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For the first time ever, a Summer Tanager appears in Glen Park, attracting flocks of bird watchers

January 22, 2020 by Murray Schneider

A male Summer Tanager in Glen Canyon Park, San Francisco on January 23, 2020. Photo by Grace Ruth

Glen Canyon was aflutter early Wednesday morning, January 22nd.

A flock of bird watchers descended on the 70-acre natural area, armed with cameras boasting the latest high-powered lenses. They stood, even sat, beneath the eucalyptus tree that houses Great horned owls each year, trained their cameras on another gum tree rooted on the bank of Islais Creek and watched with patented birder patience.

That patience paid off.

Perched on a branch, a bright red male Summer Tanager stared back at the Audubon-loving eavesdroppers and sightseers.

The vagrant songbird is far from its territory, which is the southern United States, Mexico and even northern South America.

The first sighting of the flame-colored bird was last Friday, January 17, by parents at the Glenridge Cooperative Nursery School located in the park, according to director Mame Campbell.

“I have been worried about it surviving, but maybe it is doing a good job of dodging the red-tailed hawk,” she said.

Prior to this week, this bird species doesn’t appear to ever have been sighted before in Glen Canyon. The canyon guests were alerted to the avian guest through the power of the Internet.

Ebird.org and iNatural.org proved to be efficacious apps.

Crowds of bird watchers came to Glen Canyon in San Francisco on January 22, 2020 to catch a glimpse of a male Summer Tanager which had appeared in the park, far from its accustomed haunts in Mexico and the southwest. Photo: Sam Orr

“It didn’t have to go to Mexico this year,” said Dylan Hayes, a Recreation and Park Natural Resource Division naturalist. “It’s here for a good meal and water.”

Hayes, as he is each Wednesday, was in the canyon to supervise Friends of Glen Canyon Park volunteers, several of whom had arrived on time at 9 a.m., only to be greeted by a sea of unfamiliar faces and a bird that was hundreds of miles from its familiar habitat.

“It’s off-course,” said Hayes, “It’ll get a good meal here. Water, too.”

After the previous day’s rain, Islais Creek was running high.

The tanager’s home habitat is open wooded areas, especially where there is oak, of which Glen Canyon has its fair share. They mainly eat insects, especially bees and wasps and berries. With its abundance of native and Himalayan blackberry, the migrant visitor will have ample sustenance while it remains.

That is if it stays safe.

A male Summer Tanager in Glen Canyon Park, San Francisco on January 23, 2020. Photo by Grace Ruth.

On her way out of the canyon, a dog walker stopped a Friends of Glen Canyon volunteer and told him she’d seen the tanager the day before. Sitting on a branch opposite it was a red-tailed hawk, she said, the closest she’d seen such a raptor in all the years she’d been walking her dog. She hoped the bird was still in one piece.

The volunteer said, indeed, it was.

“I’m so glad,” she said.

The red-tailed hawk that has been hanging out in Glen Canyon. It’s believed to be less than a year old, as it has yet to develop red tail feathers. Photo: Grace Ruth

CShe and her canine companion left to take a look for themselves.

If eBird and iNatural have their way, she’ll have lots of company.

Friends of Glen Canyon volunteers watching birds, and bird watchers. Photo: Sam Orr.

 

Filed Under: Editor's Pick, Featured, Glen Canyon Park Tagged With: Editor's Pick

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IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES

Arlington Path Beautification
Saturday, July 19, 10 a.m. to noon
Meet at 300 Mateo (x Arlington) for an exciting day of weeding, watering, seed collecting.
Tools, gloves and good company provided.


2025 Glen Park Night Market poster


 


Monthly cleanup on the Greenway
First Saturday of the Month (usually)
Click here to learn more


Friends of Glen Canyon’s
Glen Canyon Habitat Restoration
Every third Saturday 9:30 a.m to noon
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Glen Park Association is at Glen Park Greenway.
2 days ago
Glen Park Association

Saturday’s Glen Park Greenway Work Party is Cancelled.

“I’m very sorry to say that
we have cancelled our Work Party for this Saturday July 12, along with all organized volunteer activity on the Greenway until further notice.
As you may have read in the news, our fiscal sponsor, San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA), has shut itself down. Just as SFPA has shut itself down, the Greenway, as an organized part of SFPA, has also been “shut down.” We are busy looking for a suitable alternative fiscal sponsor that is willing to replace SFPA. That search is going well but it is a slow process. We had hoped to find temporary ways to enable the Greenway project to function responsibly as a community activity without a fiscal sponsor. Sadly, despite our best efforts and the help of many others in Glen Park, we have failed. That is why we must cancel our Saturday Work Party and discontinue future work parties and other organized volunteer activity on the Greenway (like weeding and watering) until further notice. We recognize that the Greenway is public open space and that the organizers of the Greenway project have no control over the activities of you or of anyone else on the Greenway. However, if you do venture onto the Greenway to satisfy your urge for outdoor recreation, please be aware that your activity is not in any way organized or sanctioned by the organizers of the Glen Park Greenway project. I’m well aware of the efforts that many of the
Greenway’s supporters are making to get the Greenway organized with a new fiscal sponsor and I’m confident that this will be arranged within weeks or perhaps a few months.
However long it takes, I will contact you with news of our progress.
Many thanks for all that you do for the Greenway.”

Nicholas Dewar, volunteer Project Director

#glenparkgreenway #glenparksf #sanfrancisco @rafaelmandelmand8 @danielluriesf @crosstowntrail
#crosstowntrail #sfparksalliance #publicspace #nature
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Wonder what’s stopping just organizing it separate from that non-profit. It seems like the volunteers largely come from Glen Park.

Glen Park Association is at Laidley Street SFO.
6 days ago
Glen Park Association

It was a beautiful day for the annual #july4th celebration on Laidley street!

📷: Photos courtesy of Michael Waldstein

#glenparksf #sanfrancisco #laidley
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It was a beautiful day for the annual #july4th celebration on Laidley street! 

📷: Photos courtesy of Michael Waldstein 

#glenparksf #sanfrancisco #laidley
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Blog Roll

Coyote Yipps
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Upper Noe Neighbors

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