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| Allen's Hummingbird, Mallard Lake |
I finally managed to get some decent shots of the recently arrived Mallard Lake hummer this morning. Maybe he just got tired of flying away from me. Either that, or this one is not as easily spooked as the other one. I know there are at last two in the area because they often chased one another.
Before I even went out this morning, I heard a radio announcement for a show on KALW called Natural State. I was in the middle of morning exercises at the time and didn't get around to checking it out until later in the day, but the show consists of two-minute natural soundscapes from around the state.
They mention bullfrogs in the Sierra Foothills edition, and I heard bullfrogs for the first time at Elk Glen Lake this morning. Bullfrogs are predators of native chorus frogs, so I was disappointed to find them in a pond out by Mt. Tamalpais years ago. But then we had four years of drought and the bullfrogs disappeared, while the chorus frogs survived.
This morning's walk yielded a bonanza of birds and plants (and dinosaurs) to photograph, all of which occurred near Mallard Lake and Elk Glen Lake. I ran into another birder at Elk Glen Lake who said the yellow-bellied sapsucker was back in the oak tree, and I did manage to find it. I keep forgetting how small they are, and I wondered if I'd have seen it had I not been tipped off it was there.
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| Chilean Rhubarb Leaves, Mallard Lake |
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| California Towhee |
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| Yellow-rumped Warbler |
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| This is the same yellow-rumper in profile. |
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| Townsend's Warbler |
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| Allen's Hummingbird Caught With Its Tongue Out |
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| Lookin' Tropical |
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| Grooming Fluff |
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| Chestnut-backed Chickadee |
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| Song Sparrow |
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| Before there were birds, there were dinosaurs.... I was surprised I'd never noticed these guys before today. |
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| Unfurling Frond |
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| Translucent Leaf |
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| There's a tree I always check for red-shouldered hawks when I approach Elk Glen Lake, and once in a while I actually find one. It's always on a fairly low branch, though not always the same branch. |
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| I didn't ruffle any feathers to get the shot. I suspect it's the same imperturbable hawk I've seen in this spot before. |
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| The red-winged blackbirds were making a lot of noise this morning. |
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| The yellow-bellied sapsucker was hard to photograph. It was always on the move and often had a very bright background that would fool the exposure meter. Luckily, it's easy to dial in exposure compensation on the FZ80D. |
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| Yellow-belly working the cracks and crevices of oak bark. |
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| The California towhee was calmly hanging out on a nearby branch, so I couldn't resist snapping a shot. Since they are so often seen feeding on the ground, which I don't usually find visually appealing, I like to photograph them when I can catch them on a branch. |
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| A couple of brown creepers joined the yellow-bellied sapsucker on the oak. |
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| I only include this because I've never gotten any kind of shot of a brown creeper with its wings extended before. |
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| When I took this picture I thought it was a Nuttall's woodpecker that had just chased off the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The birds were moving so fast, I now can't be sure whether there were two yellow-bellies chasing eachother, or if this is the same one that circled back after being chased away by some unknown bird. |
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| This flicker was acting suspicious. It called out as it landed in a nearby cypress tree, then eventually fluttered over to this nearby snag where it only briefly perched near the top before ducking low and out of sight. I figured it was going to the ground to feed, but I also wondered if there is a nest cavity down there. I decided it's too early to intrude to check. |
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| I'd already put away the camera when I spotted a different white-crowned sparrow in a red-flowering currant bush. I figured it would fly away before I could get the camera out, but it worked out fine. After that first bird flew away, this guy landed in an even more picturesque spot. |
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| Because the walk was so productive, I didn't really look for subjects to photograph during the bike ride. However, I couldn't resist a couple of equestrians on the beach -- not something I've seen very often down there. |
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| The rake artist strikes again (with the horseback riders in the distance). |
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| I also don't often see a Coast Guard cutter off Ocean Beach. This is the Legend-class national security cutter CGC Munro out of the Port of Alameda. |
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