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| Lichen & Red-Shouldered Hawk |
I'd hoped to be an early bird at the tidepools this week, but the wind has been too strong. Next week looks good too (and not so early), so my fingers are crossed for the wind to blow itself out over the weekend. In the meantime, I took my itchy shutter-finger out for my usual walk and bike ride today and came back with a few snapshots that might or might not be worth sharing....
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| I don't usually bring the FZ80 along on my walks, but I hoped I might spot some cedar waxwings since I've been hearing them high in the trees every day. |
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| As I headed into the Oak Woodland at Golden Gate Park I got stuck behind a school group and thought they would scare away all the birds. But they kept moving, so I stopped, and soon a flock of cedar waxwings showed up. |
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| The waxies flitted through the eucalyptus trees pretty quickly and moved from open shade to deep shade, making it impossible for me to get any better shots than these. |
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| Lots of flannel bush (Fremontodendron californucum) in bloom throughout the park. |
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| The red-shouldered hawk couldn't have picked a better perch. The gauzy lichen reminds me of the sails on a ghost pirate ship. |
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| Fluffle Ruffle |
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| Phone snap of an oak on a quiet path next to noisy Lincoln Way. |
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| It's been windy all week, but today might win out for the windiest. I wasn't sure how I was going to photograph the wind until I saw this guy kite-boarding at Ocean Beach. |
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| This looked like a group of potential kite-boarders, but only one guy was in the water. That's the Marin Headlands and Mt. Tam in the background. |
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| Along the Esplanade |
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| I hadn't seen the black-crowned night heron all week, but today I caught him snoozing in the branches with a turtle pal nearby. |
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| Metson Lake with fallen tree where herons and turtles hang out. |
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| Metson Lake Robin |
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| One of the nesting great blue herons at Blue Heron Lake (formerly Stow Lake). The heron was slightly wobbly standing on its nest in the strong wind. It appeared a bit antsy, too, and sure enough... |
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| ...it soon flew away, toward the boat dock. (It didn't fly away on my account; I was far away, with the FZ80 extended to its maximum 1200mm.) |
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| This is a phone snap from earlier in the week, when I was struck by a bumblebee forcing its way into California poppy flowers that were refusing to open up to the foggy day. |
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