Sun Dog

 

Coyote Lounging In The Sun, Pioneer Meadow

My wife checked her weather app this morning to help her decide whether to bike to work or take the car. The app said it was unlikely to rain until tonight, so she took the bike. When I left on my walk later on, I didn't give the rain any thought all. It was only 44 degrees, putting the temperature front and center on my mind.

It was cold but manageable with little wind. As I descended into Forest Hill, I spotted a spotted mushroom -- maybe a panther amanita, my first sighting of the species in the city. By the time I reached West Portal's commercial district, the horizon to the west looked suspiciously dark, and sure enough a brief sprinkle soon forced me to duck under an awning for cover. The darkest clouds were north of me, so I figured they were past me since rain usually comes up from the south. 

Usually, but not this morning. Thankfully I was able to duck under a bus shelter when the real rain came. Just a sprinkle at first, but it soon grew into a full-on shower that would have soaked me had I been caught in the open. When it finally let up, I was eager to check up on the nesting hummingbird I first encounterd on Feb. 11. She was still there, still sitting on her nest with no apparent hatchlings. 

The rain didn't start again until about one minute after I got home. I downloaded the morning's pictures and waited for the rain to stop so I could head out on my bike. But the rain kept coming, and maybe an hour later I decided to make lunch and give up on the bike. Then the sun came out, and off I went. 

Near the Bison Paddock I watched a Townsend's warbler and a pygmy nuthatch eagerly feeding in the branches of a couple of pine trees, no doubt making up for lost time during the rain. I checked out the barn owl -- still snoozing peacefully. 

Up near Blue Heron Lake I saw a guy who appeared to be staring at something. I followed his stare and saw a lump near a log, too far away to make out any details. I was just about to get moving again when the lump finally raised its head.

Roadside Amanita

Winter Crow

Tree-trimmers

This hummingbird is one tough cookie, keeping her eggs warm through days of cold and stormy weather. At least the crows were gone from the pine across the street.

Townsend's Warbler & Camellias

Cedar Waxwing, West Portal

Cedar Waxwing, Golden Gate Heights

Townie in the Sun

This pygmy nuthatch looked like it just got out of the bath.

The coyote was in no hurry to run away when it realized it was being watched.

I moved around a bit to try to get a better angle.

Oops, she didn't like the next angle.

She got up and put some distance between herself and her admirers, stopping to scratch, stretch, and yawn.

Then she finally loped off to find a more secret place to rest in the warm sun while it lasts.

Coyote Video

I noticed the pied-billed grebe was off her nest at Blue Heron Lake, with no eggs in sight. I figure the storm was too much to deal with. While I was there, this downy woodpecker flew into the willow.

Yosemite on 2/14/26

Yosemite This Morning

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Cloud Drama

 

President's Day Sunset From Grandview Park

I was watching the 5 o'clock news yesterday when they showed the sunset view from Pier 39, surprised to see a bit of color and some cloud definition. I'd have figured the sky would be more of a uniform slate gray (like it is this morning). Anyway, it was enough to get me off my butt and out to Grandview Park, where a cold wind was blowing. 

I've been thinking about replacing my 2014 Mazda 3 with a Subaru Outback, but I'm waiting for the hybrid version to come out. In the meantime I feel like I'm missing out on the snow in Yosemite Valley this week, and I'm disappointed that I'll miss another great bloom in the mountains around Carrizo Plain this spring. Hopefully I'll have many more chances in the future, but you never know when one of those multi-year droughts is going to put the kibosh on such things.

Squalls Moving Across The Ocean

Last Light

Earlier in the day I'd strolled over to the park after the rain let up. There was lots of wild cucumber twining itself all over the place.

Dark-eyed Junco

In addition to the footsteps-of-spring, a little bit of San Francisco wallflower was also in bloom at the top of the hill.

I took cover from a rain squall at the base of a big cypress when this white-crowned sparrow paused nearby carrying a twig for its nest.

This was Yosemite Valley this morning before it went into whiteout mode.

