Life on the Watershed: When Birds of Different Feather Flock Together--Look for Winter Activity along the Ridge Trail

February is still a good time to catch winter’s unique activity in the woods, where a single quiet tree can suddenly become a hub of fluttering, chirping commotion. 

This  is the season when songbirds of various sizes and colors band together in flight and feeding. They'll descend in mass on one or a couple of trees to feast on insects from leaves or the bark.  Each species has its own way of foraging (depending on bill size, shape, and other features), so that many of them are after different specific foods and coexist with less competition.

And there’s strength in the numbers, since flocking in a large group makes it harder for hawks and other predators to target a specific bird.  

Good places to catch a winter feeding frenzy are stands of our native coastal live oaks, especially in the mornings.

You can get well into the Peninsula Watershed woodlands by signing up for one of our Fifield-Cahill Ridge Trail hikes. There’s something scheduled for almost every weekend through March and into April. Events range from easy 5-mile round trips to brisker hikes across the 13-mile length of the trail.  For more information, and to reserve your space on line, please visit sfwater.org/ridgetrail.    

The 36-square-mile Peninsula Watershed has been protected since the late 1800s to safeguard the

quality of our local drinking water resources. A key side-effect is that the place remains an oasis of historic native habitats that support a diversity of plant and animal life, including 165 bird species, 50 different mammals, and 30 reptile or amphibian species. The SFPUC continually works to enhance the indigenous wetlands, grasslands, forests and other ecosystems by removing the non-native trees, shrubs and weeds that spring up, and replacing them with seeds or saplings from the original species.