After the River

 

Purple Finch Eating Berries, Golden Gate Park

When the latest storm was being forecast, it was being called an "atmospheric river," and I wondered why that term seems to be used almost every time it rains these days. I asked Google AI and got this response:

"The term 'atmospheric river' is being used more frequently for storms because it's a scientifically accurate and descriptive name for the long, narror bands of water vapor in the sky that carry significant moisture. While the phenomenon isn't new, the broader term was coined by researchers in the 1990s to describe these moisture-laden plumes, which often look like rivers from a satellite's perspective. Media and weather services are now using the more technical term to better communicte the storm's potential impact, especially when compared to older, more regional names like the 'Pineapple Express.'"

I kept digging a little more and found an excellent story posted two days ago on KQED's web site. One interesting takeaway is that atmospheric rivers aren't always a "big bad storm." They can also be "quite gentle, gradual, or beneficial," according to a climate scientist. 

The one we just had seemed to fit the "beneficial" bill, at least around here. 

These might be toyon berries, though they look a bit pale.

Whatever they were, the purple finch was into them. A nearby robin wanted to get some but was too fearful in my presence. The finch said, "Fine, more for me."

Golden-crowned Sparrow, Oak Woodlands

A small bee bumped into the snare and triggered the spider to swoop in from hiding. But the bee didn't get stuck, so (not to waste a trip) the spider added a little more webbing then scuttled back to her hidden lair.

There were three snares that had elongated tubes engulfed in webbing nearby. This one looked like a caterpillar. There were several very tiny spiders moving away from it, and I wondered if they had recently hatched from within.

First Flush of Honey Mushrooms, Fuchsia Dell

The Dell also had a few of these lattice stinkhorn mushrooms that had grown too tall to support their own weight (perhaps after becoming waterlogged in the storm).

The red-shouldered hawk was noisily sqawking for attention, but it flew away almost as soon as I looked up at it.

Calla Leaves

Calla Lily

Trumpet Flower Near Lily Lake

Soft-looking pillows of chicken-of-the-woods fungus were growing out of a eucalyptus that also sprouted them last year and the year before.

Termite Hatch, Golden Gate Heights

I encountered the first termite hatch a block from home, but the one in the video is from Golden Gate Park. A large dragonfly was snatching them out of the air, but I was unable to photograph it. Another hatch at North Lake was being picked off by yellow-rumped warblers.

I guess the Cliff House is going to keep its name when it's refurbished and reopened, possibly in late 2026. Assuming that happens, I hope visitors will still be able to freely walk out on the back deck to take in the view.

One of the red-tailed hawks that hangs around the northern end of the Great Highway had just pounced on something but didn't come up with a strike.

After perching on the sign, it made another strike attempt and again came up empty. I watched it make three unsuccessful strikes in maybe five minutes.

After giving the meadow at Balboa Natural Area one last look, the hawk soon took off across the highway (thankfully just high enough to avoid being hit by a car) to perch over a patch of ice plant in the hope of spotting a mouse.

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Hazelnut

 

Backyard Hazelnut

My novice effort to pollinate the backyard hazel tree netted one (count 'em!) decent nut. I just noticed it yesterday and decided today that I wanted to photograph it. I'd forgotten how beautiful the bracts surrounding the nut could be. The leaf in the background is also from the hazel. Quite a few were blowing off the tree as I sat beneath it in the winds of the gathering storm.

I also noticed a spider in its web as I was coming up the stairs, so I went back to photograph it after the hazelnut. When I got there and put my lens on it at a 1:1 reproduction ratio, it appeared to be an ex-spider (as they used to say on Monty Python's Flying Circus). I wondered if it waited and waited in its web without ever snaring any prey, and finally just succumbed when its metabolism could no longer sustain itself.

There were some beautiful lenticular clouds billowing off Mt. Shasta this morning.

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All-Is-One Day

 

Fallen Leaf, Mallard Lake

I've recently been meditating in the back yard for a little while after wrapping up my walk and bike ride. I even burn a little copal incense that I bought in Chicago, and which I found a little too heavy for indoor use (it set off our living room air filter to run at its maximum level). It's better out back anyway. I enjoy watching its tendril of smoke rise and drift in the breeze.

A friend used to say that 11:11 was his favorite time of day, since "all is one." I've always appreciated the humor in that, but despite being a veteran myself, I'd forgotten that Veterans Day originated as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of the First World War on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. It was renamed as Veterans Day after a second world war and the Korean War. 

Lots of people were in the park and at the beach today. I didn't get Veterans Day off before I retired, so I wondered why it so busy out there. Almost like a weekend. Then I remembered it was a holiday for a lot of folks. It's been a beautiful day to be outdoors. I hope you got some.

