Do Ya Puya

 

Townsend's Warbler Visits Turquoise Puya Flowers, SF Botanical Garden

Last March I photographed yellow Puya chilensis flowers ("sheep-eating plant") blooming in the botanical garden. This turquoise flowered species might be Puya berteroniana. The plant takes anywhere from six to twenty or more years to bloom, and the flowering rosette dies after putting on its show and fruiting out. Like its relative the pineapple, the flowering part dies but new "pups" (clones that sprout from the base of the plant) can grow to eventually flower again. If you want to check them out (in the Succulent Garden behind the Redwood Grove), the bloom lasts 2-4 weeks according to Google's AI, and I don't know when they started.

I didn't go specifically to see the Puya in bloom, but just to spend more time getting a feel for my new Z8 and 180-600mm (w/ 1.4X teleconverter).

One of the beds in the California Garden was full of this cup fungus.

I've seen a couple of fox sparrows the last few weeks, but they've usually been kicking up the leaf litter way back in the dark shadows of brushy foliage. This is the first one I've been able to photograph this year.

Anna's Hummingbird at Red-flowering Currant

Pollen Beak

I don't usually see song sparrows that are chill enough to lounge around on one leg.

Allen's Hummingbird About To Fly

Scrub Jay With Nesting Material

This turkey tail fungus appears to have been parasitized by another fungus.

Hand-holding the heavy Z8 and lens combo, I wasn't sure I'd be able to dial in some overexposure to compensate for the backlit hummingbird without fumbling the camera. Although it wasn't as easy as the lightweight Lumix, it was doable.

California Scrub Jay on Silk Tassel Bush

Northern Flicker

I swear I didn't add one iota of vibrance or saturation to this shot. I've rarely seen such a fiery gorget.

Just a slight tilt of the head, and it changes.

California Towhee at Home in South American Plant

Towhee Toes

This Townsend's warbler was surprisingly mellow. At first it landed and hung out for a while on a rock retaining wall just a few feet away from me, then fluttered up to the nearby Puya where it continued to rest a while.

I didn't see where the Townie finally went because my attention was drawn to this newly arriving orange-crowned warbler.

The birds reached deep into the blossoms to get the nectar, a drop of which you can see on this one's beak.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet on the Move

And Away!

I finally got to see an Allen's hummingbird nectaring on some flowers.

It was a very short visit.

I like the way the gardeners have let the California pipevine twine into the red-flowering currant bushes.

I headed over to Blue Heron Lake after leaving the SFBG. This was one of several ring-necked ducks hanging out together.

A coot dropped by to preen a little.

I wanted to photograph the Canada goose as it was standing on a rock, but I was too close to get it all in the frame when it reared up to fan its beautiful feathers.

I'm glad I cut off its feet rather than its head.

The Happy Couple

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Serenity Now

 

Forest in Fog, Mt. Tamalpais

I was hoping to set my trail cams and do a little photography afterward, but I arrived to find the gate being closed by a ranger who didn't know why the closure had been ordered. I later heard there was some street paving going on, but what a bummer to find the place closed after driving all the way up there. 

Another unusual event was the Mt. Tam webcam being stuck on an image from Monday (as of this afternoon, it's still stuck). I hadn't noticed the date when I checked early this morning, but I did wonder about how mildly hazy the city looked even though it was quite foggy and misty here at home.

Not wanting to just turn around and drive home, I decided to make the best of it and paid to park in the Pantoll lot, then hiked up with my trail cams. I had to leave my Nikons back in the car since they were too much to carry. After setting up the cams I hiked a slow route back through an enchanting landscape, taking a few phone snaps along the way.

I was surprised to find witch's butter so late in the season.

Mushroom in a Dewy Jungle

It was very quiet out there with no traffic or chainsaws, and surprisingly warm despite the fog and dripping woods.

I briefly followed an animal trail through the dewy grass. I couldn't say for sure who made the trail, but it was continuous, as if an animal's furry belly had dragged along to disturb all the dew in its path. 

This was a larger, more weathered, fruiting of witch's butter.

Yeah, I know, but it was worth it.

This is the stuck image from Monday, still live as of 2 p.m. today....

Mt. Shasta This Morning

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Rain Reined In

 

Great Horned Owl, Golden Gate Park

There's still a 90 percent chance of rain in today's forecast, but the early stuff got reined in, allowing the sun to reign all morning. (It's still dry at 2 p.m.)

You've probably heard of microbes that produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas, but have you heard about the microbes that eat it? An article in the March issue of Science News is about such microbes being discovered in the tree bark of an Australian species (Melaleuca quinquenervia), but the microbes might live in other tree species as well. (Earlier news of the discovery here.)

And speaking of microbes, I've gotta share another passage from The Secret Language of Cells: "While inside the cell, Ebola uses various evasion techniques. One viral protein that covers Ebola RNA helps evasion in multiple ways. Cell sensors recognize viral RNA and trigger attacks. Ebola's protein places phosphate tags to alter production of the cell's attack molecules. The same protein disrupts the cell's attempt to place tags on the virus. At the same time, the protein also prevents viral RNA attachment to cell recognition receptors. It is hard to understand how one protein call do all of this." [Emphasis added.]

I mention this only because it hints at the complexity of the whole universe of cells and microbes interacting within our own bodies. Eight percent of all human DNA comes from viruses that have placed their DNA into human genomes. One viral protein found in the human placenta allowed us to receive nutrients from our mothers while we were in her womb; without it, we'd have died. Are microbes our lifelong companions, or are they as much of who we are as all the other cells that comprise our bodies?

"With a hundred trillion microbes in the gut," Dr. Lieff continues, "and another thousand trillion viruses hovering over them, the sum of gut microbes has been called an additional human organ.... Collectively, microbes (mostly bacteria) in the gut have three million genes compared to twenty-four thousand in human cells. With these genes, microbes produce diverse molecules and signals, many of which are needed by humans for survival.... In many ways, humans have become completely dependent on the effects of friendly microbes in the gut." 

There was an artice in the New York Times today about the evolution of our eyeballs that discussed how Darwin himself was perplexed by the evolutionary means of producing such a complex organ. In Darwin's day, microbes were only just being discovered and were called "animalcules." He had no idea of their import to human life, but I'm sure he'd have been fascinated the coevolution of animalcules and such big creatures owls, hawks, and people.

I spotted this red-shouldered hawk yesterday as it relaxed on a former cypress limb that probably overhung Lincoln Avenue.

I stood in Lincoln Avenue's narrow median to get the shots without the hawk becoming disturbed by my presence. I guess if it can deal with all the motor vehicle traffic, a mere human on foot is nothing to worry about.

Because of the rain forecast I did my Tuesday walk on Sunday, my Monday walk on Monday, and my Wednesday walk (through West Portal and Forest Hill) today. The nesting hummer was off her nest, getting some needed preening done.

It didn't take long to get the job done.

It must have been nice to have a warm and sunny morning to get the preening chores done before getting back to incubation duties.

I stopped to check up on the barn-owl tree and found the owl was not there, but this red-shouldered hawk squawked behind me. This time, the hawk was disturbed by my presence, as you can see by the reappearance of its tucked-in foot.

A moment later....

A little farther along I spotted these red-tailed hawks between the archery range and the golf course. They were screeching and copulating, but it was all over by the time I got off my bike and pulled the camera out. The female, on the right, soon put some distance between her and the male.

She used her beak to pick at some thin branches, as if to gather nesting material, but the branches were stuck to the tree. Red-tailed hawk pairs often mate for life, but if these two had a nest nearby, I didn't see it.

Tulips are coming up in the Wilhelmina Garden at the Dutch Windmill.

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