For the past three months I have gotten out of bed at 5:15 AM in order to get some birding in before my work day begins. This requires me to either pull rain pants over my business suit or wear old clothes and bring my business suit to change into after birding for an hour or so. Today I just didn't have the energy to get up before my 8:30 AM hearing to look for birds. With the days getting shorter and shorter it is becoming increasingly difficult to bird at all before work. Last night it rained. I thought maybe the rains would push something interesting in so today I threw an extra set of clothes, jacket, and walking shoes and socks in the car and after disposing of my hearings fairly quickly headed over to what I call the MacArthur Street Ditch in the Presidio. The ditch has been full of water since I first discovered it last Monday when I saw a BALTIMORE ORIOLE in the weedy field beside the ditch. Our regular orioles are Bullock's and Hooded both of which breed in San Francisco, but they have all long since departed. Ocassionally we get a lost Orchard Oriole in the fall and last year one over wintered at Ft. Mason Community Garden. Baltimore Oriole is very rare in the City though. So it was a good find and had me returning to the ditch every day for a week to look for more goodies. It requires a great deal of energy to get up early, trudge off in the dark, look for birds, change clothes in the car, and then go to work and work hard all day.
Today I was surprised to find three Yellow Warblers and one Common Yellowthroat at MacArthur. I thought all the Yellow Warblers had left by now as I saw none all week long. So I was thinking there must be something really rare lurking in there too but I couldn't find it. I was also pressed for time as I had to change after birding and return for my afternoon hearings. About 100 yards from the ditch is a spring, called El Polin Spring, that attracts a lot of birds but is unforunately situated in the Presidio in an area where professional dog walkers like to let their dogs off leash so the can defecate and harass the wildlife. Last week I had an ugly encounter with a professional dog walker, Hot Diggity Dog Walking Service, after he parked in front of the spring and watered and fed his nine dogs for the third day in a row. This is a leash only area but the law is largely ignored in this dog rules the world town. Mr. Hot Diggity was unable to watch that many dogs and so of course when one defecated in the picnic area he didn't pick it up, also against park rules. I told him it was rude to park his truck in front of the spring preventing other people and animals from using it and he claimed the park police told him it was OK (the Presidio is a National Park). I pointed out that he was not allowed to have that many dogs and that he was supposed to pick up after his dogs. He ignored me so I called the Park Police and he ran off to tie three of the dogs up away from the spring so he wouldn't get a ticket for having more than the allowed number of dogs. I was so relieved he wasn't there today, although I did have my phone with me to call the park police again just in case. All I saw at the spring were a bunch of Yellow-rumped Warblers. On October 20, 2005 I found a Wood Thrush, only a second county record and very rare for California in general, at this spring and I keep hoping for some other similar rarity this year but it never happens.
I walked back to the ditch and saw some Fox Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Lincoln's Sparrows, House Finches, and Anna's Hummingbirds. I only heard one Hermit Thrush although normally there are many as they winter here.
I made a brief stop at Lobos Creek Trail also in the Presidio but all I saw there were Northern Mockingbird, White-crowned Sparrows, heard another Lincoln's Sparrow, one Scrub Jay, and a Red-tailed Hawk.
On my way back for my afternoon hearings I stopped at Crissy Field which borders the Bay with outstanding views of the Golden Gate Bridge. This area was recently restored by the park with native plants and is a haven for the endangered Snowy Plover. They really have no chance though due to the large number of off-leash dogs there and to my knowledge have never nested there. In Crissy Lagoon I saw Least Sandpiper, Great Egret, Long-billed Curlew, Double-crested Cormorant, Killdeer, Pied-billed Grebe, Ring-billed Gull, and Western Gull. An American Kestrel was hawking over the lawn (hard to find in the City). Then it was time to change my clothes back to my business suit and back for an afternoon of work. The sun had finally come out after the depressing and chilly weekend weather but it was all inside the rest of the day for me. Ah, the challenges of birding while working.
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