Bird Walk

 

Yellow-rumped Warbler, San Francisco Botanical Garden

As I was walking up the path to enter the garden this morning, a beautifully crimson-capped Ruby-crowned Kinglet landed on a branch just above me. It was one of the most stunning ruby crowns I've ever seen, and I took off my glasses, removed the lens cap and powered up my camera, zoomed in to focus, and fffllllttttt! Bird gone.

One of these days I would love to capture a photo of what I saw, but even though I did encounter kinglets again, I was unable to score that perfect shot. My best opportunity came in the Children's Garden, where another winged termite hatch was going on, just like the one I saw on Mt. Tam the other day. The Townsends and yellow-rumped warblers were hawking them in mid-flight, occasionally joined by a few kinglets and even a couple of the sparrows.

When I got to the entrance kiosk I realized I'd dropped my driver's license somewhere along the way (SF residents with ID can enter for free). I scanned the ground as I backtracked toward where I'd locked up my bike, and when I looked up I saw a young lady who'd obviously found it and was bringing it in. Thanks!

Fox Sparrow Preening Its Feathers

The fox sparrows I see are usually busy kicking in the duff to find food, but this one had found itself a warm little bowl in the wood chips to relax in.

Sporting the Yellow Rump

Hummer Sipping Nectar

Common Sugarbush (Protea repens)

Although I saw a couple of northern flickers again today, I was unable to get as close as last time.

Termites in the Garden

A couple of scrub jays dropped by to see what all the fuss was about, but did not appear very interested in the tiny termites.

Meanwhile, much smaller birds like this Townsend's warbler were snapping them up, sometimes trying to snag more than one on a single sortie.

You can see the ruby crown in this shot, but the bird flew away before I could zoom in any closer.

This kinglet briefly landed very close, but it wasn't flaring its ruby crown.

Trying to photograph these little guys is often like trying to track popping popcorn.

There was a little fall color on the edge of the redwood grove...

...and more along one of the paths on the way to the Moon Viewing Garden which has some nice Japanese maples, but the maple leaves were still pretty green.

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