True Nature Stories: Around the Horn

Whimbrel at Heron's Head Park

On Saturday I rode out to Heron's Head Park by way of Golden Gate Park, the Panhandle and The Wiggle, then down 17th Street through the Mission and Dog Patch, and finally south on Illinois Street to Cargo Way. For the homeward trip I followed the coast all the way past the Giants ballpark and the Ferry Building, past Fisherman's Wharf and Fort Mason, past Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge, past Baker Beach, Seacliff and China Beach, past the Legion of Honor Museum to Land's End and the Cliff House, then back home through Golden Gate Park where I rode past the Outside Lands music festival (which I can still hear -- our windows even rattle on occasion -- despite it being miles away, as I type this out).

Willet Siesta

I don't think I've ever seen a whimbrel lie down before.

A couple of black-necked stilts worked a mud flat with a lone American avocet.

A least sandpiper shows no fear as the dreaded black-necked stilt probes closer and closer....

A double-crested cormorant worked the shallows at Heron's Head Park.

My, what a long neck this willet has.

Home is where the fog is (view from Heron's Head Park).

A squadron of brown pelicans soars over the bay past Heron's Head.

The whimbrel returns to action.

There's an area just east of Illinois Street around 20th to 22nd streets that I always like to check out when I ride by. I like the decrepit old buildings, but I also like finding something new, where an old decrepit building has been redeveloped and turned into something interesting...

...like Building 12, where I saw padel tennis courts, a motorcycle shop, and some other kind of shopping area that looked like Open Studios, but about clothing instead of art.

Scuderia at Building 12.

I like how the street looks done before there's any reason to drive down here.

Salesforce Tower looms over Oracle Park.

Game day, as the Giants were about to beat the Detroit Tigers.

Wing foils slicing across the bay behind Fort Mason.

Wing-foilers off Crissy Field.

The leading edges and the central axis they hold onto are inflated with air. I only know that because I saw a guy pumping his wings back up in the parking lot.

I was watching the long-billed curlew through my lens when the herring gull darted into the water to snag a little crab.

Long-billed curlew at Crissy Lagoon.

There must have been a fair number of fish in Crissy Lagoon, as there were usually several pelicans diving into the shallow water to feed.

The pelican in the back is just opening its beak before taking a plunge into the water to try to snag some lunch. I wonder if the other pelican is mainly looking up, or down into the water. I wonder how the bird's mind even processes such divergent visual perspectives.