Come October Danny and I migrate west to spend a number of weeks in and round San Francisco and environs visiting household and associates and looking out about for our favourite west coast birds. We arrive amid wonderful sunshine and are met on the airport by Dylan and Emily, our son and daughter-in-law, who stay excessive on a hill above Noe Valley and close to Twin Peaks, a stunning part of this metropolis. Soon we’re rushing into town, previous hills graced with inexperienced timber, beige grassy fields and the occasional blossoming tree, so completely different from the east coast the place pink, gold and orange leaves float to the bottom day after day till solely naked branches attain to the sky.
San Francisco, like many a metropolis throughout and after the pandemic, has had its issues. Driving by way of numerous neighborhoods, shuttered storefronts stay amid thriving businesses. But the downtown space has suffered probably the most. Some main businesses with many staff persevering with to work remotely from home have downsized the home workplace and moved away to the suburbs. Other businesses folded fully throughout the pandemic, leaving staff with out jobs, and with out jobs come evictions. These unlucky folks add to the homeless, or houseless as they are saying right here, drawback.
Yet the birds are oblivious to those metropolis issues as are the crops, each domesticated and wild. Papery purple, pink and blood-red bougainvillea climb up the perimeters of homes, now blended with fluttery ghosts and bone-stiff skeletons. Red knotweed and white alyssum peek up from between the cracks of the sidewalks. Glory bushes with flowers, coloured lenten vestment purple, stand out amid the greenery. And in every single place are lavender spikes of Mexican bush sage, bountiful bushes which are extra lovely than small hedges.
Along the road in lots of plots round timber, fortnight lilies with skinny, spiky blade-like leaves develop, with small white flowers that appear to be flattened iris blossoms with purple and yellow fuzzy runners on the six petals. I search on the internet and discover out they’re also called African irises and marvel if they’d survive within the Berkshires.
Throughout town, the inky black silhouettes of ravens and crows abound, sitting on wires, homes, lampposts, flying from roost to roost or walking by way of the parks and alongside the seashore. I hear parrots, however have but to look at any perching, nonetheless sufficient for identification. Hummingbirds too are vocal, however disappear as shortly as they seem. House finches and English sparrows are Spring noisy.
Crissy Field, as soon as an airfield now an intensive park alongside the bay, has a marsh cultivated with native crops. There’s a preening nice blue heron, and on the far shore is a superb egret. A a lot smaller heron flies in and lands in close by shallow water: a white section, little blue heron.
On the muddy flat are two shorebirds, one fairly giant, the opposite about half that dimension. As quickly as I focus my binoculars, the brownish fowl with a ginormous beak comes into view: a long-billed curlew! That outstanding down-curved invoice is probably 7 or 8 inches lengthy. The fowl flies up with its companion that flashes black and white as they do a flyby: a willet.
Years and years in the past, the long-billed curlew was recognized regionally because the ’candlestick fowl’ and dwelt within the marshes of a promontory within the decrease San Francisco bay. The locals named the world Candlestick Point in honor of those, at the moment, plentiful, birds. These avians have been at one time additionally frequent alongside the east coast, however a sighting there’s a reportable occasion. The marsh succumbed to progress when Candlestick Park was constructed for the San Francisco Giants baseball workforce in 1960 and lasted until 1999.
Western and California gulls hoarsely shriek and cry as if attempting to push back the ever present giant brown pelicans. Strings of darkish cormorants stream backwards and forwards underneath the Golden Gate bridge. A tern … I hear a tern, and it takes a couple of minutes earlier than it comes into view. The fowl hovers, folds its wings and plunges into the ocean, developing and away with a silvery tidbit in its reddish beak. A Caspian tern.
Brewer’s blackbirds are underfoot as many individuals grace the walkways, ambling about, having fun with the sunshine whereas singing white-crowned sparrows pop as much as be seen atop coyote brush bush blooming with cottony-looking white flowers.
Just walking in regards to the metropolis we add 20 species to our day record. We head again to Noe Valley to relaxation earlier than going out to dinner. There are a whole bunch of fantastic eating places all through this City. It’s true … should you get a foul meal right here it’s your personal fault.
Azalina’s, a Malaysian restaurant that opened in 2019, didn’t make it by way of the pandemic, however has since reopened within the Tenderloin district, an iffy neighborhood if ever there have been one. Our reservation is at 5 p.m. so we’re comfy walking to the restaurant. We have been suggested to not carry a automobile, particularly a rental, to this space.
As we close to our vacation spot, we fastidiously wend our approach by way of a sidewalk tent metropolis, previous the bubbles of blue, inexperienced, gray dwellings of the houseless, belongings spilling out onto the sidewalk, in some instances onto the stays of their dinners. Nestled in some corners are piles of clothings, surrounded by procuring baggage crammed with what appears like utter junk, however which are literally these unfortunates’ survival kits. One man is seated on the sidewalk, torso folded until his brow almost touches the bottom. Emily, a metropolis employee who carries narcan and has been skilled in its use, stops to evaluate his situation.
The juxtaposition of seeing clear — in Noe Valley, the sidewalks are washed down day by day — neighborhoods, the streets awash with casually-dressed folks, some nonetheless in shorts, walking, working, biking, pushing strollers, main dogs, giant although largely small, lunching outside, is in full distinction to seeing haphazard tent cities, hovels on soiled sidewalks, the folks, lots of whom are mentally ailing, asleep in doorways, underneath gray, lumpy sleeping baggage or simply piles of clothes, some nodding off on stoops, some simply staring into area whereas others are shopping for medication or capturing up.
This drawback has expanded into all the heat cities of the west coast: Seattle, Portland, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles. The homeless state of affairs is intertwined with the psychological well being drawback and the ensuing drug drawback. San Francisco, a sanctuary metropolis, has many packages and a whole bunch of individuals looking for methods to unravel these issues.
The bluebird home mission in lots of states supplied housing in nesting packing containers for bluebirds alongside highways and byways. The inhabitants is now thriving. If we observe birds and begin packages for offering for avian security throughout migration and whereas breeding, why can’t we offer the identical for our fellow human beings? Let’s hope that the packages that do exist will discover a resolution to alleviate these nationwide issues! Let’s begin housing initiatives for our unlucky, struggling houseless!
