Skip to content
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • About Our Staff
    • About Our Board
    • Our Commitment to Diversity
    • GGAS Code of Conduct
    • Strategic Plan
    • Annual Report
    • Job Opportunities
    • GGAS in the News
  • Blog
  • Osprey Cam
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • Join/Renew
    • Donate
    • Other Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Member Login
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Violation Report
Golden Gate Audubon Society
Golden Gate Audubon Society
  • Education
    • Speaker Series
      • Past Speakers
    • Eco-Ed for Kids
    • Classes
      • Birding For Everyone Scholarship
    • Rotary Nature Center
  • Conservation
    • Conservation Info
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • Bird-Friendly Coffee Club
  • Volunteer
  • Bird With Us
    • Field Trips
    • Classes
      • Birding For Everyone Scholarship
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • SF Bay Ospreys
    • Travel with GGAS
    • Birding Sites
    • Birding Resources
  • Archives
    • Trip Reports by Year
    • Past Speakers
    • The Gull Archives
    • GGAS Press Releases
    • Travel with GGAS – Past Tours
  • Log In
  • Donate
  • Become a Member
Golden Gate Audubon Society
  • Education
    • Speaker Series
      • Past Speakers
    • Eco-Ed for Kids
    • Classes
      • Birding For Everyone Scholarship
    • Rotary Nature Center
  • Conservation
    • Conservation Info
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • Bird-Friendly Coffee Club
  • Volunteer
  • Bird With Us
    • Field Trips
    • Classes
      • Birding For Everyone Scholarship
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • SF Bay Ospreys
    • Travel with GGAS
    • Birding Sites
    • Birding Resources
  • Archives
    • Trip Reports by Year
    • Past Speakers
    • The Gull Archives
    • GGAS Press Releases
    • Travel with GGAS – Past Tours
  • Log In
  • Donate
  • Become a Member
 

GGAS Field Trip Report

September 23, 2020 – Lake Merritt

Trip Leader(s):

Hilary Powers
Ruth Tobey

Date/Location:

September 23, 2020
Lake Merritt

Trip Info:

Number of Participants: 8
Number of Species: 40

The September not-quite-Golden-Gate-Audubon walk attracted eight masked birders – a record for the pandemic – for a round of amazing delights in perfect air. (Really perfect. For a change, the particulate-meter at the nature center didn’t tinkle even once when we were near enough to hear its penetrating chime.) At various points we encountered three species never recorded on earlier walks:

  • First, a female Yellow Warbler prospected through one of the oaks along Bellevue. With the natural human response to a treat – “what have you done for us lately” – we looked hard for a red-streaked male, but we couldn’t find one.
  • Second, a Willow Flycatcher (and we were fortunate enough to have a participant savvy enough to identify it by its overall brownish tinge and lack of eye-ring, rather than writing it off as one of the near-dozen near-identical “tyrant flycatchers” that frequent wilder parks but almost never appear here. We’ve recorded them on only six occasions over the years, and only named one other (a Pacific-slope Flycatcher in 2018).
  • And third and most astonishing, a series of fluting honks along the lake shore alerted us to a pair of Greater Yellowlegs (Yellowlegses?) flying beak to tail westward right at the level of the path and a few inches out from the wall. We just don’t see them at Lake Merritt – not the Greater like these and not the Lesser Yellowlegs either, species distinguishable mainly by voice rather than appearance.

We also picked up two new-for-September birds – one Golden-crowned Sparrow (common visitors later in the year) and a whole flock of Steller’s Jays (rare in the park and mostly as singles rather than half a dozen at once). This time, they showed their crested black heads and their natty navy-blue jackets twice, one pair and later five or six birds together, much to the outrage of the smooth-crowned California Scrub Jays that regard the park as their own territory.

Despite all these wonders, my personal favorite of the day was an old friend in a new place. “There’s a Bewick’s Wren right over your head!” someone called, and I looked up to find it true: About three feet up, a wren was picking its way along a narrow branch, dipping its beak into cracks in the bark and showing off its striped undertail coverts and pearly gray breast, features I’d never noticed before. 

