Lakeside

 

Black-crowned Night Heron at South Lake

I cruised by North Lake to check up on the black-crowned night herons that have been hanging out along the north side of the lake for weeks, but I saw only one.  As usual, it was too far away and too well-concealed to try for a photo.

Nevertheless, I stopped riding to have a more thorough look, and in the quiet I heard a soft tap-tap-tapping nearby. A red-breasted sapsucker was working its way up a maple tree that used to be full of warblers when the tree still had leaves. It's been ages since I last saw a bird in that tree (a squirrel eating its seeds was the last critter I photographed in it), so I couldn't resist trying to snap a photo. I last saw a red-breasted sapsucker up near Golden Gate Park's Oak Woodland in late December.

Later in my ride, I saw a juvenile black-crowned night heron chasing another one around South Lake and stopped to check them out. Their frisky interlude was soon over, though, and they returned to doing what these herons seem to do best: standing absolutely still. I won't hold my breath to actually see one hunting, because they don't call 'em "night herons" for nothing. One of the youngsters did a little preening today, so I settled for that.

Red-breasted Sapsucker at North Lake
(I moved to the right to get that branch out of the foreground, only to end up with a more difficult background....)

According to All About Birds, the males and females look about the same.

Here, it's beak is pointing toward its next stop.

Big waves are still rolling in and booming against the cliffs. Still no sign of the Cliff House yellow-rumper.

Now you see it.

Now you don't.
I've always enjoyed seeing the sand paintings down here (a rake is the paintbrush), but the timing wasn't great when I was there a little before noon, when we still had a six-foot high tide at Ocean Beach.

Marlon Bando
(The Say's phoebe was posted up nearby, but I didn't try to photograph it.)

Marlon dropped in on a potential meal but came up empty this time.

Night Heron Keeping An Eye Partly Open

The other juvenile was nearby, surrounded here by flying gnats before leaping up into the branches of the storm-fallen tree.

Now gnat-free, the heron preened for a few minutes before settling down for some shut-eye.

Preening those hard-to-reach neck feathers.

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