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| 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!
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| Fox Sparrow Preening Its Feathers |
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| 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. |
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| Sporting the Yellow Rump |
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| Hummer Sipping Nectar |
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| Common Sugarbush (Protea repens) |
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| Although I saw a couple of northern flickers again today, I was unable to get as close as last time. |
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| Termites in the Garden |
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| 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. |
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| Meanwhile, much smaller birds like this Townsend's warbler were snapping them up, sometimes trying to snag more than one on a single sortie. |
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| You can see the ruby crown in this shot, but the bird flew away before I could zoom in any closer. |
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| This kinglet briefly landed very close, but it wasn't flaring its ruby crown. |
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| Trying to photograph these little guys is often like trying to track popping popcorn. |
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| There was a little fall color on the edge of the redwood grove... |
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| ...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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