Balboa Buggin'

 

Sand Wasp Nectaring in Seaside Daisies, Balboa Natural Area

Given that we actually had some sunshine on the westside today I wanted to check out the insect diversity at the Balboa Natural Area, which is just across the Great Highway from Ocean Beach.

Sand Wasp (Bembix americana) on Coast Buckwheat

Tiny Pollen-eating Beetles on Beach Strawberry

Stiletto Fly

Plant Bug

I don't know where the plant bugs were going, but they were moving right along.

Sand Wasp on Sand
(The only way to get shot of them on the sand was to crouch near a likely landing spot and hope one would drop by within range.)

Bumblebee on Deer Weed

Rove Beetle (Quedius sp.) on Lupine Leaves

More tiny beetles feasting on sea pink flowers.

Cropped from Previous Shot

Several of these beetles were swarming among the rove beetles, and I didn't notice they were two different species until I saw the photos.

Someone passing by told me there were alligator lizards here, and when I saw several of these fence lizards I figured this is what he meant.

Bumblebee on Bee Plant

I spent a lot of time trying to photograph the sand wasps in the sand, since I had entered the area from the south, where there were no seaside daisies. When I finally reached the daisies, it was a piece of cake to photograph the wasps.

Just noting that I saw gophers bringing down wild radish plants in two different places today. Maybe the warm day has made them especially frisky.

First brown pelicans I've seen flying by the Cliff House in a good while.

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Bug Safari at Blue Heron Lake

 

Black-crowned Night Heron, Blue Heron Lake

Birds are excellent, but bugs are nature too, and the variety, even here in the city, turns out to be more interesting than I expected. I look forward to doing bug safaris at various locations to see what there is to find. 

There was a black-crowned night heron chilling just offshore from where I started this morning's outing. Good thing, probably. Otherwise there'd be a crazy-looking spider at the top of the page.

On another subject, I was going over my finances yesterday and got to reminiscing about San Francisco before A.I., before Bitcoin, before smartphones, before cell phones, and even before the internet. I know. Hard to believe anyone alive could go back that far.

The first time I lived in San Francisco was 1987. I'd just graduated from college and was living in the Haight with my best friend from the Navy and his obliging roommates, where I slept in a hallway for a few months. Walking around the old hippie neighborhood I thought, "Wow, it's been twenty years since the Summer of Love. I'm walking through ancient history!"

I got a temp job doing customer service at Charles Schwab, where I took phone calls from people who wanted to check up on their accounts. If they were feeling frisky and wanted make a stock trade, I would hand them off to a licensed broker.

That was a great gig, working with an interesting, fun, and beautiful group of fellow temps, but it ended after a couple of months and I took another temp job at Goldman Sachs where I was one of two wire operators. A client would call to make a trade through the OTC desk. I would write down the information and hand the piece of paper to a broker, who would use his direct line to the stock exchange trading floor where another guy would execute the trade.

By today's standards it was all kind of a human Rube Goldberg machine.

Now, anybody can trade stocks from an app on their smartphone, people are paying $80,000 to own a Bitcoin, and it's been sixty years (!) since the Summer of Love. Ain't San Francisco beautiful!

And now, the bugs.

Blow Fly or Greenbottle Fly (Lucilla sp.)
(I'll add IDs as I get them from the knowledgeable folks at Bug Guide and iNaturalist.)

Sweat Bee (Lasioglossum sp.)

Root-maggot Fly

Bumblebee on Blackberry Flower

Resting Cabbage White

Honeybee on Wild Radish

Wolf Spider (Pardosa sp.) Carrying Egg Sac

Flower Fly (Syrphus torvus) on Poison Hemlock Flowers

Meadow Fly (Chrysotoxum sp.)

Lady Bug (Coccinella septempunctata) on Blackberry Leaf

Fuzzy-faced Spider

Woodlouse Fly (Melanophora roralis)

Blow Fly (Compsomyiops callipes)

Ichneumonid Wasp

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Osprey at Blue Heron Lake

 

Osprey & Raven, Blue Heron Lake

After wrapping up my Friday walk a day early, I went out on the bike to look for insects to photograph. As I was heading home, looking forward to lunch, I passed a woman looking through binoculars as I swung through Blue Heron Lake. I followed her line of sight and was surprised to see a huge bird at the top of the large pine near the nesting herons. My stomach beckoned me toward home, but I pulled over and soon recognized the bird as an osprey. Lunch could wait.

I've heard of folks seeing osprey out by Heron's Head Park, or at Lake Merced, but this is the first I've heard of one being at Blue Heron Lake. Unfortunately, it did not seem to be interested in hunting any of the large koi in the lake. A raven dropped by to check it out and was shouted back when the osprey felt it had gotten too close.

Singing Junco at Oak Woodlands

First time I've seen a black-crowned night heron at Lily Lake.

I'd just finished using a macro lens to photograph insects when this Western Bluebird showed up near its nest box with the morning's prize bug.

There was a mallard family hanging out on the little island at Middle Lake.

The chicks soon entered the water.

I didn't recognize the adults as mallards, taking the Merlin app's word for it.

Both great blue heron adults dropped by while the osprey was in their tree, but soon flew away to hunt after apparently concluding that their nestlings were in no danger.

A hummingbird showed up to drink nectar, diverting attention from the osprey.

And just overhead, a downy woodpecker hammered a euphonious beat on a nearby tree.

A curious raven got the osprey's attention, but flew away after its calls failed to bring any reinforcements.

A crow took the next crack at the osprey, to little effect.

The spider (likely a wolf spider) was carrying its babies on its back (focus on the babies).

Same spider with focus on its head.

This one was still waiting for its egg sac to hatch.

Thin-legged Wolf Spider (Pardosa sp.)

Stiletto Fly (Thereva sp.)

Western Earwig
(Forficula dentata, etymology: "toothed little scissors")

Square-headed Wasp (Larropsis sp.)

Sedgesitter (Platycheirus sp.)

Ladybird Beetle on Wild Radish

This inch-long caterpillar was on Salvia spathacea at Middle Lake.

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