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| The Lunch Crowd at Richardson Bay |
As I was biking up to Mt. Tam yesterday I noticed numerous egrets and herons gathered together along the edge of Richardson Bay near the float planes. Just as I began to wonder what they were doing, they took wing and glided toward me. That's when I noticed the moving raft of pelicans and cormorants just offshore, apparently giving chase to a school of herring. It was all about being a diving bird until the fish swam close to shore, and then the wading birds got their chance.
Farther along, two pairs of black-necked stilts were working the small ponds along the Coyote Creek boardwalk, where the tide was still rising. By the time I rode home, the 4.8-foot peak tide was on its way out, but the lowlands were swamped and the birds were gone. Today's high tide will be 5.5 feet, probably still not quite high enough to drown the Mill Valley-Sausalito Pathway, but a good reminder to check the tide tables before riding out there. I found the path swamped last December shortly after a 6.7-foot high tide.
Once I got above the fog, the forest along twisting Panoramic Highway was sunny and beautifully cool, a perfect day for a ride. Only after I got close to Rock Spring did the warm air overwhelm the cool breeze. There was also a pleasant natural scent on the wind that I couldn't place, but it definitely wasn't rosinweed anymore. They bay nuts are ripening, and acorns were bouncing loudly off cars parked beneath the oaks. The coyote brush I photographed two weeks ago was nearly done, but others nearby were still teeming with insect life. I've been wondering if coyote brush got its name from the brush-like female flowers, and that's why we don't just call it coyote bush.
I checked up on the trail camera and was surprised and disappointed to see how small the pool has gotten. Rocks that were underwater just two weeks ago are now jutting an inch or so above the surface. The pool no longer looks like the kind of place that would draw in wildlife from all over, that's for sure, and there's no rain in the forecast for the rest of the month. The camera recorded about 80 captures, with most of them being dragonflies, and a few frames of the usual suspects like fox, squirrel, raccoon, screech owl, and band-tailed pigeon. But with the exception of squirrels, even the usual suspects only passed through once in two weeks.
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| Snowy Gets A Fish |
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| Close Crop of Previous Photo |
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| Diving Birds and Wading Birds |
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| Black-Necked Stilt and Pickleweed |
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| This is one of two not-so-giant salamanders I saw in the shrinking camera trap pool. They must hide very well at night to escape the probing paws of passing raccoons. |
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| Flying Squirrel |
Trail Cam Clips
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