Grab Bag

 

Townsend's Warbler, Mallard Lake

I've been out with the camera the past few days but haven't really felt like posting anything. I think I've been fighting off a bug of some kind, and it's made me feel a little jaded about blogging. 

Many children at my wife's school have been staying home due to illness, and I know I'm not immune to everything that's out there despite getting flu, covid, and pneumonia jabs this fall. Still, I am feeling a little more perky today -- maybe due to the chill of walking and biking in today's brisk, 13-degree temperature drop (according to our indoor/outdoor thermometer). 

Longboarding at Ocean Beach

Sunset Dunes Park on Sunday

This neighborhood hummer was making a lot of alarm calls, so I stopped to see what she was upset about.

It was this guy, a scrub jay (and its pal; there were two of them on the prowl). I wonder how often jays and other corvids actually find and prey on hummingbird nests.

I was desperate to spend more time using the Z8 and 180-600mm, so I trundled it over to Grandview Park. There were almost no birds around, but I was surprised to find some early-season dragonflies (probably all variegated meadowhawks).

A visitor to the park saw me pointing my huge lens at something and asked what I was looking at. I told her it was this white-crowned sparrow in a bush right in front of us. I like that the lens can focus on close objects so well.

I saw the mangy coyote sort of trotting along the path at Middle Lake and got my camera ready just in time for it to come out from behind the foliage and pass in front of this woman on a park bench. I shot two frames as it passed and created this single composite image. I watched as the coyote kept up its nonchalant pace to cross a nearby 4-way intersection and head over to North Lake.

Meanwhile, a few golden-crowned sparrows were feeding right at my feet. This one was nibbling on cleavers (aka bedstraw, Galium aparine).

Golden-crowned Sparrow, Middle Lake

There were a few male and female hooded mergansers diving in Middle Lake, as well as several bufflehead and the usual mallards.

I was a little surprised to see a monarch butterfly fluttering in the warm and sunny woods near the Bison Paddock yesterday. When I passed that area again on today's chilly and hazy day I wondered where it might be holed up.

The Townsend's warbler was trying to ascertain the threat of a nearby human before ducking down into the creek at Mallard Lake to have a little bath. It decided not to risk it.

The hummingbird had just bathed in a different part of the creek.

Preening Hummer in Motion

I'm sure the handsome Townie was grateful when I finally left the area.

Down next to the lake, this hermit thrush popped up to pose on a blackberry branch.

The ruby-crowned kinglet was eating something on the flowers -- whether pollen or something else I couldn't tell. It would sometimes even flutter beneath the flower as if it were a not-very-graceful hummingbird.

Hermit in the Holly

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Mallard Lake

Sometimes hummingbirds take a flower's nectar from the base of the blossom, cheating the flower of pollination services.

The yellow-rumped warbler was hiding its rump, but a field of yellow mustard flowers in the Bison Paddock took up its slack.

A white-crowned sparrow uses the Bison Paddock fence as a way station.

Great Egret, South Lake

Another yellow-rumper, this time with yellow lichen on a willow just coming back into bud at South Lake.

Yellow-rumped Warbler, South Lake

I spotted the red-breasted sapsucker on the same tree as last time, but this time it didn't fly away as I got off my bike and fished out my camera.

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Sunset in Frisco

 

Farallon Sunset from Grandview Park

I biked over to Grandview Park to catch the sunset which was happening right about the start of game time for the 49ers, only to come home and get the bad news about how good the Seahawks were playing. Oh well, at least my brother and sister-in-law, and my nephew, his wife, and my grandnephew were having a good night.

Also, we had Ben & Jerry around for solace.

Sunset Clouds Over Mt. Tam

Bob Weir Memorial at Haight & Masonic

Althea the Bus on Haight Street
(Named for a Grateful Dead song)

Sunday Sunrise

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Red-breasted Sapsucker

 

Red-breasted Sapsucker, South Lake

The sapsucker stopped me in my tracks when it landed on a tree right next to the bike path at South Lake. I played it cool, though. Got off my bike casual-like, guided the kickstand down with my foot so it wouldn't make any noise, and unzipped the trunk bag to get my camera out. I had my back to the bird/tree the whole time. Playing it cool, like I said. Then slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch....

And of course by the time I turned to look, the bird was gone. It probably flew away as soon as I stopped.

But I figured it might still be around, and sure enough I soon spotted it high in another nearby tree.

Red-breasted Sapsucker (with bonus Townsend's Warbler)

This little ruby-crowned kinglet has something going on with the feathers at the base of its beak. I suppose it's just wear and tear, as I've seen that on other birds as well.

There are two greater white-fronted geese hanging out with the much larger (and more numerous) Canada geese at Metson Lake.

I wonder if these are the same two individuals I saw last year swimming with the Canadians in Blue Heron Lake. I didn't even recognize the same species when I saw them recently with thousands of snow geese at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. Something about seeing them in the wild vs. in the park, or maybe because they looked bigger compared to snow geese (instead of Canadians).

The swell was still pretty big at Ocean Beach yesterday, with a continuing offshore wind.

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Around the Pond

 

Common Yellowthroat, Elk Glen Lake

The yellowthroat's distinctive chip calls pulled me in. I'd been content to walk past Elk Glen Lake and head out of the park toward home, but the calls were too close to ignore. I've been hearing a yellowthroat there for a few weeks, but the bird itself has always been inaccessible. Even having it close by didn't make it easy to photograph. The yellowthroat doesn't hold a pose very long, and it often moves quickly among obscuring leaves and branches as it forages along the water's edge.

If Panasonic could eliminate the viewfinder blackout period that follows a shutter-release with the FZ-80D, I'd buy a new one right away. There's nothing like watching your bird dance across the branches and duck out of sight while waiting for the blackout period to end. 

I was interested to see two of these guys (Volvopluteus gloiocephalus) with such different cap colors along the Sunset Parkway. One is fresh, the other old.

I wondered if this female Anna's hummingbird was gathering cobwebs for her nest, or insects for her belly. But I didn't see any cobwebs, and I certainly didn't see any insects that are bite-sized for a hummingbird with my paltry human eyeballs.

A Nuttall's woodpecker swooped onto the scene as I was waiting next to the pond for the yellowthroat to make another appearance. It never did, but the wait was worth it anyway.

A few yellow-rumped warblers were feeding and horsing around along the pond's edge, often stopping to rest in the cattails.

A couple of red-winged blackbirds were singing from the cattails. I suspect several more will join them as the season progresses.

Townsend's Warbler Dropping Down to Bathe in the Pond

I stopped to watch a great blue heron hunting at the Balboa Natural Area since I don't recall the last time I saw one there. I figured it was after gophers, but it struck and nabbed something much smaller, and which I suspect to be another Jerusalem cricket.

I told myself I would stay and watch the heron until it either nabbed a gopher or wandered into the patch of Oxalis flowers....

Coming out of the park after Elk Glen Lake I spotted this unusual scene at Irving  St. and 19th Ave. There is a gas-powered motor on the bike frame, attached to a trailer labeled @MushroomsAdventures.

After leaving the heron in Balboa Park I rode up the hill just past Cliff House and saw a photographer shooting with an awesome 8x10 view camera. He only had one film holder, meaning he'd only get to make two photos. I love that there are still people out there shooting large format. It's one of those things any serious photographer contemplates -- after all, who couldn't love such a huge negative or transparency -- but few take it up.

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