Bay Trail

 

Black-necked Stilt & Willet Foraging Together, Hunter's Point Shoreline

I've been hemming and hawing about carrying my Z8 on a longer bike ride (from home to India Basin to Fort Mason to Crissy Lagoon then back home), so today, graced with perfect weather, I finally bit the bullet and strapped on the camera backpack, which weighed exactly 11 pounds. I was out for a little more than four hours, and the verdict at the end of the trip was that it had gotten pretty uncomfortable in the shoulders. New and bigger bike saddlebags (my ThinkTank Glass Limo fits in my wife's large Ortleib bags) are probably the next step, and I've been thinking about upgrading my ebike as well (the Spanish-made Orbea Kemen ADV 10 is at the top of my wishlist for now).

I was disappointed but not surprised to find very few birds out at India Basin and Heron's Head. Even so, there was one black-necked stilt, one semipalmated plover (that I saw) and one whimbrel. I couldn't get close to the black-bellied plovers, of which there were just a few mingling in the strongly backlit mud with a bunch of least sandpipers. 

I spotted a red-throated loon just offshore as I passed by Chase Center and two more in Mission Bay, just across from Oracle Park where folks were converging for the Giants vs. Dodgers game.

The Fort Mason Community Garden didn't have a lot of bird variety, but I could photograph hummingbirds there all day if I didn't watch out. 

Near Crissy Lagoon I was summoned to the Quartermaster Reach by a vociferous kildeer. If those were alarm calls, I couldn't tell what it was upset about. The calls were continuous, whether any humans were nearby or not. There was one other, silent, killdeer in the same area, so maybe they had a nest nearby. I also spotted my first barn swallows and Canada goose goslings of the season there. 

Least Sandpiper

Frisky Snowy
(It had just chased off an interloper.)

Black-necked Stilt

Semipalmated Plover

Whimbrel

Stilt Catches a Minnow

It looked like the stilt might have been playing with its food, as it took quite a while (and even dropped it once) before finally sending it down the hatch.

Willet Trudging Across the Mudflat

Willet & Stilt

Snowy Egret on the Wing

I loved the beautiful coloration on those least sandpiper feathers.

I usually think of willets as being gray birds, which they are until they don this more marbled breeding plumage.

I don't know if these are male and female willets, but the bird in front wanted nothing to do with the bird that was following it.

Hummingbirds at Ft. Mason Community Garden

Anna's Hummingbird

Nectar Guides

The western bluebird was perched near a tree with holes in it, but I never saw it enter one of the holes. If there is a nest in there, it's very stealthy about it.

Killdeer at Quartermaster Reach

Making Noise

The adults seemed surprised to be noticed, and they soon moved the youngsters into the water to put some distance between us.

I don't recall hearing any sound coming out of the little fuzzball. It might have just dipped its beak to drink some water.

Cliff swallows had been reported to be building mud nests nearby, but I didn't see any sign of them. The colorful barn swallows were a good find though.

Including this guy who did some preening from a sturdy fence railing.

Killdeer on Fence

I watched as the heron pierced the turf and came up empty, but this time it actually caught something -- a spider.

Cropped to show the spider.

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Earth Day Textures

 

Earth Texture: What Is It?

This one's probably too easy, but we'll see.

The timing of the rain has been pretty good for my walks and bike rides, not to mention our garden, which recently got some new plants. I would estimate that more than fifty percent of the plants I buy for the back yard do not last. They get eaten, they don't like the soil, they get too little sun, they get destroyed by squirrels, and so on. So I notice and appreciate when something takes, especially if it's something the hummingbirds like. That's why I bought three more firecracker plants (Cuphea ignea) last weekend.

It was good to see a snowy egret back at Ocean Beach, hunting in the shallows. It seems like it's been a while since I saw one down there.

A flock of maybe a couple dozen whimbrels was also foraging nearby.

I've been seeing swallowtails like this western tiger swallowtail flitting around for weeks, but today I finally got to photograph one of them when it stopped to sun itself on a nearby blackberry stem at Middle Lake.

It took so long for the butterfly to land in a spot where I could photograph it that I almost gave up. It kept moving to new locations, only to present another impossible angle. Thankfully it finally settled in a good spot before flying completely out of the area.

At least three Allen's hummingbirds were claiming territory nearby.

This guy had a favorite branch to return to after chasing off the interlopers.

These are the first ducklings I've seen this season. I thought I'd see my first ones at Blue Heron Lake, but these were at Middle Lake. A passer-by said he also saw goslings earlier in the day.

Ducklings On The Green

If you said the top photo was a bison's coat, you nailed it.

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Earth Day Eve

 

Anna's Hummingbird & Salvia Near Elk Glen Lake

I was reading an article about the intricacies of the biological motors that propel bacteria and another about how the motors evolved from the kinds of ion pumps that power mitochondria. Check out the illustration of the motor at the top of the article and you will agree with the author: "It's hard to fathom the level of engineering achievable by a billion years of bacterial evolution."

Add another three billion years and you have hummingbirds beating their wings fifty times per second while steering their beaks into the nectar rewards deep inside flowers seemingly tailor-made for them.

Life on Earth is a mind-blowing marvel.

I had to step into my rain pants about five minutes into my walk, but they went back into my knapsack about 20 minutes later. I snapped this partial rainbow because houses blocked the rest of it and I didn't know how long it would last.

I finally got into the open at the Sunset Parkway.

Iris After The Rain

Iris at Mallard Lake

Someone moved Woody Wooduck to a new spot.

California Towhee About To Fly With Nest Material

Allen's Hummingbird Perched Above Mallard Lake
(A pair of Wilson's warblers were calling out while foraging around the lake, but the only photo I snapped isn't worth posting.)

Mt. Clathrus

There was lots of Clathrus ruber (latticed stinkhorn) just east of Mallard Lake. I might check up on it again tomorrow.

I couldn't tell what the hummer was going after and wondered if she was sipping water droplets off the lupine leaves.

Lots of red-winged blackbirds were singing and cavorting around Elk Glen Lake.

Purple Finch

The Clamp-down

Followed By Twisting

The Salvia patch hummingbirds don't always keep watch from out in the open. This one was preening deep within the foliage.

After chasing an interloper, the hummingbird landed on a perch just a few feet away, allowing me a quick portrait before he buzzed off.

The hummingbirds chase and get chased, but they seem to take it stride either way.

Even after being chased, they eventually find a way to satisfy their needs.

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