Flyers

 

Red-bellied Sapsucker, Golden Gate Park

It was so densely foggy when I began my ride up to Mt. Tam on Thursday morning that I had to take off my glasses to get a clear view of where I was going, especially in the Presidio where fog-drip puddles might conceal road hazards. The fog remained heavy across the Golden Gate Bridge until it abruptly faded near the northern end, where the day became instantly sunny and warm.

There's been very little activity at the trail cams on Mt. Tam. I brought the cams home to get them out of the creek bed before it rains.

There was a 5.8-foot high tide at Richardson Bay right around the time I returned, so I was surprised by all the flooding on the bike route between Mill Valley and Sausalito. In normal times that area wouldn't flood below around 6.5 feet, but I hadn't accounted for the "super El Niño" effects, which can turn a 5-foot tide prediction based on lunar charts into an actual 6-foot tide.

Except for heavy fog on the Golden Gate Bridge, the sun was out in San Francisco by the time I got back, so I ate lunch, took a shower, and drove down to Middle Lake to try to get a better view of the popular vagrant that birders were still reporting there. Although it didn't show itself while I was there, it was nice to see my first-of-season Red-bellied Sapsucker, which I last photographed near South Lake back in January. We were first drawn to the bird by its interesting call while it remained out of sight, high in a densely-branched tree. Lucky for us, it soon swooped down within sight and camera range.

As I circled Middle Lake a couple of times without seeing the esteemed visitor, I became interested in the dragonflies. I'd never photographed Black Saddlebags or Common Green Darner in San Francisco before. I thought about how cool it is that a dragonfly begins its life crawling around underwater before finally climbing out to become a creature that can fly.

I also spotted an Umber Skipper that was perched on a Beach Strawberry leaf, where it was being dive-bombed by another umber skipper. The perched one would begin to vibrate its wings, and the other would begin to swoop around it. It had to be a mating ritual, but the two flew away before consummating anything in my presence.

The pool is a shallow version of its once proud self after being filled with gravel in the storms of 2022-23, and even a local Gray Fox only dropped by a couple of times in three weeks. (Composite image.)

Coyote Creek came all the way up to the boardwalk.

Luckily it was just a small portion of the Mill Valley-Sausalito Pathway that completely flooded. I hate riding my bike through salt water. I was able to ride an alternate route to avoid the worst of the flooding around the freeway interchange.

I didn't see any Turkey Vultures while I was on Mt. Tam. This one was flying over Middle Lake.

This is a composite image with the swooping skipper caught in two places.

Skipper Courtship Display

There were some unusual flying critters in the sky, and I wondered what the vagrant bird from South of the Border thought about the roaring Blue Angels.

The first time I photographed a Common Green Darner was in the Chicago area. I didn't even realize we had them here.

When I looked up Black Saddlebags dragonflies on iNaturalist this morning, the most recent sighting listed was in Texas, so these guys get around too.

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Seeking the Sulphur-belly

 

Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, Golden Gate Park
(Composite image.)

When I joined the other birders trying to observe a special vagrant this morning, I asked if they were watching the several buzzing hummingbirds or the sulphur-bellied flycatcher. The answer was "both," since it was the vagrant that the hummers were scolding. Although the image above is a composite, there really were several hummers trying (in vain) to intimidate the flycatcher, whose range usually doesn't extend farther north than around the Arizona-Mexico border.

Several of the first Ring-necked Ducks I've seen this season were floating about in Middle Lake.

An immature Black-crowned Night Heron was posed too beautifully to ignore.

The flycatcher put up with the hummingbirds for a long time from its perch near the top of a small redwood, then finally flew across the lake to escape the buzz and the paparazzi.

It returned to the redwood side of the lake not long afterward, this time landing on the branch of a larger redwood (where the hummingbirds left it alone).

A White-crowned Sparrow jumped up to a perch to see what all the fuss was about.

This Western Warbling Vireo looked so different to me than the ones I recently photographed a month ago in the Botanical Garden. This is certainly the first one that stayed still for any length of time.

Handsome Song Sparrow

I waited and waited, watching for jostled twigs and listening to chirps, hoping the Common Yellowthroat (female) would pop into the open. She surprised me by flying up into some branches to give me a great view.

A couple of large mushrumps next to the trail turned out to be troops of Inky Caps.

Earlier on my morning walk I passed a nice display of fallen Princess Flower petals.

