Sunny Day

 

Say's Phoebe, Balboa Natural Area

What a pleasure it's been to be outside on a sunny and relatively warm day again. It feels like it's been a while.

My morning walk took me past the band-tailed pigeon tree in Forest Hill, and it appears that the birds are in fact nesting there. Depending on when they laid their egg(s), a chick could hatch as early as late next week. I only wish I could get a better view through all the sticks and branches.

Street Magnolia, Forest Hill

Bison in the Sun

Say's Phoebe With Vertical Grip

The sunny day gave me a 1/2000th-sec. exposure, but even that wasn't fast enough to freeze the phoebe's wing feathers. Many of the excellent freeze-flight shots I've seen on Flickr are done at 1/8000th-sec, which is not an option on the FZ80D....

Black turnstones flee an incoming wave in front of Sutro Baths. (Click to view larger.)

In addition to the black turnstones, several surfbirds were also foraging on the rocks today, while a group of nine willets foraged in the sand nearby.

Bando had the Great Highway to himself.

Lamp Post Leaper

Until today, I hadn't seen any black-crowned night herons since the rains arrived at the beginning of the month. This juvenile was snoozing in a redwood at South Lake and only briefly opened its eyes, probably to make sure the human in the neon-yellow bike windbreaker wasn't a threat.

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