Forty years ago today, I arrived in San Francisco. It took me roughly six hours to know that I would live here the rest of my life.
My aunt had invited me to live with her out west since there was not much opportunity in Michigan in those days. A walk around my new neighborhood was all it took to fall in love with The City. Four decades later, my ardor has not cooled.
I wasn’t a birder in 1982; that started five years later. But if the birds weren’t a reason for moving here, they have certainly been a good reason to stay. San Francisco sits on a major migration flyway, is blessed with both land and sea habitats, and has a large amount of open space and parkland. It’s only 49 square miles and the second most densely populated city in the US, but there’s still a lot of room for birds. And within an hour or so, you can reach any number of well-known birding hotspots like Point Reyes or Monterey Bay. We’re spoiled.
This past Tuesday was the San Francisco Christmas Bird Count, with 185 species tallied overall. Some were only seen outside the city limits but 150+ were spotted within our borders. In 2020, our species total landed us in the top 10 nationwide.
Our backyards are pretty small (25’ x 60’ is about the biggest in most neighborhoods) with no side yards, so there’s not room for extensive plantings or large trees. The yards aren’t great for lawns; some just get paved but many have more interesting plants or they’re just left to go feral — either of those can make birds happy. Our backyard bird mix is pretty much standard west coast stuff — House Finches, Mourning Doves, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, White-crowned Sparrows, Cal Scrub Jays, Anna’s Hummingbirds, Dark-eyed Juncos, Cal Towhees, Bushtits, Black Phoebes plus a few more in winter, like Golden Crowned Sparrows, Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. During my year of remote work, I was happy to see how many migrants visited the yard. We had another half-dozen warbler species, Western Tanager and others.
Oh, and my friends the Ravens.
We get backyard raptors as well — sharpies and merlins show up in winter, coops are here year round but more of them join us in winter. My yard list also includes peregrines (they like to hunt the reservoir across the street), bald eagle (3 times in 18 years), osprey, White-tailed kite (okay, for that one I had to set up a scope in the back window and look at a site three miles away but the bird was right on its favorite perch), many redtails and, of course, the beautiful and elegant Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus elegans.
The covered reservoir across the street adds more variety. Without open water, there are no ducks or other waterfowl, but shorebirds and gulls like to retreat to its wide open surface when high tide swallows the beach. The trees surrounding the reservoir, mostly Monterey pines, attract a slightly different mix of birds than our backyards — woodpeckers, pygmy nuthatches,and occasionally crossbills.
Some species have declined in the time I’ve lived here, most notably California Quail. I used to see them in Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, but their numbers steadily dwindled and now they’ve been extirpated from the city. There are many factors for their decline, but the biggest one was predation by feral cats. Counter-intuitively, one thing that will probably help reintroduction efforts is the ever increasing numbers of coyotes in the City. The coyotes have greatly reduced feral cat numbers in the parks, by direct predation and also discouraging people from “giving cats their freedom”.
Countering the loss of that one charismatic species, we’ve seen increases in several others. One of the most notable has been the return of Western Bluebirds to the city. I remember their return well; it was in 2005 and a dozen of us were doing a friendly “local big year” competition. We had email and text groups to make sure word got out about local rarities and bluebirds were a Category 5 rarity. Just seeing them in the city was huge thrill… and then we discovered they had a nest! It was in a recently restored bit of coastal scrub habitat in the Presidio. Their first attempt failed, but the pair managed to fledge 2 or 3 young on their second attempt later that summer, the first confirmed breeding in the city in 70 years. The population has slowly but surely increased and they are now breeding in Golden Gate Park and probably 2-3 other large parks. This past summer, I even had some flying over my house — something I couldn’t have imagined when we first moved in.
Another long-absent breeding bird: A friend and I were poking around the Palace of Fine Arts late at night ten years ago; he worked at the Exploratorium when it was located there and had noticed owl pellets underneath the dome. We hoped to spot a Great Horned Owl or two atop the columns. Much to our surprise, the owl that peeked over the edge was a Barn Owl. And then another, and another and another. (No wonder there were so many pellets!) He was able to document nesting for the first time in decades.
Like most of the country, the peregrine population here has rebounded in the past 20-30 years. They nest in several places around town, some with webcams. They are losing their premiere perch on the PG&E building (it has been sold and will be redeveloped) but they have found a number of good locations.
The falcons’ cousins are also media stars — I’m talking about the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. They’ve moved well beyond Telegraph Hill now; you can spot them in most of the northern neighborhoods and downtown, and they occasionally venture further afield. A few weeks ago, I had a medical appointment that was making me slightly anxious; I parked my car and the parrots flew over and my worries vanished. (All went well.) No sightings for my yard list yet, but I have seen them as close as 6 blocks from here. It’s just a matter of time.
Another sighting from home that was worth waiting for was the Sooty Shearwater spectacle, something I’ve heard about for 20 years. Every fall huge flocks of them pass the coast here, literally tens of thousands at a time. It seems like something that would be hard to miss, but you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time — without fog obscuring the view. Easier said than done, until the COVID shutdown had me at home and looking out the window.
San Francisco also includes one very magical, almost mythical, spot in birding lore — the Farallon Islands, roughly 28 miles west of us. The islands are home to tens of thousands of breeding birds — Common Murres, Western Gulls, Cassins Auklets and many others. It’s also a part-time home to the loneliest bird in the Pacific Ocean, a lone Northern Gannet who showed up in 2012. He bounces around between the Farallones, Alcatraz and coastal areas of Marin and San Mateo County. When he first arrived, boats were chartered to give people a chance to look for him; now The Gannet (as he’s known) is an old acquaintance to many of us.
I feel extremely fortunate to be surrounded by all these avian riches, and I never take it for granted. It makes me want to work all the harder to protect it, and to protect all the places that provide homes and habitats to the birds who pass through here.
A few more photos to show the local mix. I hope you visit to see for yourself!
So that’s my love letter to my adopted city. These past forty years have just flown by. Can’t wait to see what’s in store!