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| Red-tailed Hawk Ruffling Its Feathers, Sunset Parkway |
A guy in an ugly gray Tesla rolled through his stop sign this morning (I didn't have a stop sign), forcing me to brake to avoid getting splattered on his windshield. Later, a woman in an ugly beige Subaru nearly plowed me into a grease spot while speeding through Golden Gate Park. And oh yeah, earlier in the day, a guy's ugly dog suddenly went psycho on me. I guess two potentially fatal motor vehicle crashes and a mad dog (at least it was leashed) ruffled my feathers a little bit, but it's the kind of thing pedestrians and cyclists deal with every day in San Francisco, so we learn to take in stride, nothwithstanding the occasional fantasy involving rocket propelled grenades....
Anyhow. Such a beautiful day! I watched a red-tailed hawk land in a pine tree right in front of me as I was walking along the Sunset Parkway and decided to get the camera out. Instead of immediately flying away, the hawk simply hopped to new branches to get out of my line of sight. I followed, no doubt ruffling its feathers, and just as it seemed about to take its leave for good, I noticed it had a thin branch in its beak, and instead of flying far away, it fluttered to the top of the next pine over, sending a second hawk flying off toward the park. I guess it's safe to say there's a nest being built up there. I noted my location and look forward to keeping tabs on the nest, hard as that might be from the ground.
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| Still trying to get away from that pesky photographer. |
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| Branch Dancing |
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| Have Stick Will Travel |
Very brief video clip of the red-tail in its presumed nesting area.
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| Tree Monster of Mallard Lake |
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| The hummer refused to look toward me and flash his gorget colors, but he's a handsome devil anyway.... |
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| There were only about three flowers on this Brazilian bellflower (Callianthe megapotamica) last week. |
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| A red-shouldered hawk was calling out from a piney area as I approached Elk Glen Lake, and then it suddenly glided into view and landed at the top of a pine right in front of me. |
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| It put up with me for a while, but I was hoping to get a "burst mode" photo of it taking wing, and it eventually obliged. |
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| Red-shouldered Hawk Taking Flight |
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| I was trying to photograph a Townsend's warbler when I noticed this hermit thrush in the corner of my eye. I was surprised it didn't fly away as soon as I pointed my camera its way, but I think it had other things to worry about. A couple seconds later, another hermit zipped in and chased this one off its branch. |
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| Nobody chases the Townsend's warblers -- except maybe Anna's hummingbirds. |
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| Townie Gets Gymnastic |
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| It appears to have caught a moth or something (which, unfortunately, is not in focus). |
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| Looking for bugs in a clump of hanging lichen. |
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| The yellow-rumped warblers took advantage of the backlight from the north side of Elk Glen Lake. Any insects that flew by were lit up like a glowing "Eat Me" sign. |
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| I had been trying again to photograph a bumblebee nectaring on some gooseberry flowers when the mad dog went psycho earlier in the morning, and I tried again (and again in vain) to catch one on these flowers at Elk Glen Lake. I'm surprised the bumblebees are so skittish. |
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| There were two great blue herons in the pines at Blue Heron Lake today, but this one chased off the other one soon after I arrived. Note the raven in the upper right, yanking on some strands of lichen with its beak. |
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| You gotta love it when a GBH ruffles its feathers. |
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