Hi All,

This morning I explored some Southwest SF spots with Cédric Duhalde. This cold snap seemed to brings in some push of waterfowl and gulls and we were hoping this pattern would continue today.

We started at Fort Funston focusing both on passerines and seawatching. The oceans were quite active but it seemed like we caught the tail end of the early morning activity. Large numbers of Loons and Gulls were moving offshore. Decent numbers of migrant landbirds may have represented either late migrants or wintering birds. Highlights during the visit included:

Northern Shoveler-10 in a homogenous flock northbound offshore
LONG-TAILED DUCK-1 with scoters offshore
Black Scoter-1 male flyby heading south
Red-throated Loon-150 was a nice movement
Pacific Loon-7
WHITE-TAILED KITE-1 nice juv hanging around the southern parking lot was perched and calling, possibly indicating interest in setting up winter residence?
American Crow-8 together seemed odd here
House Wren-3 seemed like a nice winter tally
MARSH WREN-1 in coastal scrub was an obvious migrant
Common Yellowthroat-5 seemed like a high count, and may reflect a migrant pulse

Full eBird checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S76208696

From there we headed to Lake Merced where we checked a good number of spots near the south end/concrete bridge region. Large numbers of gulls (higher than the normal #) were using the lake to bathe and loaf, but counts of many waterbirds were down. Highlights here included:

Northern Shoveler-13 on the impound lake was a good count for the area, possibly continuing here for a while
Ruddy Duck-40 was a severe downtick from my last visit
Virginia Rail-1
Boneparte's Gull-4 continuing (?) birds north of the bridge
HEERMANN'S GULL-1 second-cycle bird was a rare bird for Lake Merced
American Kestrel-1 male set up presumed winter territory on the Olympic Golf Club
Barn Swallow-1 late bird
Golden-crowned Kinglet-3 along the VG Canal were presumed migrants here
WILSON'S WARBLER-1 presumably wintering bird along the VG Canal in flowering Cape Ivy was the first I have heard of around Lake Merced this winter

One of the eBird checklists here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S76207467

Great day to explore some local SF patches.

Good birding,

Logan