The Western Pond Turtle – not a bird, but we’re not snobs – lounged on the shore of the garden pond, always a cheery sight. It’s the only native turtle I’ve seen in the park; the rest are one and all Red-eared Sliders, invasive refugees from the pet trade and instantly recognizable by you-know-what. If you’re looking at a turtle that doesn’t have red patches on the sides of its head, chances are it’s our native.

Overall we counted forty species of birds on the lake and in the surrounding area – more than in any of the three preceding years, though a couple were reported by members of the group as they walked home, which feels a little like cheating (but not enough to keep them out of the total). They were there, after all, even though the relatively few eyes on the job missed them the first time through, and all part of yet another good day at Lake Merritt, where every day….

More Reports

July 9, 2021 – Coyote Hills Bike and Bird

What a beautiful day filled with 66 species of birds! The day started off great at 6:30 am with a perfect temperature of 65 degrees,

Read More »

May 26, 2021 – Lake Merritt

Birders have this game. When the day is going well – and more often when it’s going badly – someone will announce “I’d like to

Read More »

June 23, 2021 – Lake Merritt

At the start, it looked like a really quiet morning, with the two leaders and one regular so consistent and so well-informed that he amounts

Read More »

April 28, 2021 – Lake Merritt

Thirteen happy birders gathered for the still-unofficial April 4th-Wednesday walk at Lake Merritt – not quite so many as in a non-pandemic month, but close. 

Read More »

March 24, 2021 – Lake Merritt

The still-unofficial 4th-Wednesday Golden Gate Audubon walk drew 13 birders – much less scary now with so many of us fully vaccinated – and the

Read More »

February 24, 2021 – Lake Merritt

Falcon Flies at Lake Merritt! And perches. And looks around. And takes a little circling flight. And perches. And sits looking down at the lake

Read More »

Our Mission

The Golden Gate Audubon Society engages people to experience the wonder of birds and to translate that wonder into actions which protect native bird populations and their habitats.

Home page photo of a Bald Eagle by Rick Lewis. Home page photos rotate on an occasional basis. If you have a Bay Area bird photo you would like us to consider, email us at rnakano@goldengateaudubon.org.

Home page bird illustrations by Tex Buss. We are grateful for her generous donation of time and talent!

Facebook Instagram Youtube Twitter

Contact Us

Golden Gate Audubon
2530 San Pablo Avenue, Suite G
Berkeley, California 94702

Phone: 510.843.2222

Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Golden Gate Audubon Society  is a
not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Our federal tax ID number is 94-6086896

Manage your GGAS account online

Now you can manage all your GGAS business online — renew your membership, update your contact information, view past donations, or sign up for events such as classes, Birdathon or the Christmas Bird Count. Click here to access your account. (You’ll need to create a login name and password if you don’t have one already. If you forget your password, click on the “forgot your password” link.) You can also sign up for our new GGAS Chat to get updates on trips, talk with other members, and more!

© 2023 Golden Gate Audubon Society | All Rights Reserved
All photos on this site belong to the photographers and may not be used without written permission.
  • About Us
    • About Our Staff
    • About Our Board
    • Our Commitment to Diversity
    • GGAS StrategicPlan
    • GGAS in the News
    • Job Opportunities
  • Education
    • Speaker Series
      • Past Speakers
    • Classes
      • Rotary Nature Center
    • Eco-Ed for Kids
  • Volunteer
  • Conservation
    • Bird-Friendly Coffee Club
  • GGAS Archives
    • The Gull Archives
    • GGAS Press Releases
    • Travel with GGAS – Past Tours
    • Past Speakers
  • Bird With Us
    • Field Trips
    • Travel with GGAS
    • SF Bay Ospreys
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • The Gull
    • Golden Gate Birder Blog
      • Birdathon 2021
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Member Login
    • Trip Reports by Year
    • Contact Us
      • Join/Renew
      • Other Ways to Give
      • Planned Giving
    • Member Login
    • Volunteer Hours Reporting
    • Birding Resources
      • Conservation Info
  • Blog
  • Donate