Fall is a magical time for birding within the Bay Area. It's the height of songbird migration, hawk migration, and the continued shorebird migration. But how do you truly “birdwatch” a bird? Where must you go? What must you search for? How do you even use binoculars? (Hint: leaf through the smaller holes.)
Experts from ornithological societies recently published practical suggestions and popular birdwatching spots across the Bay. Here are five excellent birdwatching spots and what you possibly can discover there this fall.
How to start
The easiest solution to start as a birder is to simply concentrate, says Matthew Tarlach, a member of the Mount Diablo Bird Alliance who leads birding trips across the East Bay. Unless you reside within the densest concrete jungle, you'll see not less than some species of birds in city parks and neighborhood trees.
From there, you possibly can attempt to discover the birds you see. One tool is the Merlin Bird ID smartphone appan initiative from the Cornell School of Ornithology that guides birders through a series of inquiries to discover the bird they saw. The app also allows users to discover the species of a bird based on its song alone—and quite accurately. Check out Cornell BirdCasts https://birdcast.info/ Website that uses weather data to create migration forecasts. Enter your address and be excited to see the number and species of birds flying past you every day.
Typically, people engage in birdwatching from 4 perspectives, Tarlach says. Birdwatchers working as citizen scientists log which birds are seen, when and where. Over time, this data from the group will be used, for instance, to trace how Birds react to climate change. There are individuals who watch birds for his or her beauty, and others who come for the competition, especially if there are rare species in the world. (In August, a Slaty-throated Redstart appeared to have strayed into San Francisco territory; later this fall, it stands out as the Clay-colored Sparrow, a small brownish bird with a formidable call.) And then there are the social birders, individuals who enjoy connecting with the birding community and learning a couple of latest landscape through its feathered inhabitants.
Heather Farm Park, Walnut Creek
This easily accessible birding spot offers plenty to see, perhaps since the pond there may be neither man-made nor latest—it's listed on among the area's oldest Spanish maps, dating to the 1830s, says Tarlach, who leads birding hikes there. On a recent hike, his birding group counted greater than 30 species of birds, including 4 species of warblers, in addition to western tanagers and brent geese. In just a few weeks, he expects white- and golden-crowned sparrows to reach within the park to settle in for the winter. The birds spend their summers above the Arctic Circle.
“Their families have been coming here for a long time,” he says. “It's fun to see them come home.”
Details: Open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., 301 N. San Carlos Drive, Walnut Creek; www.walnutcreekartsrec.org/parks-facilities.
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, Oakland
Tucked away in a windswept, industrial corner of West Oakland—with gorgeous views of giant ship cranes loading much more giant ships—lies a restored wetland perfect for shorebird watching. Shaped like a crescent moon, the park features an remark tower overlooking the central tidelands, that are teeming year-round with water lovers of every kind: cormorants, snowy egrets, scoters, buffleheads, brown pelicans, and long-billed curlews, which stick their beaks into the grassy mud like Slurpee straw.
It is a veritable amphitheater for bird activity. “At low tide, all the exposed mud is rich in food, and there is an incredible variety of wading birds that come to feed. And at high tide, especially in winter, there are ducks, geese and waterfowl in the bay,” says Bruce Mast, an instructor on the Golden Gate Bird Alliance.
Stroll the flat trails toward the riprap on the south shore and you would possibly spot something rarer. “I've seen a migratory sandpiper out there before. They're briefly rock sandpipers here during migration, and you might only see one or two a year in the East Bay,” Mast says. “They look like oversized sandpipers — a foot tall, dull gray with yellow legs — and when the tide is low enough, they'll pick at mussels and barnacles.”
Details: Open every day, 2777 Middle Harbor Road, Oakland; portofoakland.com/community/waterfront-recreation.
Vasona Lake County Park, Los Gatos
This sunny, 60-acre park offers excellent riparian habitats, with a big lake dammed on one side, large log-strewn areas, a scenic ecosystem of rocky streams, and cottonwood and sycamore trees that birds love. It's also a very good habitat for families, with picnic and Frisbee areas and a miniature railroad that children like to ride.
Vasona is among the finest places within the South Bay to see warblers – small, colourful songbirds that typically fly in from East and North America in the autumn. “You might see a Black-and-white Warbler, a Nashville Warbler, hopefully a Chestnut-breasted Warbler, maybe an American Warbler,” says Matthew Dodder, executive director of the Santa Clara Valley Bird Conservation Society.
It will be difficult presently of 12 months, as many warblers lose their distinctive colours. Try looking around somewhere else to seek out them. “Many are canopy species, collecting insects and caterpillars from the upper part of trees. Some like to cling to trunks and search the bark for ants and spiders, and some like to stay close to the ground,” says Dodder. “And many are really beautiful, even if they lose some of their color.”
Details: Open every day until sunset, 333 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos; parks.sccgov.org
Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Coast, Oakland
Glenn Phillips, a Livermore native and executive director of the Golden Gate Bird Alliance, says that is his favorite place within the Bay Area to look at migrating shorebirds and returning waterfowl each fall.
“You're in the middle of this crazy urban place and yet there's incredible nature there,” he says. “And amazing birds.”
Start at the tip of the access road off Swan Way and you possibly can walk the complete 2-mile loop, but Phillips says he at all times runs out of time as he's too busy watching the scoters, pintails, common scoters, goldeneyes, buffleheads, western grebes, bar-tailed godwits, curlews, sandpipers and mud-treaders.
His favourite? The long-billed curlew, which will be seen foraging for food with its huge, curved beak.
The one rare bird Phillips hopes to see this 12 months?
“A short-eared owl,” he said. “We see them in the grasslands and inland in the fall. They used to be more common. Their habitat on the northern plains has been destroyed by new agricultural techniques and their populations have declined. Now they're quite rare.”
Details: Open every day from 8 a.m. to eight p.m. at Doolittle Drive and Swan Way in Oakland; ebparks.org/parks/martin-luther-king.
Coyote Hills, Fremont
Most of the birds found on the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline can be found here, but Phillips says Coyote Hills offers a really different atmosphere.
“It's perhaps the best birding destination in the entire Bay Area,” he says. “You feel like you're not in the city anymore, because you're not. You're surrounded by this really lush land with so many birds. It feels like you're going back in time.”
Details: Open every day from 8 a.m. to eight p.m., 8000 Patterson Ranch Road in Fremont; ebparks.org/parks/coyote-hills.
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