Tropical Kingbird

 

Tropical Kingbird, Lake Merced

Creature of habit that I am, I have four standard walking routes and two standard bike routes for my daily hike-and-bike sessions. Today I was lucky to get a break from the routine that satisfied both my desire to photograph interesting birds and my desire to get in a decent bike ride. The bird had been reported at Lake Merced, so I rode all the way down Ortega Street to the beach, then turned south to reach the lake. After photographing the bird at the concrete bridge I circumnavigated the lake, then picked up Sloat to return via Sunset Dunes Park and Golden Gate Park.

If I had seen this bird on my own I might have confused it with a Western Kingbird, which looks quite similar and whose breeding range includes parts of California.

Tropical Kingbirds, however, ain't from around these parts. When around people, they no doubt hear a lot more Portuguese and Spanish than they do English. A tiny bit of their breeding range rises into Arizona, but their year-round range extends deep into South America (although they're often seen along the West Coast in fall, and as far north as Canada). 

Despite having to point my camera lens into the sun, I lucked out almost immediately when a kingbird landed on some bare branches right in front of me. And then I double lucked out when a second kingbird landed, although the two didn't stick around very long. 

Twice As Tropical

Até Mais!

By 10:30, the sun was starting to come out at Lake Merced.

The kingbird is a flycatcher and rarely perched for more than a few seconds before hawking into the air to try to capture a passing insect.

When the tropical kingbirds finally ditched me, I checked out the lake, where I soon spotted a lone White-fronted Goose paddling around.

It dipped its beak in the water to drink a couple of times.

It kept getting closer as I watched through my lens, eventually landing on the beach to join several mallards who had their beaks tucked into their wing feathers, snoozing.

One of the "mallards" paddling around just offshore made a strange sound, and I saw that it was actually a Green-winged Teal when I zoomed in on it. She, too, soon landed on the beach.

She waited to get her feet on land before taking a drink.

Some Canada Geese flew over the lake in the distance, passing over a flock of gulls.

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Furtive Feathers

 

Northern Flicker, SF Botanical Garden

I had the celebrity warbler in my sights this morning but couldn't lock focus on it during the couple of seconds I had it in view as it furtively hopped along a network of thin branches deep within a chaos-world of willow leaves at Blue Heron Lake. Numerous birders were converged on the spot, and just about everyone got a look at the Prothonotary Warbler, but getting a clear photo was another matter, at least for me (phuzzy photo below). 

I don't know how long I was there before I finally gave up. Eventually I just wanted to photograph some birds -- any birds -- so I biked over to the Botanical Garden, where the numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Hermit Thrush, and Yellow-rumped and Townsend's Warblers, have increased quite a bit since my last visit.

As always, it was a beautiful thing to observe these incredible flying animals in such lush surroundings. Last Thursday I'd biked over to the autumn-dry chaparral of the Marin Headlands in the hope of seeing an otter, bobcat, or rattlesnake -- a few wild animals you don't see in San Francisco. The prickly-dry, rolling hills of Gerbode Valley harbored the promise of wild critters, but that is all. The actual wildlife remained concealed. Rodeo Lagoon harbored a few ducks but no otters.

House Finch on Coyote Brush, Rodeo Lagoon

Believe it or not, the iNaturalist app suggested the correct ID for the Prothonotary Warbler seen at Blue Heron Lake despite the poor photo quality.

A Chestnut-backed Chickadee stopped by for a drink at some bottlebrush blossoms in the SF Botanical Garden.

I heard the calls of a Northern Flicker getting closer and closer, and eventually it landed within view.

I thought it would immediately fly away when it saw me, but it was more interested in feeding than fleeing.

I couldn't tell if it was interested in seeds or insects.

A not-very-yellow Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Getting better....

That's more like it.

A fox squirrel was going to town on the Chilean rhubarb fruits.

A Red-tailed Hawk attracted a lot of attention when it flew into a spruce tree near the Waterfowl Pond. Here its feathers are fluffled during a moment of preening.

Townsend's Warbler

I heard many calls of Golden-crowned Sparrows while I was out, but I rarely saw one. They are very well-camouflaged as they feed along the ground.

I wondered if this was the same Red-shouldered Hawk I recently encountered as it perched on a fence on the perimeter of the Children's Garden. This one began on the fence but soon flew a short distance into nearby tree branches.

There were quite a few Hermit Thrushes out today, and some of them were chasing each other around, claiming territories of their own.

Here's a larger thrush, the American Robin. A few robins and a couple of hermit thrushes were furtively entering a bush to claim its berries.

Ruby-crowned Kinglets like to give away their locations with characteristic calls and don't seem to mind being close to people.

They probably give people little thought as they dart around the branches of trees and shrubs, rarely giving a photographer a clear view. 

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Surf 'N Turf

 

Elegant Terns, Ocean Beach

Some days I do more work in retirement than I did when I had a job. And I wouldn't have it any other way. 

As someone who likes a structured day, I still get out of bed at 6 a.m. (when my wife's alarm goes off) and knock out my exercise routine in the living room while listening to NPR. Then it's coffee and a breakfast of oatmeal with cinnamon, raisins, chocolate chips, chia seeds, flax meal, walnuts, and coconut flakes. Kiss my wife good-bye, check email, read the news, brush my teeth, head out for a walk and a bike ride, lunch, shower, relax. 

If I did any photography, I'll process the images, upload a few to iNaturalist, and post a blog entry. Before I know it, it's 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

Nice work if you can get it.

I saw a group of Elegant Terns on the beach yesterday when I was riding the length of Sunset Dunes Park. They were gathered at the edge of a pool of water left by a recent high tide. I thought about going back with my camera later in the day, but I conked out on the couch while reading an ebook, only to be awakened by jackhammers on the street in front of our flat. 

I was too tired to bike back down to the beach, and I couldn't get the car out of the garage with all the road work going on, so I figured I'd bike down there first thing this morning instead of doing my usual walk. 

But morning came and I really wanted to start out with my usual walk, so I did that first. By the time I rode down to the beach with my camera, there wasn't a tern in sight.

I was thinking about where to go next when I noticed the surf was pretty big, and then I saw a large flock of Sanderlings wheel through the air and land on the beach right in front of me. When I locked my bike and walked down to the water's edge I noticed several elegant terns hanging out down there, and more showed up as the morning progressed.

Elegant Terns & Sanderlings

Industrial Waters

On the Run

Elegant Tern

The frame-filling flocks reminded me of geese up in the Klamath Basin.

Sanderlings don't make as much noise as geese, though.

Fancy Feathers

Night-Night

I don't know why, but I like to have a container ship in the background when I'm shooting at Ocean Beach.

Terns eventually bathed where I saw them yesterday, at the high tide pool halfway up the beach.

Just across the pool, little sanderlings had their own bathing area.

Even in death, the adult gull feeds the immature gull....

A raven tried to get in on the action but was rebuffed by the gull.

Dogs were the main reason I have so many shots of birds in the air. 

Although this dog didn't seem to come close to actually catching anything, a golden retriever appeared to come very close to snagging a raven.

Follow the Leader

Flock On Alert and Getting Ansty as Dog Approaches

It was a great day to hang out at the beach.

Sanderlings in Blue

Sea Rocket

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