there were 108 participants who observed 165 different species.

Murphy, who is still busy tabulating the information, said both species count and the total number of birds were about average. He did say, however, that the duck count in the Bay was "way low."

The total number of birds counted was 53,813.