Birding at Lake Merced (SF)

Today was another great bird outing with my Field Ornithology class. There were about 25 of us all told (many from the two more advanced classes our instructor Joe teaches), with plenty of scopes to share. It was an overcast day, but stayed dry, and I saw a ton of new birds.

We started at the northeast side of the lake, alternating between the forest and brush at lakeside, and the birds out on the lake. Some very noisy Dragon Boat races kept the lake birds to a minimum here (in fact, Joe is so frustrated by the ruckus they cause, he indicated this may be the last field trip he leads here).

In the parking lot, we saw VAUX’S SWIFTS and WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS, both lifers for me, as well as TREE SWALLOWS, ALLEN’S HUMMINGBIRDS, and many more expected birds.

Once we’d birded here for about 90 minutes, we caravaned to the southern part of the lake, where I got several more lifers: ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, TRICOLORED BLACKBIRD, and PURPLE FINCH. Other birds of interest included all 5 non-rare grebes for the bay area (Clark’s, Western, Pied-billed, Eared and Horned, with the latter two in breeding plumage).

We learned how to distinguish swallows in flight – very useful indeed! What I picked up was:
– Barn Swallows – have long forked tail, buffy undersides, blue-green back
– Tree Swallows – short, barely-forked tail, white undersides, blue back
– Cliff Swallows – just like Barn Swallows, but without long tails, and with a white forehead patch
– Violet-green Swallows – much like Tree Swallows, but with a white saddle near their rump
– Rough-winged Swallows – generally brown and featureless overall.

This is a wonderful place to bird, and I felt silly for having not birded here previously, since it’s only about 5 miles from home, and has excellent diversity, not to mention being a pleasant place to walk around.

Today’s list (46 species!) is:

– Allen’s Hummingbird
– American Coot
– American Crow
– American Goldfinch
– American Robin
– Anna’s Hummingbird
– Barn Swallow
– Black Phoebe
– Black-crowned Night Heron
– Brewer’s Blackbird
– Brown-headed Cowbird
– Bushtit
– California Gull
– Caspian Tern
– Clark’s Grebe
– Cliff Swallow
– Common Raven
– Double-crested Cormorant
– Eared Grebe
– European Starling
– Golden-crowned Sparrow
– Great Blue Heron
– Horned Grebe
– Mallard
– Mourning Dove
* Northern Rough-winged Swallow
– Osprey
– Pied-billed Grebe
* Purple Finch
– Red-tailed Hawk
– Red-winged Blackbird
– Ring-necked Duck
– Rock Pigeon
– Ruddy Duck
– Song Sparrow
– Tree Swallow
* Tricolored Blackbird
* Vaux’s Swift
+ Violet-green Swallow
– Western Grebe
– Western Gull
– Western Scrub-Jay
– White-crowned Sparrow
* White-throated Swift
– Wilson’s Warbler
– Yellow-rumped Warbler

* = life bird, + = year bird

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