Our Neighborhood Red-shouldered Hawk

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Mallard Lake Reflections

Fall Color at Mallard Lake

Great Egret, Elk Glen Lake

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Rolling Out of the Day

 

Watching the Earth Roll Out of the Day

The sun wasn't going down. We were all spinning backwards into the night. Pretty soon we'll be upside-down, seeing stars.

I saw a couple of great horned owls this morning, snoozing in a tree. It reminded me that it might be interesting to start poking around Golden Gate Park toward day's end, when the night owls come out. Unfortunately, if they wait until dark I won't be able to photograph anything.

I wondered how they managed to fly through such a tangle of branches.

Farallons at Sunset

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Woodsy

 

Lactarius & Mycena

I went looking for mushrooms this morning along a trail that I'd planned to hike on my last visit. Back then I'd changed my mind due to a forestry crew operating chainsaws along my route. All was quiet today, being a Saturday, but I kept thinking, "Wow!" as I hiked out through the newly thinned forest. The whole feel of the place is very different from anything I've experienced in around thirty years of hiking up there. I'm not complaining, mind you. Just saying. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the forest floor develops over the next few years. Will all that new biomass create a fungal bonanza? I wondered if any of the mycology folks from SF State are studying the before-and-after of it all.

Amanitas and Friends Along the Simmons Trail

Slippery Jack Cap

Beneath the Cap

Puffball and Friends

Radiating with Mycena

With all the room available on the forest floor, these guys fight for space....

Wavy Gills

Twins

Acorn Pantry #1

Acorn Pantry #2

Acorn Woodpecker

Some of these fruitbodies were fairly fresh, while others on the log had already dried out. Not sure if this is a Fomitopsis sp. or what.

Moss & Lichen

I believe this is a variegated meadowhawk. It would rise up and hover as it nibbled on gnat-like insects that formed loose clouds in the sunshine just above the giant chain ferns in the wet draw near Cataract Creek where leopard lilies bloom in the summer.

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New Routes

 

Nuttall's Woodpecker, S.F. Botanic Garden

I was pleasantly surprised when Google Maps gave me an unexpected return route from the Cosumnes River Preserve. Instead of directing me onto I-5 it sent me back out West Walnut Grove Road (which is also the way to the crane-viewing areas along Staten Island Road). That was a beautiful drive, and I had the road almost all to myself. I looked foward to more of the same as I turned onto Isleton Road, but it wasn't long before I got stuck in a chain of maybe 25 cars backed up behind a slow-poke driving a commercial van well below the speed limit. Oh well. It was a great route while it lasted.

After the rainy portion of the storm had mostly moved east yesterday morning, I  could have done my usual walk to the beach via Ortega Street and back via Noriega, but I decided to find a new route that would put me in the park. I needed to have a more varied nature experience than I would have found in the Outer Sunset. I ended up walking down two sets of mosaic stairways to reach the park at Blue Heron Lake, where I walked the spiral trail to the top of Strawberry Hill, then over to the Botanic Garden and back up the hill to home. 

This was the most photogenic of the three mourning doves that were hunkered down at the bottom of Grandview Park to escape the fierce winds that continued even after the bulk of the rain had passed.

Two sets of mosaic stairs, looking down then up. That's the Moraga Steps on the left and the Hidden Garden Steps on the right.

It's not an animal and it's not a plant. It's not even a fungus. It's Fuligo septica, and this spongy mass is its spore-bearing aethalium -- the largest of any slime mold. Being both common, large, and brightly colored, the scrambled-egg slime is probably our most frequently seen slime mold. 

A shy hermit thrush landed on the flowering branch of a nearby pokeweed plant, but it really wanted one of the ripe berries growing on another nearby branch. It hopped over and finally snagged one, then darted back into cover.

This purple bromeliad fly (thanks to iNaturalist for the ID) was much bigger than your average house fly. 

I'd checked the red-legged frog pond in the Children's Garden, but there was no sign of either frog or pollywog. Someone had been pulling out a lot of the aquatic plants in the pond, and I hoped no frogs were harmed in the effort. As I was leaving the area I was surprised to see a red-shouldered hawk on a low branch, and surprised again when it stayed put as I pointed my camera for a photo. I took a couple of quick shots and moved on, not wanting to disturb it into flight.

The Nuttall's woodpecker checked out several different trees and shrubs in the California Garden, including this still-standing but 99-percent dead manzanita (that I suspect will be replaced soon).

It was briefly in the big buckeye, but I couldn't get an angle on it in there. The lichen-crusted manzanita was still a pretty good perch though.

The California Garden's sacred datura plants are done flowering, and their thornapple fruits are earning their name.

Several lesser goldfinches were eating evening primrose seeds in the California Garden.

Lesser goldfinch at its lunch spot.

This little guy was crossing a sidewalk in Forest Hill. I'm hoping someone at iNaturalist will come through with an ID, but it seems like many caterpillars are difficult to name.

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