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| Sunrise with Sutro Tower & Twin Peaks, 10/4/2024 |
The sky was looking so good this morning that I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and heading up the street a little bit to capture a view that wasn't criss-crossed with a web of power lines and telephone poles. Later, as I headed out the door for my UCSF/Cole Valley/Haight Ashbury/GG Park/Inner Sunset walk, I turned around to grab a light jacket to stuff into my knapsack. The fog was rolling in, and I might need it.
By around 9:30, though, the fog had not just rolled back but had simply evaporated. Lucky for everyone heading to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, there's still a cool breeze.
Heading into the Oak Woodland this morning I spotted a Townsend's warbler and gave chase. The little guy eventually flew away before I was sure I'd even gotten a shot of him. They move so fast through such dense foliage that I almost always feel like I've just missed my chance as they flit out of the frame.
A little while later I heard a bird chirping and was surprised to see it was some kind of little wren. It was like trying to focus on a kernel of popping popcorn, with branches and leaves getting in the way. At one point I had him so lined up and in focus, when a jogger scared him off before I could release the shutter.
There's skill involved with photographing songbirds, and also luck, and some kind of law of averages. Later on, the red-tailed hawks I encountered down by Ocean Beach were another matter: pure luck.
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| City Dawn from Golden Gate Heights |
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| A river of fog drifted over Golden Gate Park (that's the Kezar Stadium entrance down below) at around 9 a.m., but soon disappeared. |
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| The robins were still going after those Autumn Olive berries. Many berries remain on the bush, but it's probably easier to just snag them off the ground. I tried one myself and found the juice to be sweet and just slightly astringent, but I spit out both the pit and the skin. |
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| No more river of fog. |
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| Townie in the Oaks |
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| Going Up! |
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| Bokeh Bird |
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| All kinds of acorn pieces and whatnot were raining down on me at one point, and this was the critter behind it all. |
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| I hadn't expected to get a shot of the Bewick's wren. The intense backlight often made the lens hunt for something to focus on, and the unprocessed image here was basically a silhouette. I was impressed to find so much detail captured in the jpeg. |
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| This dark-eyed junco had just chased off a rival, puffing up its feathers to make it appear bigger. And it did appear bigger -- maybe twice the size of the one it scared off. |
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| I got off my bike at the bottom of Golden Gate Park to photograph this red-tailed hawk on a light post, when a raven soon drifted over to keep an eye on him. |
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| The (banded) hawk didn't care for the company and flew across the street to perch on a different light pole. I snapped a photo, and by the time the viewfinder black-out was over, the hawk was gone. |
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| Incredibly, he was practically at my feet! |
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| Where he had snagged a mouse in the ice plant, caught here with the nictitating membrane covering his eyes. |
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| He's about to fly away with the mouse. I guess the show's over. |
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| Nope! He hopped up to a nearby fence post. |
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| Determining the coast was clear, with no other hawks or feathered fiends to annoy him, he consumed the mouse. |
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| Just taking care of business, right there next to the bike/pedestrian path, with vehicle traffic just a few feet away. |
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| The overall scene.... |
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| I like the guy in the convertible snapping pictures of something else from the car. |
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| I was surprised to find a second red-tail on the cliffs below the Giant Camera (which has been open the last few days, and juding by the total lack of customers I would guess the word is not out yet). |
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| This one was double-banded. |
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| This was the first day in a long time that I could see Mt. Tamalpais from head to toe. |
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| When I entered the park here at 9th & Lincoln on today's bike ride, there was still a lot of construction activity as they finished paving the street. By the time I headed home, it was all done. All the fencing and construction machinery are gone. |
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