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Early Wildflower Check

 

Sunrise at Serpentine Power Point, Mt. Tamalpais

I can't remember where I read the story where Gary Snyder mentions taking Hopi elder David Monongye to this serpentine outcrop on Mt. Tamalpais, but they all felt the power of this unique vista point on the mountain and dubbed it Serpentine Power Point. I see no other name for it on either Google Maps or my Mt. Tam trail maps. However, the name does appear on a map in Tamalpais Walking by Tom Killion and Gary Snyder.

Anyway, it's a beautiful spot to watch the sun bring life and warmth into a brand new day.

My plan for the day, an early-wildflower roundup, looked better in my imagination from home than it did when I actually got to the mountain. Very little was actually in bloom, at least up around Rock Spring. I still can't quite get over how different it looks in the woods up there after all the forest-thinning. My "magnum opus" of Mt. Tam nature photography, Revealing the Landscape: Mt. Tamalpais, feels like it came from a different era.

Journey to the Sun

Waning Crescent Moon

Tamalpais Sunrise

My first wildflower stop was within the serpentine outcrop. Only this yellow sanicle and maybe a half-dozen tiny goldfields were in bloom.

Here's an even less-developed one.

I checked my usual locations for shooting stars, but even these typical early bloomers were still being very shy.

The surprise of the morning was this naturalized orchid, Epipactis helleborine, which I've usually found in late summer where the fog-drip from redwoods gets them going.

I saw it along the Matt Davis Trail while looking for a different, native, orchid.

I found only two of these calypso orchids before I gave up and turned around to look elsewhere.

I wasn't going to photograph the Ceanothus on the way back to the car, but this sprig was growing on a fairly flat plane which made it relatively quick and easy to capture.

I was a little bit heartbroken when the quail finally raised its head, only to dart into the nearby brush (along with several of its fellows) as soon as it spotted me.

As I waited in vain for the quail to come back into the open, a scrub jay came down to see what I was up to. Being adjacent to a parking lot, I had to wonder if people have been feeding them.

The warrior's plume was just getting started near the Quarry Parking Lot east of Rock Spring.

I was surprised to find a grisette freshly sprouted just a few feet away from the warrior's plume.

Part of the reason I wanted to go up today was to photograph wildflowers with raindrops still on them. If it hasn't rained in a while, it can be handy to bring a small spray bottle filled with water.

I had finished looking for wildflowers and was heading back to my car when I stumbled on these guys -- by far the best calypso sprouting of the day.

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Nesting Season

 

Anna's Hummingbird Nest, West Portal

Nesting season is off to a wet start. I hope rain is the worst of what this hummingbird has to endure. I stopped to see what some crows were doing in a pine tree across the street, and the hummer made a couple of chirps that drew my attention to the plum tree right in front of me. She looked so exposed up there, and I can only hope the nearby crows were just passing through. The tree is far from fully leafed out, so maybe she'll have more cover soon.

A little farther along I came to a school where the cacophony of noise was being produced by American robins, not school kids. (In the distance I could hear cheers and horn-honking for the striking teachers.) A handful of cedar waxwings flew across the sky, then doubled back to find out what the robins were so excited about, although I didn't notice any of them diving into the fruit-producing tree to take part in the feast. The tree was in someone's yard, too far away for me to make out the actual fruits, which I suspect were small berries.

While I watched the robins, I noticed a chestnut-backed chickadee nimbly foraging for insects and tree sap right in front of me. I guess paying attention to the chickadee upset a nearby scrub jay who probably thought any human standing still was handing out peanuts or some other tasty treat. It darted into the tree and chased off the chickadee, then bounded toward me. Sorry pal, school's out.

I managed to finish my walk without getting rained on, but I did end up donning the rain gear shortly into my bike ride. I dropped in on the barn owl to see how it was faring in the rain. I was excited to see it awake and moving, but alas it finished preening and returned to snoozing by the time I got my camera out.

On the way home I spotted a second nesting bird -- a pied-billed grebe at Blue Heron Lake that appeared to be in the same spot in which it nested last year.

Cedar Waxwings Playing It Cool

Foraging Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Scrub Jay, All Business

Scrub Jay In Profile

View Over The Aeonium aboreum From Golden Gate Heights

Pied-billed Grebe On Its Floating Nest

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