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| Kingsley the Kingfisher |
It was interesting to see as I walked through The Haight this morning that a couple of street people, an older man and woman, were back in the same spot after moving elsewhere for the summer. A little farther on, a favored stoop for other wanderers had been taken up by a new person, with a new dog, and I wondered if maybe he's just passing through after Burning Man. Another regular, who often has a sign saying "Broke & Ugly, Please Help," had new strings on his acoustic guitar and apparently didn't have any way to trim the long, dangling ends where they wrap around the tuners. I'll try to remember to remedy that for him when I pass by that way again next week.
I hadn't really expected the kingfisher to be in residence again this morning, but I quietly crept up for a look, and sure enough, there he was, Kingsley the Kingfisher. I parked my bike and removed my bright windbreaker, then managed to poke my lens through a hole in some brush so as not to spook him.
Eventually I tried to get a clear view, but Kingsley beat wings and found another perch. He really kept me pinned down behind the cattails. If I showed myself even one inch past them, poof, he was out of there.
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| Angel's Trumpet, Garden for the Environment |
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| A beautiful dahlia from the same garden. |
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| I hadn't seen the red-tailed hawks hanging out on the Murphy Windmill in ages. I'd wondered if the two hawks had dispersed to more gopher-laden pastures. For a while there, around the time of the Outside Lands Festival, the blades were actually moving, making it an unlikely landing spot. |
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| Some bushtits caught my attention while I was hiding behind the cattails to wait for the kingfisher's return to its perch. |
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| These two Canada geese were a little disturbed by the guy hiding next to the cattails on the end of the lake, and a minute or so after posing for this shot, they took wing, heading west. |
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| At first glance I thought these tiny damselflies were just bits of floating cattail fluff. They were so ephemeral and seemed to drift on the breeze. Although some were tan-colored I finally noticed the blue in some of them and realized what they were. |
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| Kingsley on His Perch |
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| Kingsley Returns After Catching A Fish |
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| It looked as if he might have just swallowed a fish before landing. He shook off some water and made some bodily adjustments before settling back down. |
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| Handsome Bird |
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