San Francisco

On the first Saturday in March, we had a layover in San Francisco on our way to New Zealand. Mike planned for us arrive before noon so we could spend eight hours birding the California coast before the next flight. There was a drizzly rain so we made our first stop at Dinosaurs Sandwiches in Pacifica. They make the best Vietnamese Banh Mi with fresh ingredients on amazing french bread. We shared the Shaking Beef first and saved the Grilled Chicken with lemongrass for later.

The rain stopped so we birded the area near the Pacifica Municipal Pier.  The breaking waves made sea birding difficult but we did spot two Surf Scoters. We nailed three West Coast gulls species: California Gull, Mew Gull and Western Gull. Common Raven and Brewer’s Blackbirds made nice additions.

Next, we stopped at Mori Point which offered several different habitats including scrub, ponds and the coast. The most abundant birds were sparrows including White-crowned, Golden-crowned and the Sooty Fox Sparrow which is rarely seen more than one mile from the beach. We picked up quite a few of the west coast specialties including the California and Spotted Towhee, Bushtits, Black and Say’s Phoebe, California Scrub-Jay and Anna’s Hummingbird with it’s beautiful pink gorget. Seeing many of the birds in the pussy willows made for great backgrounds.

Continuing down the coast outside San Francisco we headed to Pillar Point Marsh hoping to pick up a few more sea birds. This was another successful stop with both Black and Surf Scoter, Western Grebe and Brandt’s Cormorant. Once again it was raining which resulted in a beautiful rainbow when the sun came out.

The final birding stop was at Pescadero State Beach. This might be the favorite stop of the day because we finally saw some of our target shorebirds. We could not have been happier to see Black Oystercatcher, Black Turnstone and Surfbird.

From there we went to the Pigeon Point Light Station State Park to see our second California lighthouse. We didn’t expect the area to be very birdy but did find our first raptors of the day: White-tailed Kite and Red-shouldered Hawks. Before heading back to San Francisco, we stopped to enjoy the Pacific sunset one last time for the year and happened across a family looking at the Gray Whales. The perfect end to this day.

Now it was time to turn in the rental car, grab some dinner and wait for the flight to New Zealand.

 

Trip Birds:  44  Life Birds: 0

Next up: New Zealand