Sunday, September 15, 2024

Blaze 'n Birds

 

A trio of black oystercatchers bathes in a tidepool below the Cliff House.

I was glad I brought the FZ80 along on my Friday morning walk. My hopes of finding interesting migrating birds along the way didn't materialize, but because I'd left the house earlier than usual, I was treated to a blazing light show in the fog, a show I doubt my phone camera would have done justice to (although, come to think of it, I wish I'd checked).

Down at the beach later on I spotted a pair of wandering tattlers in the same place I recently thought I saw one, but which I later decided must have been a willet. From that same vantage point it was easy to see that the actual tattlers were significantly smaller than the willet. The tattlers were busily feeding despite repeatedly having to fly out of the way of crashing surf.


As the sun rose behind Mt. Sutro its rays were separated out by the eucalyptus trees into a scene reminiscent of eyelashes in the fog. Occasionally bright spots would also flare through the woods below the treetops. You can just make out part of Sutro Tower on the right.


I didn't find any migrants as I walked through the Oak Woodland, but this good-looking red-shouldered hawk swooped in and instantly set off a squirrel alarm.


A wandering tattler runs from the surf with a mole crab it had just excavated from the sand.


A tattler on a barnacle-crusted boulder returns to the hunt after fleeing from a crashing wave.


Splash Necklace


The bathing tidepool is on top of a boulder where waves occasionally splash high enough to refill it (and send bathers toward higher ground).

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