Locals & Visitors

 

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Immature Male), Golden Gate Park

I wonder if all the rough weather east of the Rockies has made a few birds change course and come to California. Whatever the reason they're here, I hope they find everything they need to continue their journey. 

Birds that are way out of their usual range are called vagrants, as opposed to migrants who are passing through in their normal course. Here's a couple of longer explanations of why vagrant birds get lost (also, a Google search of "how do vagrant birds end up in California" produces a succinct set of bullet points).

This is a medley of birds I was able to photograph yesterday after the great blue heron flew away.

The Downy Woodpecker was going to town inside a small hole.

Note the tiny wood chips flying out.

It finally managed to pull out a few small grubs.

Handsome Fellow

Some Pygmy Nuthatches were in the trees nearby.

And farther west, into the Rhododendron Dell, I was able to observe a couple of Red-breasted Nuthatches.

A Wilson's Warbler made a quick pass through the cycads north of the Lily Pond.

I figured this bird was some kind of sparrow, but I wasn't familiar with it. Apparently it's a Chipping Sparrow.

The chipping sparrow and this female Lazuli Bunting were feeding in a mixed flock of sparrows and juncos (which are also technically sparrows).

I thought this guy might be another ovenbird, but it's a local Song Sparrow gleening insects in the Chilean rhubarb.

I don't know if this junior Rose-breasted Grosbeak was nervous around me, but I didn't see it actually eat any of the cotoneaster berries.

After awhile it flew east and out of sight.

Prince of the Sprinkler, a Western Wood Pewee

The wood pewee is a flycatcher, and it was busily snapping after insects that I never got a look at. Meanwhile, a nearby Western Flycatcher snagged a honeybee. In the original image you can see a droplet of something (poison?) on the tip of the bee's stinger.

I don't think it stung the flycatcher, but the bird dropped the bee and didn't go after it again.

I wouldn't have posted this shot of the Anna's Hummingbird except that it's nectaring on some bear's breeches, one of the first horticultural flowers whose name I learned when I moved to California back in the '80s.

A couple of frisky Townsend's Warblers were chasing around the Dell but stopped just long enough for me to snap a couple of frames.

I fired off many frames trying to get good shots of the Brown Creepers, some of which were sweetly calling to each other.

I just love the feathered cape on these guys.

American Robin on the attack.

The worm tried to hold tough, but the robin didn't give up.

And it eventually won its prize.

Nearby, other robins opted for cotoneaster berries.

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Lily Pond Heron

 

Great Blue Heron, Golden Gate Park

The power shut down a little after 9 o'clock this morning so PG&E could replace a telephone pole up the block. Seemed like a good time to head down the hill to roam around the Lily Pond and Rhododendron Dell to see what birds might turn up. 

Things were getting off to a slow start, but the great blue heron poised on a chunk of tree trunk in the middle of the duckweed-decorated pond presented an opportunity to fire off a frame or two. (By morning's end the tally would rise to 1,127 frames, 80% of which I would delete).

The birding highlight was seeing a male rose-breasted grosbeak, but I'll post those pictures soon, along with a few of our usual suspects, both resident and migrant. For now, I just enjoyed the fact that the great blue heron surprised me by dipping its beak into the water for a drink. After taking a couple sips it fluffed its feathers as if to begin a long preening session, only to soon fly away.

I biked up to Mt. Tam yesterday to swap out cards and batteries on my two trail cams. I'd been worried about one of the cams that was placed just a few inches above a pool of water. The recent rain, which I expected to be but a drizzle, dropped an inch-and-a-half on the mountain, and I could only hope that the cam didn't get drowned. Unfortunately, although it survived the rain, it got knocked over early on, with the lens pointing almost straight up. The cam recorded dozens of shots of a local squirrel climbing in the vines and branches above the pool.

I'd noticed hiking to the cams that the forest floor was still damp and spongy as opposed to dry and crunchy. There was no shortage of water up there, and very little animal activity crossing paths with the second trail cam. Both cams are still up there, and I'll be interested to see if things dry out -- and bring more animals to the creek drainage -- before the rainy season starts for real.

Raccoon and Gray Fox (Composite)

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North Lake Raccoons

 

Notch-eared Raccoon, North Lake

This morning I photographed my first GBGB bird of the season (a.k.a., black-throated gray warbler) in my late neighbor's oak tree. At first I mistook the bird for a chickadee, but even without my glasses on I soon realized that wasn't right. After taking a better look through binoculars I grabbed my camera to try to photograph it through the double-paned window. The shots I got are terrible, but they do clearly show the GBGB's distinctive markings.

The morning sighting got me excited enough that I decided to carry my compact camera on my morning walk since I would be passing through the Oak Woodlands and the Lily Pond. Although both those areas were surprisingly free of bird life, I spotted a small sparrow-sized bird foraging on the ground in the Fuchsia Dell and managed to get one shot that was clear enough to get an identification. It was my first ovenbird, well outside its usual range.

Later, instead of taking my usual bike ride I brought my full-frame camera to poke around North Lake, where the highlight for me turned out to be a family of six raccoons that were coaxed into the open by a guy who tossed them a handful of food, then walked away. A group of preschool kids got excellent views of North Lake's largest four-legged mammal.

Another guy showed up who the raccoons seemed to recognize. He told the kids that raccoons are related to dogs, bears, and pandas, which sounded fishy to me. Although all are members of the order Carnivora, raccoons are Procyonids, in the same family as ringtails, coatis, and kinkajous.

Although I didn't see any rare birds at North Lake, it's always good to see the black-crowned night herons when they're in town.

This one flew into some flowery bushes as I watched from the other side of the lake.

At first I assumed the heron was hunting, but then it looked like it might just have wanted a drink of water.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

I didn't notice this other juvenile until it flew out of some reeds, apparently to get away from me.

It wasn't very birdy when I was there, late in the morning, but I enjoyed trying to capture photos of what birds I did see, like this northern yellow warbler.

The house wren faked me out at first. Its chipping sound made me think it was a common yellowthroat.

The western warbling vireo is one of my favorite new species of the season since I suddenly seem to see them everywhere.

The coot was closing in on a morsel of food that someone had tossed into the water. Most people have learned not to feed the wildlife anymore, but there are always going to be hold-outs.

The pied-billed grebe chicks are the noisiest critters on the water at North Lake.

Ovenbird

I wondered why it was called the black-throated gray warbler, and apparently the females have white throats.

I often see birds in the crown of the oak next door and wish I could get a clear view of them from our bedroom window, but the window has a screen. (Before we got the screened window, we had mosquitos.)

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