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| Four-spot Orb Weaver, San Francisco Botanical Garden |
It was late in the morning, past the early bird-watching hours, so I left home for the Botanical Garden in a little bit of a rush. As I went to lock up my bike on the rack outside the garden I realized I'd forgotten the key to my bike lock. I might have made an audible groan of some sort.
But I rode back up the hill, got the key, and returned. After checking in at the ticket booth I headed south toward the little fountain area to see if any little twitters were splashing about in there, and instead there was a red-tailed hawk! If I hadn't forgotten my key, I'd have been way back in the garden and missed the hawk for sure. Chalk one up for the unconscious spidey sense.
The red-tail spent a lot of time just standing in the bath without actually bathing, as if he owned the place (and he did). A hummingbird stood by making alarm chirps, and all the other birds kept their distance. The hawk finally finished its bath and hopped up onto the edge of the fountain, shook its feathers, then took flight.
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| Hawk In A State of Fluff |
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| The Scene As I Found It |
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| Making a Splash |
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| Time to Exit |
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| Whoosh! |
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| A garden snail was climbing branches three or four feet high in the tree. |
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| Spider Trek #1 |
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| Spider Trek #2 |
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| Spider Trek #3 |
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| Spider Trek #4 |
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| Song Sparrow at Pond's Edge |
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| Here's an adult male white-crowned sparrow belting out his tune. |
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| A skipper tried to soak up what little sunshine was coming through. |
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| The fox sparrows are back in town, kicking in the forest litter for seeds and insects. |
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| Song Sparrow |
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| Cactus Garden |
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| Townsend's Warbler |
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| A hermit thrush being hermit-like, about to dart deep into the darkness immediately after posing for a single frame. |
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| A group of yellow-rumped warblers was flitting around in the grass with some robins, presumably going after different (and smaller) prey. |
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