Cooper's, Take 2

 

Cooper's Hawk, Golden Gate Park

It's so rare that I get to see Cooper's hawks up close that I decided to head down to the AIDS Memorial/Lily Pond area again this morning. (A phalanx of joggers trundled by while I was in the woods above the pond when one guy asked another, "What do they call that down there?" The other guy said, "It's called 'Random Swamp'. There's a bunch of 'em.")

The hawks were fairly easy to spot since they were calling out so often. They must hold their counsel once they reach adulthood. Although red-shouldered and red-tailed hawks can be heard screeching year round, I almost never hear an adult cooper's hawk, with the exception being around nesting season. Last spring I heard a pair in a tall redwood across from Mallard Lake, but it was not the same sound made by the begging juveniles.

This morning I stuck around longer in the hope of seeing an adult bring the juveniles some prey to share, but that never happened. One of the young hawks went after a squirrel, but the squirrel darted about and escaped up an oak tree. A little later the same hawk dove after a black phoebe, but that one also got away. A few minutes after the foiled phoebe foray, another squirrel ambled across the grass directly below the hawk and right in front of me, but the hawk didn't try again, even when the squirrel turned its back.

Pygmy Nuthatch

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Mini Cooper's

 

Mini Cooper, Maxi Hunger

I've been hearing the breathy screeching of juvenile cooper's hawks in various parts of Golden Gate Park the last few weeks, most recently adjacent to the Polo Fields where my wife and I got a good luck at one of them. I'd thought about going back down there with my camera, but before I could do it the area was taken over by construction crews setting up for Outside Lands. I thought I'd missed my chance until I heard their calls yesterday near the National AIDS Memorial Grove (where I last photographed a juvenile in April 2025).

This morning I biked down there and found not one, but three juvenile cooper's hawks hanging out close together in some acorn-festooned oaks between the memorial grove and Lily Lake. A nervous squirrel scuttled haltingly on branches high above the hawks, and I wondered if he would get his acorns or end up becoming a meal himself. 

A red-shouldered hawk screeched a few times from a tree on the other side of Lily Lake. The cooper's hawks seemed to respond with calls of their own, but they sounded almost like whispered screeches compared to the sharper, louder call of the red-shouldered hawk. Once heard, that unusual cooper's hawk screech won't soon be forgotten.

After the hawks flew away, a raven landed nearby to pluck berries from an Autumn Olive bush.

Busy Bushtit, SF Botanical Garden

I was surprised to see two pipevine swallowtail caterpillars still trying to make the most of what little pipevine leaves are still left. Luckily, the plants will regrow from rhizomes the caterpillars can't reach.

There was an interesting little bee inside a huge squash flower in the Children's Garden. Apparently, squash bees are a thing.

Chirping Hummer

On another note, if you're looking for some good summer reading, check out A Walk In The Park, by Kevin Fedarko. After seeing the paperback in a bookstore I borrowed the ebook from the library, then ended up buying his hiking partner's book of photography from the trip (The Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim, by Pete McBride).

Grand Canyon Visit, 2004

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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.

The bird with aquamarine eyes, 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

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