Birds Blog

Limantour Beach is wide. Bookended by ocean on one side and grassy dunes on the other, its sandy expanse provides a habitat for many organisms that rely on the rich ecosystem between land and sea. The western snowy plover, a small brown and white shorebird, is one species that finds refuge in the sand. Over time, human activity and development have degraded many beaches like Limantour, and biologists have seen those impacts through the eyes of the snowy plovers.

For millennia, the hoots of northern spotted owls carried across mature forests of the Pacific Northwest. In recent decades, they started falling silent in many areas because of competition from bigger, bolder barred owls native to eastern North America. But both range-wide passive acoustic monitoring and local in-person surveys are showing that—at least for now—the spotted owls here in Marin County, California are doing remarkably well.

The Presidio Trust is in the planning phase for a reintroduction of California quail. Quail used to be abundant in the Presidio. However, habitat loss and predation by feral cats led to their decline. By 2008, the last remnant of a once-thriving natural population was gone. The Trust is now planning to bring back the ecosystem services and experiences they once provided by returning quail to the Presidio.

A pair of peregrine falcons has been active on Alcatraz Island since January 2019. While it is not unusual to see peregrines on Alcatraz during the fall and winter months, they usually depart by February. But last year, the peregrines remained active on the island through the spring and summer months. This year, on March 3, a photo was taken of the peregrines mating on the Alcatraz Water Tower. If are now nesting on Alcatraz, it will be the first time in recorded history.

This year, a large multi-day rainstorm flooded 537 Brandt’s cormorant nests on Alcatraz Island. The May storm occurred during the peak nesting season when cormorants were incubating eggs or caring for newly hatched chicks.

During the waterbird nesting season on Alcatraz Island (~March-September), docents are stationed near the colonial waterbird colonies. Using spotting scopes and binoculars to view waterbirds incubating eggs or feeding chicks, docents teach visitors about the ecology of nesting gulls, cormorants, herons, and egrets. However, waterbirds are not Alcatraz’s only avian inhabitants. In the winter months, these same waterbird docents assist with Island-wide bird counts.

Waterbirds, which nested on Alcatraz Island long before people built upon it, have been reclaiming parts of the island in recent decades. But Alcatraz Natural Resources staff hadn't seen anything quite like the 2021 nesting season. It was one for the record books, with numbers far surpassing previous years' estimates. It’s been quite a journey for one species in particular—the Brandt’s cormorant. The Island's great blue herons and peregrine falcons also had a good year.

While walking along the beach at Fort Funston, visitors may spot clusters of small burrows dotting the cliffside. These are the nesting colonies of the bank swallow, a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act. The National Park Service began systematically monitoring breeding bank swallows here each spring beginning in 2000 to be able to spot trends in their numbers.

"Coming to California exposed me to a variety of birds that I was not familiar with. That’s why I was really looking forward to joining Point Blue Conservation Science for two days to observe their mist netting, which would allow me to see the birds up close for the first time. Point Blue’s work in stream-side areas of Golden Gate and Point Reyes in partnership with the National Park Service forms the core of the San Francisco Bay Area Network’s Landbird Monitoring Program."

Ocean Beach is exactly what I thought an urban California beach in the summer would look like. There were lots of surfers and families and dogs just hanging out enjoying the weather. I was there with Wildlife Biologist Rachel Townsend and Wildlife Intern Ana Arce to look for a small bird, the western snowy plover.