Herring run McCovey cove now
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Josiah Clark
The cities first and probably only big spawn of the year is happening right now. The gulls and bay ducks can be great but it often doesn’t last long as the roe is exposed and eaten up quickly on the sheer rip rap Bay shore.
Josiah Clark | Habitat Potential | Consulting Ecologist | 415.317.3978 License #1043929 |
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Alex Loucks
It’s still going on - I even saw two grebes doing the Jesus walk last night!! Anyway, good gull practice as the gulls are right on the rocks… On Sat, Mar 4, 2023 at 9:31 AM Josiah Clark <josiah.clark621@...> wrote:
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Bach, Carol (PRT)
Hi SF Birders: I shared these reports of herring spawn-indicating observations with Andrew Weltz, Marine Environmental Scientist at California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who tracks herring spawning in SF Bay. Andrew reports that with the commercial herring fishery operating at very low levels, CDFW has reduced effort that it puts into spawning surveys. He appreciates all eyes on the water and can use all the help he can get. Please feel free to share your observations by email to Andrew.Weltz@... Best, Carol
From: SFBirds@groups.io <SFBirds@groups.io>
On Behalf Of Alex Loucks via groups.io Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2023 5:17 PM
To: Josiah Clark josiah.clark621@...
Cc: Sf Birds <sfbirds@groups.io>
It’s still going on - I even saw two grebes doing the Jesus walk last night!! Anyway, good gull practice as the gulls are right on the rocks…
On Sat, Mar 4, 2023 at 9:31 AM Josiah Clark <josiah.clark621@...> wrote:
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Alex Loucks
Thanks so much for the tip, Carol. I sent him my observations (I saw an increased number of birds as of Feb 28th and it only started declining yesterday) and he replied with an informative email I thought I would share with the group, for anyone interested. Best, Alex Just to provide some context on the work I’m doing, I have been out on department research vessels conducting bay-wide surveys, which we do annually from November 1 to March 31. There has been a pretty good school of fish off of the city waterfront from the bay bridge down almost to hunters point since early mid February. We use fishfinder electronics on the vessels to track schools while they are still in the deeper areas and coming in from the gate. Once the fish start to move into shallow areas is when you see the fish predators, especially cormorants, pelicans, seals, and sea lions working the schools. Sometimes there will be some grebes mixed in as well, especially later in the season, but also associated with smaller schooling fish like anchovy. And gulls also target herring along with the others. Once the fish deposits spawn is when you see the ducks move in and start working in area to consume the eggs. This is especially the case in areas of San Francisco Bay that have submerged aquatic vegetation beds, like Richardson bay and point Richmond and paradise, and also Alameda and bay farm farm island. The ducks dive down to the submerged vegetation and consume the eggs off of it, and you will commonly see broken off bits of algae in your grass from this type of activity floating around in the water. In areas like the city waterfront, where there is mostly hard, anthropogenic structure like pier pilings and riprap, gulls tend to be the predominant egg predators, and you can see them, especially at low tides, working the shoreline and consuming eggs deposited there. This year we have not had much significant spawning on the city waterfront. We had a spawn from India basin and herons head park down to hunters point toward the end of January, and maybe a small spot spawn way up at the top of isles creek toward the end of February. Other than that this small event at McCovey cove is all we’ve seen so far. Typically however when the fish spawn McCovey cove they will continue south around Pier 50 and down toward Agua Vista pier and the central basin, if not further. Anyway, if you’re out, looking at the birds, and you see any of this type of activity, especially something that seems out of the ordinary to you, and especially large concentrations of goals, cormorants, and actively diving pelicans, please, by all means, shoot me an email or a text. My cell phone number at work is 707-373-0843. Thanks a bunch! Andrew On Tue, Mar 7, 2023 at 7:40 PM Bach, Carol (PRT) <carol.bach@...> wrote:
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