P.S. I wasn't able to photograph it, but there was a beautiful sight out the back window Wednesday morning. It was still dark, and only a dragon's breath of fog was drifting low in the Laguna Honda valley. Up above, over Twin Peaks, a low crescent moon had risen, and several other celestial objects were arrayed like an arrow above it. Venus was also in line but was still below the horizon and couldn't be seen, but even here in San Francisco we could see the star Regulus (faintly), followed by a blazing Jupiter and Mars.

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Kingfisher

 

Belted Kingfisher, South Lake

I veered off my usual walking route this morning to check out the Brocken spectre happening at Grandview Park. Then down along the Sunset Greenbelt, a first-of-season Devil's Coach Horse Beetle crossed my path. Later at Mallard Lake I saw my first-of-season Cedar Waxwing. A little farther along at Elk Glen Lake, I once again encountered the mangey-tailed Coyote that I saw on Friday in the Oak Woodlands near McLaren Lodge. 

Fast-forward to my bike ride when a hoot from the woods drew my attention to a snoozing Great Horned Owl west of Chain of Lakes. Finally, a chattering Kingfisher caught my attention as I passed South Lake on my way home.

In other words, another pretty good day of nature observation in San Francisco.

Brocken Spectre at Grandview Park

Raven & Brocken Spectre

Devil's Coach Horse Beetle

When I tried to move into a better position, the cedar waxwing (which appeared to be flying solo instead being with its flock) flew away.

While I was waiting to see if any cedar waxwings would return, I watched a tiny Anna's hummingbird nectaring nearby.

The coyote was on a mission, trotting right along, heading west.

I didn't notice the mangey tail until I saw the photo, and I doubt the coyote recognized me either.

Rounding Elk Glen Lake, a Great Blue Heron stood beside the trail and didn't fly away as I approached, so I couldn't resist snapping a photo.

When I got home I decided to take my full-frame camera with me on the bike ride. I'd seen robins feasting on Cotoneaster berries yesterday and hoped to find them joined today by cedar waxwings.

No waxies showed up, although I did hear a flock high in a eucalyptus tree on the west end of Middle Lake.

Why the robin made a difficult reach for a berry despite having easy ones right in front of its beak, I have no idea.

I'd just packed up after photographing the robins when a hoot from the woods got me to unpack it all over again.

Maybe its hoot was just its way of signing off for the day.

Kingfishers don't like being watched.

I was able to luck out with a few frames as it skedaddled to a new location.

Eventually, though, it returned.

Almost immediately it dove and caught a fish.

Either it was just toying with its food, or it took a bit of doing to get it in position to finally send the fish down the hatch.

Dahlia Dell

Bicycle Dell
(This was the scene at the west end of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival on Sunday afternoon. The east end had probably ten-times more bike parking.)

Sunday Morning's Sunrise

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Feathers in the Sun

 

Northern Yellow Warbler, SF Botanical Garden

I figured the SFBG would be a good place to poke around with the camera today since I'd be able to find shade and water fountains. The heat definitely made a difference to me, and I had the sweat-soaked t-shirt to prove it, but the critters showed little evidence of heat stress. Little, but not none. Although I saw no birds bathing, I did see a Western Tanager panting in the monkey's hand tree. Nearby, a Townsend's warbler was sipping nectar from the few monkey's hand flowers remaining in bloom.

The highlights were photographing both a Hermit Thrush and a Swainson's Thrush in the same general area, a perched Twelve-spotted Skimmer, and a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly. 

Anna's Hummingbird in the Garden of Fragrance

Steller's Jay

I was waiting for a hummer to nectar on the mallows but tried my luck with a Northern Yellow Warbler in the meantime. No hummer showed up before I finally had to leave and find some shade.

Twelve-Spotted Skimmer

There was just the one yellow warbler, but it got around to a few different plants. It always ended up back at the mallow, though.

The Pipevine Swallowtail seemed to be looking for some pipevine to land on (and maybe deposit eggs?), but there's little left beyond leafless stems at this point.

Western Tanager

Townsend's Warbler after dunking its head into the monkey's hand flower to pull up a beak full of nectar.

Lesser Goldfinch

I expected the guy to take off as I moved closer and closer, but the seeds must have been too good to give up for anything short of a hawk.

The Steller's Jay was eating some kind of nut, possibly an acorn (it's perched on an oak branch).

The tanager spread out its tail feathers, perhaps to help cool itself down.

It was moving around with its beak open, panting in the way that birds do.

The Hermit Thrush was very skittish, so a distant shot is all I could get before it flew away.

In and around the monkey's hand tree, a Swainson's Thrush also played hard to get.

This view shows a tiny bit more of its side.

It was just about time to head home when I ran into another photographer who pointed out the orb-weaving spider that had recently snagged a bee.

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