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San Francisco and Sacramento - Posted at 5:26 PM on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 by Chris Conard
On the weekend of January 19th and 20th, Kimya and I went to San Francisco with Frank and Katharine Severson.  We arrived mid-morning on Saturday near the Yacht Marina and thousands of gulls were feasting on herring roe throughout the Bay.

The pale dots are the roe stuck to the rocks and vegetation exposed at low tide.To quote from this article by the CA Dept. of Fish and Game:  "While the males release milt into the water, the females swim with their bellies near suitable substrates and release up to 45,000 sticky eggs that adhere to the surface of the chosen substrate. For San Francisco Bay herring, suitable substrates include natural and manmade structures that are relatively siltfree, such as eelgrass and the red algae Gracilaria, rocks, shells, pier pilings, jetties, and boat bottoms.

A small spawn, involving a few tons of fish, can go unnoticed and be over in a single tide. Large spawns, however, are truly spectacular. Spawns of larger magnitude can go on for several days and cover miles of shoreline. The water turns milky with milt. When exposed at low tide, the fertilized eggs (embryos) can be seen blanketing the shoreline and structures such as pier pilings, giving them a pale golden color."

Jelly fish were also visible from shore.

We didn't realize there was to be a giant "pro life" rally starting right where we parked (I think "pro birth" is more accurate, since, so often for these people, it seems that the "sanctity" of life begins at conception and ends shortly after birth).  Politics weren't on the agenda for the day, so we stayed out of their way and tried to enjoy the birds...

On our walk over to Fort Mason we saw this Black-crowned Night-Heron kickin' it on the pier.  I'd never seen one this relaxed before.

We didn't see the reported Orchard Orioles, but there were a lot of Red-masked Parakeets of the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill fame.

We then walked over to the Presidio and saw the reported Rose-breasted Grosbeak in front of the Golden Gate Club.  We saw him eat a few berries.  Unfortunately he's out of focus here.

That night we stayed at the Hotel California and had a nice dinner at the Millennium restaurant.  Despite the ominous lyrics in the song of the same title, we were able to check out AND leave the hotel next morning.

We headed over to the Sutro Baths in the morning, but failed to find the reported Burrowing Owl.  We ran into Frances, Liz, and Jim at Heron's Head, and they told us where to find the Barrow's Goldeneye and Harlequin Duck at Agua Vista Park among the collapsing piers.  We did.  Tons of gulls there too, and more roe visible on the rocks.  We then headed for home and I continued struggling with the first of two bad colds I've dealt with in the last month and a half.

On Monday 1/21/08, MLK day, Kimya and I found the continuing Plumbeous Vireo at Elk Grove Park where I had missed it on Friday.
After work on 1/28/08, I was happy to see this Mountain Chickadee that had been found earlier in the day by John Luther and Jim Lomax.  They were looking for the Townsend's Solitaire that had also been found in the Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento.  This horrible photo was the best I could do... I try to get record shots, especially of the Sac County rarities, but this one is near ridiculous.

This Barrow's Goldeneye stayed around for a few days on a small pond at the Bufferlands in the end of January.

There is so little habitat left for Burrowing Owls in Natomas (north of Sacramento) that this one was spending most of its time on a lawn in front of a house.

On 2/9/08, I joined John Schick for his 20-year anniversary survey of River Walk (formerly known as Willow Slough Trail) at Cosumnes River Preserve.  It was good to see some of the folks who have been helping with the surveys all of these years.  It's hard for me to believe that in June I will have been going on the surveys for ten years.

Later that day, I helped lead a field trip for SOS Cranes.  We saw a lot of cranes and many more geese.  We also enjoyed this nice sunset at Staten Island, with Mt. Diablo in the distance.

Back at the Bufferlands, for the first time--at least in many years--good numbers of Sandhill Cranes have been foraging on the property.  I've been informed that the red bands indicate Greater Sandhill Cranes that were banded on Modoc National Wildlife Refuge.  I've recorded band numbers on about 20 individuals.

There have been a few Lesser Sandhill Cranes as well.  Note the smaller size of the closest bird.  They have rounder heads and shorter bills.  Instead of breeding in northeast CA or OR, like the greaters, they breed north to Canada, Alaska, and even Siberia.
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