Rainy Days

 

Dramatic Finish to a Rainy Day, Grandview Park

I've had to stick around the house the last couple of days to await important deliveries, but I've been reluctant to get out in the rain anyway. Naturally, UPS chose the 45 minutes we spent at the grocery store to show up on Saturday, when no one could sign for the delivery (now set for Monday).

Cabin fever finally set in this afternoon despite the weather, and when I eventually tried to get rained on in the hope of seeing a great rainbow in its aftermath, the rain refused to cooperate, scudding past and leaving me high and dry. Huge, beautiful squalls dumped over the ocean but vectored to the south while others bored in on Mt. Tam and Pt. Reyes to the north.

I biked home and returned a little later in the car with my wife to check out the sunset. We arrived just in time to catch the final drop.

Something swooped past me as I was locking my bike at the bottom of the stairs at Grandview Park. I'm not sure how I missed seeing the red-tailed hawk before it took off. It must have been on a nearby tree stump. It passed surprisingly close to me, then landed on this street light. However, as soon as I pointed my camera his way, he absconded, stage right.

The Transamerica Building always stands out.

This white-crowned sparrow popped out of hiding to nibble on silvery lupine leaves.

The hawk was back on its perch when I returned to my bike to head home, and this time he endured my attention without distress.

These are some Saturday screen captures from web cams.

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Return of the Flickers

 

Norther Flicker in the Oak Woodlands, Golden Gate Park

I won't call it a "resolution," but I've been thinking about uploading more San Francisco species to iNaturalist this year, so I started today since I had such a diverse haul of photos, most of which came out of the Oak Woodlands near the Horseshoe Courts. (I'll occasionally see lawn bowlers in the park, but I have yet to see anyone playing at the horseshoe courts.) 

Another non-resolution is to do more photography outside the city. I renewed my annual CDFW Lands Pass this morning, and the plan is to use it more often than I have the last few years. I also hope to use my National Parks Pass more often, and I'd like to discover some new and interesting natural areas to explore around the state.

The fact that we're getting a decent rain year so far is good encouragement for doing these things. I started the Mt. Tam blog back in 2013 during a long period of drought, which put a crimp on the available biodiversity to explore. If you've been thinking about photographing someplace special in a deep way, this year is shaping up to be a great time to get started.

I saw a pretty sunrise in the making this morning and biked over to Grandview Park to get an unobstructed view of it.

Agaricus californicus in the Oak Woodlands.

Leucopaxillus albissimus

This little troop of Mycenas (possibly Mycena haematopus) was growing in a log just up the trail from the solo mycena I recently photographed.

I can only recall finding a bolete in the park once before. This might be Xerocomus subtomentosus.

I started photographing flickers in the Oak Woodlands in mid-December last year and have been waiting expectantly to see them this year. Today was finally the day.

I cropped the heck out of this shot to show the Jerusalem cricket in the flicker's beak.

And down the hatch.

I don't know if the males were more skittish or just fewer in number, but this was the only one I was able to photograph.

I keep forgetting about Hutton's vireos. I'd assumed this was a ruby-crowned kinglet until iNaturalist suggested (correctly, I believe) otherwise. 

Brown Creeper on Lichen-tassled Oak

Townsend's Warbler on Oak Branch

Grooming Squirrel, Oak Woodland

Miner's Lettuce on the Edge of the Fuchsia Dell.

There was quite a lot of this cup fungus, Peziza repanda, growing in the cycad area near Lily Lake.

And if you find the cup fungus, the bear is very nearby.

This was one of several male and female ring-necked ducks diving inside a circle surrounded by duckweed at Lily Lake. The ducks themselves likely created the clearing with their constant activity.

Yellow-rumped warbler in eucalyptus, Inner Sunset just off Irving Street.

An Anna's hummingbird was feeding on a different tree across the street.

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Looking Back & Forward

 

Sunrise at Chimney Rock, January 2012

We'd hoped the rain would hold off until late afternoon on this last day of the year, but no such luck. The plan was to explore some tidepools down the coast, but I didn't like the idea of trying to photograph in the rain with my DSLR. You can't really get a clear shot through a rain-speckled water surface. One of these days I might have to spring for a waterproof camera that I could dunk underwater. 

Stuck at home, I was looking back at Pt. Reyes photos I shot during the month of January over the years and felt a little inspiration to photograph out there more often in 2026. We'll see. The long drive is a bit of an "anti-inspiration." In the meantime, here's a look back. 

I hope all you folks out there who share this blog with me have many excellent things planned for the new year, with a sprinkling of spontaneous pleasant surprises to put it over the top. All the best for '26!

Estero Cloudscape

Sunrise in the Limantour Dunes

Alder Thicket Along Muddy Hollow Trail

Sunset at Elephant Rock

Bull Elk at Tomales Point

Various Fungi on Bed of Lichen

Liquid Landscape

Arch Rock Before The Fall

Black Mountain & Nicasio Reservoir

Coyote At Ease, Yet Always Alert, As a New Year Unfolds

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Snowy Plovers

 

Western Snowy Plover, Ocean Beach

I saw them on the beach, a smattering of little white balls in the sand, when I was down there a week or two ago, but I didn't have the camera with me. I actually left the house without the camera again this morning, but I turned back to get it when I noticed the wind was blowing offshore. I wanted to be able to photograph surfers in case there was a big swell. I'd forgotten about the plovers until I got to the beach and noticed them once again. 

There was just a small swell, but it looked pretty fun out there.

I found this old poster I made back 2004 when I was looking for other times of the year that I've photographed the snowy plovers. Mostly it's been November - February, but I was surprised to find shots from August 2008.

The great blue heron was hunting in the Bison Paddock but didn't make any strikes in the time I was watching him. He looked close a few times, as in the pose above, but whatever was catching his eye continued its run of good luck. I was surprised to see so much mustard in bloom already. The paddock looks very lush right now, and the bison were their usual relaxed selves.

As I was poking my camera lens through the chain-link fence, I noticed that one of the many yellow-rumped warblers in the area had perched close by. Its feet kept slipping as it tried to balance against the wind.

Lots of visitors in the park and down by the beach on this sunny day, but not many birds on Seal Rocks. It's not often that Chimney Rock at Pt. Reyes is so clearly visible in the distance (~28.75 miles away).

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