True Nature Stories: No on Comet, Yes on Coyote

Evening Coyote, Grandview Park

On my way over to Grandview Park to check out the sunset and hopefully see comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (aka "comet A3") on Thursday evening, a guy resting near the bottom of the hill warned me to watch out for a coyote someone sighted up there. It always kind of amazes me when people seem afraid of coyotes when I'm always grateful to encounter them. The sunset didn't look like anything special, so I enjoyed watching the coyote prowl around the brushy hillside, well below all the folks waiting for the sunset, the rising full moon, and/or the comet.

I left the coyote as she was digging half-heartedly for a mouse or gopher near the bottom of the hill, then figured I'd found a good spot to wait for the comet when I came to a guy with his young son and a small telescope. We chatted a bit as we waited, and pretty soon my wife climbed the stairs to join us, and the young son lit up in surprise. Turns out he's a first-grader at my wife's K-8 school!

Although the sky was very clear up high (Venus was clearly visible), it was quite hazy at the horizon. If the comet was there at all, it must have been obscured by the haze.

The coyote appeared to be about to exit the hillside when a pedestrian sent her back into cover.

I think she was on her way to exit the hill at the other side when she heard a rustling in the weeds.

She pounced, then dug in the sand a little, but didn't score an immediate strike. I could only wonder where she was heading next as night began to fall.

There was a little sundog kind of thing out there, but no comet.

On Friday morning's walk I saw one hermit thrush chasing another one, apparently trying to stake out its own territory. I haven't seen our local hermit since I photographed it in our little bird-bath bowl, but we usually get a hermit who sticks around for the winter, thanks to the semi-wild nature of my neighbor's yard.

Golden Gate Park's Fuchsia Dell was very birdy Friday morning. It was mostly robins going for a variety of berries, but Steller's jays, song sparrows, hummingbirds, and even a brown creeper were also busy.

Robin and Fuchsia Flowers

Robin Eating Fuchsia Berry

Birds weren't the only ones in the Dell. This squirrel (holding on with just its hind legs) is eating one of the fruits from that green bunch above its head.

This little song sparrow was going strong, unconcerned with my nearby presence. A hummingbird that swooped by to take its perch was similarly ignored.

Another flush of chicken-of-the-woods is sprouting from the same giant eucalyptus on Whiskey Hill that I saw last year.

Keer! A pair of red-shouldered hawks swooped into view while I was still on Whiskey Hill, making me wonder if they were actually hunting together -- one flushing the quarry while the other swooped in for the kill. The local birds were onto them, though, and they soon flew away to hunt elsewhere.

Red-shouldered Hawk

While this young was lady poised on the knife edge of the rocks, her friend remained safely on the trail above, looking apprehensive. Meanwhile, as a group of tourists walked past me while I was taking in the sea view from the deck of the Cliff House, I overheard one ask another, "What is this place anyway?" To which the answer was, "I don't know." They meant the Cliff House, which goes to show how long it's been since it went belly-up.