{"id":1000642,"date":"2007-05-14T15:16:29","date_gmt":"2007-05-14T20:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/birding\/2007\/05\/14\/one-last-trip-to-golden-gate\/"},"modified":"2008-09-03T09:57:25","modified_gmt":"2008-09-03T14:57:25","slug":"one-last-trip-to-golden-gate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/birding\/2007\/05\/14\/one-last-trip-to-golden-gate\/","title":{"rendered":"One Last Trip To Golden Gate Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Monday morning I had a few hours to kill before I had to get to SFO and catch my flight home so I took a quick spin up Ocean Beach and then into the Western part of Golden Gate Park. Common Ravens were once again common. A couple of American Crows also called, but they were vastly outnumbered by the ravens. Song Sparrows and American Robins were common. Hummingbirds, both Allen&#8217;s and Anna&#8217;s, were almost as common. So were any number of people doing Tai Chi at various locations.<\/p>\n<p>The first new trip bird I found was a Winter Wren. I think I had these on Mount Davidson the previous day, but I was never sure. This particular wren was a lot more cooperative and let me see it rather than just singing from distant bushes.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Cedar Waxwings were back at the North lake, maybe 100 total. Black Phoebe, Mallard, Red-winged Blackbird, and Brewer&#8217;s Blackbird were also present, along with one Black-crowned Night-Heron. However the Pied-billed Grebe had disappeared. I wandered into the north woods briefly and scared up California Towhee, Dark-eyed Junco, and American Goldfinch. <\/p>\n<p>However the final bird for the trip was a new California bird for me; a Brown Creeper climbing directly up a large trunk by the side of the road and calling. I&#8217;ve never heard them call in New York. In fact, a lot of birds seemed to be singing and calling out here that don&#8217;t do that a lot in New York City.  (Cooper&#8217;s Hawk is another that I rarely if ever hear in New York, but that wouldn&#8217;t shut up in San Francisco.)<\/p>\n<p>Total species count for the morning was 19:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>  \tMallard  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBlack-crowned Night-Heron \t<\/li>\n<li>\tWestern Gull \t<\/li>\n<li>\tAnna&#8217;s Hummingbird \t<\/li>\n<li>\tAllen&#8217;s Hummingbird \t<\/li>\n<li>\tBlack Phoebe \t<\/li>\n<li>\tAmerican Crow \t<\/li>\n<li>\tCommon Raven \t<\/li>\n<li>\tTree Swallow \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBrown Creeper \t<\/li>\n<li>\tWinter Wren \t<\/li>\n<li>\tAmerican Robin \t<\/li>\n<li> \tCedar Waxwing \t<\/li>\n<li>\tCalifornia Towhee \t<\/li>\n<li>\tSong Sparrow \t<\/li>\n<li>\tDark-eyed Junco \t<\/li>\n<li>\tRed-winged Blackbird \t<\/li>\n<li>\tBrewer&#8217;s Blackbird \t<\/li>\n<li>\tAmerican Goldfinch \t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I checked out of my hotel about 8:30 A.M. and still made my 12:30 flight out of SFO with plenty of time to spare. This definitely beats spending an extra two hours in the airport. <\/p>\n<p>The total species count for the entire trip was 65, though that includes three introduced species that &#8220;don&#8217;t count&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> \tCanada Goose  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tMute Swan  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tMuscovy Duck  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tMallard  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tSurf Scoter  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tRuddy Duck  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tPied-billed Grebe  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tClark&#8217;s Grebe  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tBrown Pelican  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tBrandt&#8217;s Cormorant  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tDouble-crested Cormorant  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tGreat Blue Heron  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tGreat Egret  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBlack-crowned Night-Heron  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tCooper&#8217;s Hawk  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tRed-tailed Hawk  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tAmerican Coot  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tWhimbrel  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tMarbled Godwit  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tSanderling  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tRing-billed Gull  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tCalifornia Gull  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tHerring Gull  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tWestern Gull  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tCaspian Tern  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tRock Pigeon  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tMourning Dove  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tRed-masked Parakeet  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tYellow-chevroned Parakeet  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tAnna&#8217;s Hummingbird  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tAllen&#8217;s Hummingbird  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBlack Phoebe  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tWestern Scrub-Jay  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tAmerican Crow  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tCommon Raven  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tTree Swallow  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tViolet-green Swallow  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tNorthern Rough-winged Swallow  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBarn Swallow  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tChestnut-backed Chickadee  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tBushtit  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tPygmy Nuthatch  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tBrown Creeper  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tWinter Wren  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tAmerican Robin  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tNorthern Mockingbird  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tEuropean Starling  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tCedar Waxwing  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tYellow-rumped Warbler  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tWilson&#8217;s Warbler  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tWestern Tanager  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tCalifornia Towhee  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tSong Sparrow  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tWhite-crowned Sparrow  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tGolden-crowned Sparrow  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tDark-eyed Junco  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tRed-winged Blackbird  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tBrewer&#8217;s Blackbird  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tBrown-headed Cowbird  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tHooded Oriole  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tPurple Finch  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tHouse Finch  \t <\/li>\n<li> \tLesser Goldfinch  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tAmerican Goldfinch  \t  <\/li>\n<li> \tHouse Sparrow  \t <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That&#8217;s fewer than I was hoping for but it still included three life birds (Clark&#8217;s Grebe, Hooded Oriole, and Pygmy Nuthatch) and 13 California birds. My California total is now 141, six behind New Jersey. (New York&#8217;s still way out in front with well over 200.) Probably I could have done 10 or 12 better if I&#8217;d rented a car and brought a scope. I did miss a couple of sites that should have provided reliable life birds, but sometimes it&#8217;s nice just to walk and really see a place rather than hop from site to site trying to rack up as many species as you can. Maybe if I come back for JavaOne next year, I&#8217;ll get a car then and visit Lake Merced, Fort Funston, and Candlestick Point, or even get out of the city. But for now it&#8217;s back to New York. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monday morning I had a few hours to kill before I had to get to SFO and catch my flight home so I took a quick spin up Ocean Beach and then into the Western part of Golden Gate Park. Common Ravens were once again common. A couple of American Crows also called, but they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[410],"class_list":["post-1000642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding","tag-flash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}