After school, I decided to meet my good friend Logan Kahle at Fort Mason to search for some rarities that have recently been sighted. Unfortunately, I couldn't drive myself to Fort Mason, because there were many festivals and events occurring in San Francisco, which meant much traffic, and no easy parking. So I took the Muni all the way down from my school to Fort Mason.
As its name suggests, Fort Mason is an old fort situated on the very northern tip of San Francisco, right by Crissy Field. This location is known, in the birding community, for the myriad vagrants that it produces. This fall has been an especially productive season, with rarities such as Clay-colored Sparrows, American Redstarts, a Tennessee Warbler, a Tropical Kingbird, and many more. However, I wasn't after any of these birds (because they had all already left). I was after a small oriole species, a typically terrestrial warbler, and a colorful bird of the group cardinalidae.
Once I had arrived, I found Logan, who was trying to reach me through the phone. We caught up, and began birding. One of the birds we were searching for was found prior to my arrival that day foraging with a White-crowned Sparrow flock. Once we located the sparrow flock, we scrutinized each individual to be sure that we didn't miss our target bird. Suddenly Logan shouted out: "There!" The Dickcissel we were after blended in perfectly with the flock. However, the bird was quite distinguishable from the other sparrows. It was relatively larger, had a more massive bill, and had yellow around its face and chest.
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| Dickcissel (notice the large bill, and the yellow tones on the face.) |
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| Dickcissel (notice the large bill, and the yellow tones on the face.) |
This was a very exciting bird for us to find, not only because it was a lifer for me, but also because this is just the 3-4th record for San Francisco of this bird. Kudos to the finder of this rare species.
Once the flock dispersed, we lost sight of this bird, and decided to move along. We walked across the field to a scarlet eucalyptus tree. This was the tree where two Orchard Orioles were found earlier that week. Logan had seen then them the previous day, and had gotten great looks at them. Unfortunately, these icterids were M.I.A., even though we thoroughly searched the tree. We decided to walk towards a coastal shrub habitat, where they are less frequently seen. Oddly enough though, one the birds was perched atop a shrub, allowing us to get ideal views for identification. The bird was rather small, for an oriole, and had a short, curved beak. Once it flew off, we decided to follow it, but nonchalantly, because it wouldn't have been a big deal if we couldn't relocate it. We got more views of the bird, but none as clear and as perfect as the first one. Rather than pursuing it, we let it go and searched for the final bird. We returned to the spot where we spotted the Dickcissel, but this time to search for a Palm Warbler. This passerine is a more regular bird to the city, as it is sighted annually. We saw a couple Yellow-rumped Warblers and this reassured us, for if the Palm Warbler were still around, it would have been in this flock. Luck was on our side, because soon after a small yellowish bird with a brown cap popped out of the thickets and flew into a cypress tree. At first I didn't get great views, but this individual turned out to be surprisingly cooperative and offered incomparable views. This was the perfect way to get a lifer.
This was a very successful day because I got 3 lifers in the span of one hour. I had been yearning for a Palm Warbler ever since I heard of the sighting this season. The Orchard Orioles were birds that I had been after for quite some time now. The Dickcissel on the other hand was hands down the best bird of the day. It was a bird that I never even considered ever seeing in the city, which makes this bird that much more special.
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