Sutro Heights & Sutro Baths (SF) birding

I went to Sutro Heights & Sutro Baths on the way home from work yesterday. It had been some time since I’d birded these locations, and it was great to again walk in these, two of my very favorite locations in San Francisco.

There was little to see at Sutro Heights. It smelled mulchy, and there were several large piles of wood, so I imagine the park service had recently come through to do some maintenance, which may have scared the birds off, as it’s ususally more birdy than this! I saw Common Ravens, Bushtits, a few White-crowned Sparrows, and one Dendroica sp. Warbler and that’s it.

Sutro Baths was more productive. It too has been undergoing much work by the park service, and the entire east side of the path leading from Louis’ Restaurant to the ruins of the baths has been cut to the ground. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t see or hear anything in this part of the park.

The resident Great Blue Heron was standing watch over the pool, and a half-dozen Ring-necked Ducks of both genders bathed in the middle. No shorebirds were to be seen on this visit. At the balcony I got some great looks at a flock of Brown Pelicans that flew west from the Golden Gate, as well as some probable Brandt’s Cormorants on the rocks offshore.

My intent was to take some arty photographs at sunset, and I’d brought my tripod and G-ND filters to this end. What I forgot, however, is that I have not yet purchased an Arca-style plate for my 30D body, so I had no way to attach it to said tripod – d’oh! So much for doing long exposures and getting cotton-candy ocean pictures. It was a nice sunset anyways, though, and this is a great place to watch them.

The list du jour was:

– American Coot
– Black Phoebe
– Brandt’s? Cormorant
– Brown Pelican
– Common Raven
– Glaucous-winged Gull
– Great Blue Heron
– Mallard
– Red-tailed Hawk
– Ring-billed Gull
– Ring-necked Duck
– Rock Pigeon
– Western Gull