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| Ground Squirrel, Strybing Arboretum |
Waking up to a thick, dripping fog lounging outside the window this morning, I felt kind of ho-hum about making another bird foray to Strybing Arboretum. But then I remembered the ground squirrels and decided to try my luck.
I think it was down at Piedras Blancas, where I went to watch elephant seals giving birth on the beach, that I saw almost as many ground squirrels as seals. But in all my years of living in San Francisco I'd never seen one in Golden Gate Park until just the other day. I'd love to know how they get here.
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| On the way to the ground squirrel patch, I couldn't resist trying to photograph another Townsend's warbler that flew into range. |
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| About to Take Flight |
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| Fast Foraging |
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| I caught this tiny bushtit as it took a little break to do some preening. |
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| I was glad the ground squirrel didn't bolt for its burrow as soon as I showed up. |
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| If you look closely, you can see a golden-crowned sparrow in there among the lichen-crusted branches. |
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| At one point I turned around and saw the squirrel dive into its burrow, but I wasn't sure if I had frightened it, or something else. There were three noisy red-shouldered hawks in the area, and a not-too-old coyote scat down by the pond. |
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| Foraging Finches |
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| There were a couple dozen or so finches feeding very near the ground squirrel. They were eating the seeds produced by the purple-flowered plant in the background. |
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| Finch Food, Wild Radish Pods |
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| I couldn't tell what the ground squirrel was eating. |
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| Gorget Flashes |
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| Song Sparrow |
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| I think this is a western flycatcher, poised to fly even deeper into the dark thicket around the pond... |
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| ...but eventually coming back out through the cattails. |
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| I hadn't expected to see the ground squirrel again, but I caught him scampering into a different area where gardeners are storing various rocks and whatnot. |
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| It was a good place to keep an eye out, and I'm sure there are plenty of good crevices to escape into if needed. |
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| I expected this woodpecker to have a white patch on its back. |
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| It's like a cross between a downy and a ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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| Finch & Aloe |
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| California Towhee |
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| I couldn't resist the hummer with those nasturtium flowers in the background. |
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| I hadn't realized we had an albino form of coast redwood right here in the arboretum. |
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| One last hummer shot, with a ball of sticky resin stuck to its beak. It tried unsuccessfully to wipe it off on the bare branch to its right. |
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