Heron's Head Park

 

Black Oystercatcher Hunting at Heron's Head Park

I've been wondering whether I'd find any black oystercatchers this time of year at Heron's Head, and they eluded me at first. 

When I arrived I rode over to India Basin where I saw just a few birds, pretty much all of which were too far away to photograph. There was a long-billed curlew resting near shore, but I knew I'd spook him if I tried to move closer, so I figured I'd let the poor guy rest.

On the way back to Heron's Head I stopped to photograph a cormorant standing on a rock and warming its wings. It hadn't been there when I'd passed by just a few minutes before. While I was observing the cormorant and a couple of egrets, a harbor seal surfaced. At the time I assumed it was a sea lion since I'd never seen a harbor seal in San Francisco before, and I wondered how a pinniped got into that small body of water (see below). 

The red X on the left is where the harbor seal was.

Riding out to the tip of the heron's head, I saw one lonely willet the whole way, but I saw the oystercatchers when I turned around to head back. If I had to pick a favorite shorebird, the black oystercatcher would be it. They are colorful, unusual-looking, intelligent, and not terribly shy, making them easy to photograph.

Later on, as I was about to leave, I noticed a fledgling brown-headed cowbird begging food from its "parent," a white-crowned sparrow. After making a couple of photos I tucked the camera gear back in my bike bags and started to pedal away when I realized the bike was handling funny. The front tire was almost flat. I'd had to ride through two pretty bad broken-glass areas on the way down, so I wasn't too surprised. I installed a fresh inner tube and got the tire inflated to an unknown but rideable pressure (which turned out to be about 30-35 psi). 

I rode along the bay from Heron's Head to Ft. Mason and on to Crissy Field Marsh where I wondered if the long-billed curlew was the same one I photographed about a week ago. It was just resting this time, and I wouldn't even have gotten my camera out if I hadn't seen something more interesting: a cliff swallow gathering mud for its nest. I keep the 180-600mm lens in a case in one bike bag and the Z8/1.4X in another case in the other bag. Soon after I got them put together, the cliff swallow returned for more mud, giving me a great view.

Double-crested Cormorant

Creature from the Heron's Head Lagoon

It stayed underwater a long time after diving, finally surfacing again on the farther side of the lagoon.

It was nice to be on the sunny side of the fog for a change.

Foraging Willet

Black Oystercatcher With A Prize

Brown Pelican Fly-by (Composite)

Willet & Its Shadow

Preparing to Launch

Strolling Along the Water's Edge

The willet caught this weird creature.

It appeared to have the shell of a crustacean, but it didn't look like a crab to me.

I love the oystercatcher's call, which it's making here.

It was the longer, trilling call (like the 11-second recording here).

The oystercatcher opened up the little clam pretty quickly and soon extracted the good parts.

I often see these birds in pairs. If I were to guess, I'd say the male is the one in front since it's a bit smaller and has a less stout bill. The one in back also had some dark flecks on its yellow iris, which supposedly is another sex marker.

Willet at Rest

Another lone willet was resting in the pickleweed marsh on the south side of the trail. A couple of black-necked stilts hung out on the sandbar farther south, never close enough to photograph.

More Birdy Num-Nums

Fledgling Brown-headed Cowbird

Cowbird with its smaller "parent," a white-crowned sparrow.

Cliff Swallow Gathering Mud

* * *

Neighborhood Youngster

 

Young Red-tailed Hawk Sticks the Landing, Golden Gate Heights

For the last two or three weeks, a young red-tailed hawk in my neighborhood has been crying out for its parents to bring it some food. I hear it pretty much every day and have wondered how long it will take the youngster to learn to hunt on its own. Most of the smaller birds have finished feeding their begging young ones (although I saw a late-blooming house finch being fed this morning). I guess the bigger the bird, the longer it takes.

The adults have to feed themselves as well as the young one, of course, and I'm impressed that our neighborhood can support that much predation. After the sun goes down, the owls and coyotes come out. Mice and gophers don't get a break.

The adult red-tail used the strong onshore winds to soar in place above its hunting grounds (composite photo).

The youngster had been waiting in a tree but eventually took wing to fly over the field and cry out its hunger pangs.

Yarrow Flowers & Greenbottle Fly, Grandview Park

American Lady Feeding on Coast Buckwheat

There were several American ladies fluttering around in the strong winds atop Grandview Park, but only one red admiral.

* * *

In The Wind

 

Egret Headwinds, Crissy Lagoon
(Composite Photo)

Looking for a way to bike around in comfort with my Z8 and 180-600mm in tow, I bought a pair of large Ortlieb bike bags and a lens case so I could pack the camera body and lens separately. I finally took the gear for a test ride and found it worked well even in strong crosswinds, bumpy gravel paths, and fast, curvy descents. Getting the gear out of the bags and into action took longer than simply grabbing a compact camera out of the trunk bag, but it was no big deal.

From my first stop at Inspiration Point in the Presidio I descended the dirt Ecology Trail all the way down to Barnard Avenue, then over to MacArthur to reach El Polin Spring. Children enjoying summer recreation programs far outnumbered the bird life, so I continued out to Quartermaster Reach and Crissy Lagoon. After that, my next stop took me along Lincoln Boulevard past the Golden Gate Bridge, then Baker Beach, and finally to the Lobos Creek Valley Trail. There was nothing happening at Lobos Creek, so I cut across the Richmond District on 25th Avenue and worked my way home through Golden Gate Park.

All in all, it was much more comfortable to carry the gear this way than on my back, at least when it comes to longer rides.

Killdeer at Quartermaster Reach

Crissy Lagoon: I think this is a great egret and a pair of snowies.

Sometimes it looked like they'd caught something huge, but it would turn out to be a little minnow stuck in a big glob of algae.

Egret Flyover

A solo long-billed curlew was hanging out near the egrets.

When it finally started hunting, it quickly scored a few small crustaceans.

Stepping Out In Style

* * *