Welcoming the Rain

 

Sunset from Grandview Park (11/12/2026)

I was getting ready yesterday for today to be rainy. I did my Friday walk on Thursday. Ditto on grocery shopping since my wife will need the car to get to work instead of biking in. Saved laundry for the rain, though. 

We were awakened last by the first deluge at 2:18 a.m. If only it would always rain at night. I love listening to the rain at night, and I love a clear day after a stormy night. I don't expect a clear day today (being Friday the 13th and all), but rain is often sporadic, so it might be an interesting day to get out during those breaks.

I'm sure if El Niño really does bring an extra helping of rain this season, I will adjust and simply break out the rain gear and enjoy the wet weather. But for today I'm prepared to just hunker down and enjoy the changing season.

Sundown Before the Rain

Fence on the North Side of Grandview Park

The sky was a lot more colorful on the back side of the sunset.

View Toward Downtown

Sutro Tower in the Glow

Waxing Crescent Moon

Ocean Beach on Monday (11/9)

Although many gulls were around, only this one was trying to take a bite out of a decomposing sea lion carcass on the beach at Sloat (11/12).

The waves were pretty huge on Thursday, and the spindrift caught a little prismatic action if you caught just the right angle.

Many of the waves looked surfable, but no one had paddled out through the incessant bombardment of such a heavy swell. Years ago, I timed a guy as he paddled out into huge surf. It took him 45 minutes to reach the line-up.

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Lewis's Woodpecker

 

Lewis's Woodpecker About to Land, Golden Gate Park

A third time was the charm. I failed to find this unusual (for San Francisco) woodpecker on my two previous attempts, and I'd almost given up on today's before I finally spotted it. I'm not a member of whatever birding group this was announced on, but I suspect it would have made finding it easier. I saw a guy looking for it in a big Monterey pine near the Horseshoe Courts, which is where I first saw it. But I let him know it was currently at the top of a nearby eucalyptus.

It was first spotted last month, but judging by the fact that it's stashing acorns, it might be planning to stick around awhile. Later in the morning I would see it hawking for insects.

Shortly after I spotted it and found a good observation point, it flew away. A Cooper's hawk then flew away in the same direction from the next-door pine, where I hadn't even noticed it. I assume the woodpecker did notice it. Thankfully, the hawk didn't get it, and the woodpecker eventually returned to its tree with an acorn. It soon left again, however, and after awhile I finally spotted it in a distant eucalyptus tree.

I spooked several Northern flickers while I was looking for the Lewis's woodpecker. This one stuck around long enough for me to snap a couple of photos.

This one just barely stayed in the frame.

The woodpecker landed with an acorn on a dead branch of a big Monterey pine.

It hopped along the branch to find a hole that it had previously been hammering at.

After deposting the acorn it took off and didn't return.

A couple of California scrub jays kept me company for a bit while I waited in vain for the woodpecker's return.

This is the same jay that was in the rear of the previous photo. It has at least two acorns...

...as you can better see from this crop.

When I spotted the woodpecker again, it was perched near the top of a eucalyptus. Here it dove toward a Northern flicker that was sharing its tree.

I don't think it meant to frighten the flicker since it flew back to its perch with an insect in its beak.

Coming in for a Landing

Landing with a Bee

Here it has caught another insect, maybe some kind of fly.

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High Tide at Ocean Beach

 

Sanderling on the Run, Ocean Beach

A huge and chaotic swell joined a high tide, drowning most of the sand at Ocean Beach near Noriega Street this morning. I'd arrived about 45 minutes before peak high tide during my morning walk, so it was just about peak by the time I got back home. After a short rest, I slipped on a pair of reef-walkers and biked back down to check it out.

I had to cross a pool to get from the dunes to where the birds were hunting mole crabs, and at one point the water rose just above my knees. You definitely don't want to be in there with an expensive camera when the occasional super-sized set rolls in, since it gets even deeper and rowdier in the pool.

One of the highlights was seeing a mole crab swimming in maybe three inches of water right at my feet, then diving under the sand while it was still wet and loose.

Waves often pushed water way up to very near the base of the dunes just north of Noriega Street, so I wondered where the Snowy Plovers were hanging out. I saw only one foraging with the Sanderlings.

On the way home I spotted a coyote in the Pioneer East Meadow near Blue Heron Lake. It looked much like the one I recently saw near Spreckels Lake -- infected with mange and not exactly photogenic. The poor guy was just looking for a place to bed down for the afternoon, so I didn't stick around for long.

Sanderling pecking into a mole crab.

The sanderlings were often pushed high up the beach by incoming waves, only to have to fly back closer to the ocean when the coast was clear.

There were lots of interesting patterns being created by the interaction of water, sand, and various states of sea foam.

Here's a fairly organized state of sea foam with its iridescent bubbles. (See how life may have originated in a bubble.)

At one point, all the sanderlings up and flew north. I turned around expecting to see a dog chasing them, but there was nothing there. No dog, no humans. The signal to flee remained a mystery.

The handsome Western Gull didn't even flinch when the flocks of sanderlings took off.

Here's some of the more chaotic and condensed sea foam.

A Raven was trying to get into the good parts of a washed-up sea lion. You can also see how high up the beach the water had pushed up. Those are dune grasses in the background.

This was my only snowy plover visitor.

Snowy didn't stick around very long.

Sanderlings escape a foamy deluge.

Ocean Beach @ Noriega Street, 11 a.m.

A young Black-crowned Night Heron was hanging out in the shallows at South Lake.

The coyote was in obvious discomfort with its mite infection.

Here it's trying to gnaw some relief into its leg.

I followed along until I found the coyote resting in a shallow depression on the forest floor just south of the log cabin.

I figured it needed its rest and continued on my way.

Nice little lenticular cloud above Mt. Shasta this morning.

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