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| Female Coyote, Golden Gate Park |
A good day for coyotes, a bad day for gophers.
I altered my Tuesday walk by just a little bit, but it made a big difference. After trekking along the Sunset Parkway (where I photographed a red-tailed hawk), I normally head back toward home at Irving Street. For some time, though, I've been thinking about continuing along Sunset until it empties right into Golden Gate Park, and today I decided to go for it.
The new route was immediately better. I was walking on a trail instead of a sidewalk, surrounded by trees instead of houses. I'd hoped to photograph a few songbirds in there but was stymied by having the morning sun in my eyes. I couldn't really complain, though, since the sun is almost never in my eyes around here.
I'd gone about eight blocks when I spotted a coyote on the trail up ahead, and she was in stalking mode, with her ears pointing at the ground in front of her and her body tensing for the pounce. A couple of joggers had recently passed by, and I hoped one wouldn't scare the coyote away before she could pounce. Thankfully, she pounced and caught a gopher before a jogger showed up, and when the jogger got close, the coyote just sauntered a little ways into the weeds.
I followed along for a while as the coyote continued to hunt, and when she squatted a little to pee I realized she was a female. I'd encounter her "husband" a little farther up the trail.
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| Red-Tail Perched on a Pine, Sunset Parkway |
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| The coyote makes her pounce... |
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| ...and gets her gopher. |
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| Urban/Wildland Interface |
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| Nice morning for a stroll in the park. |
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| It's just a little bit unsettling (but in a good way!) when the coyote is walking toward me and filling the frame in my viewfinder.... |
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| I sort of snuk up on the male coyote and gave him a brief fright... |
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| ...but he quickly realized I wasn't going to chase him or anything, and he got down to business. Nice pounce, but he missed. |
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| Mr. Coyote, Near 25th Avenue |
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| I crossed the street to briefly check out Elk Glen Lake, just in time to watch a great blue heron coming winging in toward the water's edge. And then I noticed it had a mouse in its beak, which it dunked in the lake before sending it down the long and winding road to its stomach. |
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| GBH, Elk Glen Lake |
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| On the way up the Hidden Garden Steps (where the intrepid foxglove no longer had any flowers), I noticed this Official Geocache right out in the open. I wonder if someone found it in the bushes and carelessly left it in the open, or if it was set there on purpose. I'll be surprised if it's still there next week, and if it is still there, I'm not sure I'd want to open it to see what people put have put inside it. |
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| A great blue heron was poised as if posed on what's left of the fallen cypress tree at Metson Lake. Interestingly, the photo looks fake, as if I pasted the GBH there like a magazine cut-out, but this is straight out of the camera. |
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| I watched this red-tailed hawk make a couple of unsuccessful attacks from perches directly above Chain of Lakes Drive near North Lake. After its second pounce it landed on a branch right above me and didn't seem to mind my presence at all. I hoped it wouldn't collide with a car while doing its thing. |
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| The cormorant on the right was fluttering its throat muscles with its beak open -- panting in the heat, birdy style -- at North Lake. |
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| Land's End |
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| When I first spotted the guys in this tandem kayak, they were surrounded by water, which didn't really call for a photo, but that all changed when they paddled past this rock just as a small flock of cormorants winged by in the background. |
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| Beach Weather |
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