Volunteer Spotlight - Chuck Coston

More than 30 years in the field for SFBBO!

On the eve of his retirement as a volunteer for SFBBO, we interviewed Chuck Coston to learn how he got involved in SFBBO and his most memorable experiences with us. Read below to see his responses. You can also read a great article about him in the local publication "Climate." Thank you, Chuck, for your more than 30 years as a volunteer in our Colonial Waterbird and Outreach programs, it is because of people like you that we are able to meet our mission for birds, habitats, and communities!

How many years have you been volunteering, and which programs have you participated in?
 
I don’t know what year I first volunteered for SFBBO, nor do I know what the first program was. It was a one-day excursion in the field with a group, and that’s all I remember. I know it was probably about 1987. The first program where I was alone in the field was the High Tide Shorebird Resting Study, where I surveyed for resting shorebirds during high tide, walking the dikes anti-clockwise from near the mouth of Steinburger Slough to Shell Parkway on Belmont Slough, then back on trails (no housing then). I did this two years. The second year, in the spring, I was asked to include a survey of 12 or so GBHE nests on the power towers along Steinburger Slough. I was given a form and told how to fill it out – five minute training. I monitored the Steinburger power towers from then on. 

In April of the second year of monitoring the Stienburger colony, the extensive SNEG and BCNH colonies on Bair Island (south of Steinburger) collapsed. I never learned why. Many of the pairs quickly occupied the trees on the bay side of the Redwood Shores (now Silicon Valley Clean Water, "SVCW" water treatment plant). Since I was close, I agreed to monitor that colony. I suddenly had about 150 BCNH and 200 SNEG nests to survey. Trial by fire! I have monitored  the SVCW  colony through many stages thereafter. 
 
Sometime around 1997 a colony of FOTE formed along Belmont Slough near Shell Parkway. I monitored it for two years, then it disappeared. About 2006 some FOTE moved onto some small islands in a pond west of the SVCW plant. They lasted three years, but foliage on the islands overwhelmed the birds (guano fertilized?). Intermittently for about five years from 2014 to 2020, I monitored the FOTEs that colonized the islands in the largest pond west of the SVCW plant.  The SVCW folks have filled in the pond and built more plant apparatus thereon.  

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​How did you learn about SFBBO?

I grew up in a small town in Oregon, and spent most of my childhood outdoors. I learned the names of some common birds from my mother, but the big trigger event was in graduate school. Joan (now my wife) and I often ate lunch together in a small park in south Chicago. One day several intriguing birds appeared.  Instead of returning to the lab, I visited the bookstore, and found Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America. It awoke my bird passion. Oh, the mystery birds were Slate Colored Juncos. Joan and I often went birding thereafter, and 60+ years later we still go when the energy is there. I heard about SFBBO at an SCVAS meeting. My interests run to research, and SFBBO sounded like it fit. It took a few years for me to become active.  

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​Over the past 30 years, what are some of the most memorable experiences you’ve had? Are there any specific stories that come to mind?

I will always remember the good will and strong interest in the bird’s success from everyone I met in the SVCW plant. They were protective of the nesting birds, and always wanted to know how things were going.    
          
The demise of the GBHE colony on the Steinburger power towers was painful. GBHEs varied between six and 10 nests for about 15 years. Then one year, in the middle of nesting season, several antennas were installed on the towers, and the colonies of  GBHE and DCCO south of the slough both failed (north had no GBHE then). Numbers of DCCO recovered, but GBHEs dwindled, until only one remained. It had a nearly fledged chick, but the next visit found a TUVU cleaning up the last of the nest contents. No GBHE nesting since then. 

The towers north of the slough had CORA nests about four times, but the most impressive non-colonial nesting was a pair of OSPR. From 2021 to 2023 they occupied the highest nest platform on the right-hand tower south of the Slough (did not return this year). Twice they apparently fledged one chick. 

The SVCW colony tends to be noisier as the season progresses, but loudest was the time a Red-tailed Hawk blundered into one of the nesting trees. Every close adult bird erupted and the hawk quickly got the message – scram! 

Twice the SVCW colony collapsed, and was dormant for a year or two. I am impressed by the site loyalty. A number of trees were removed, and facilities built up on both sides of the tree row, but the birds hung in there, nesting this year was very successful. It’s always gratifying to see several not-quite-fledged chicks scrambling on the trees.