In the Tangle

 

Eastern Fox Squirrel on Fuchsia Vines, Golden Gate Heights

I probably wouldn't have posted anything today if I hadn't noticed that one of the pied-billed grebe chicks has hatched at Blue Heron Lake. At first glance, I thought I had lucked out: the mama was off the nest. Now I could get a better look at the number of eggs in it (there must have been at least six; now at least five), but then I spotted the little hatchling, the former resident of egg #6 (or more likely egg #1).

It's not getting any easier to see the nest through the tangle of branches, which is almost certainly a good thing. I try to mask my efforts to photograph the nest when people are walking past, and no one has even asked me what I'm looking at. Just another goofy photographer looking at a bug or a leaf or something boringly artsy.

Before heading out on my bike ride I looked out the back window to see if the bird bath needed a refill, and that's when I spotted the squirrel climbing around on my neighbor's lilly pilly tree and the tangle of fuchsia vines that have woven their way among its branches and pretty much everywhere else.

Squirrel on the Vine

Anna's hummingbirds often visit the fuchsia flowers.

I was surprised the first time I saw a squirrel eating the lilly pilly berries. It's kind of funny to watch them nibble away at a single berry, then scamper off to do something else. It's not like there's a shortage of berries when they're in season. The tree is native to Australia, and it makes its flowers during our winter. 

This little chickadee fluttered through the tree's dense branches before breaking into the open and quickly taking off.

As pretty as the berries are, I kind of hate the lilly pilly tree, to be honest. All those berries fall into our yard, and dozens of them sprout and have to be weeded out, one by one. That's why a squirrel eating one berry before moving on doesn't get me too excited.

Junior!

When mama returned to the nest, she didn't acknowledge the youngster in any way that I could discern. The hatchling worked its way around to mama's back and seemed to want to climb up there but couldn't quite get a grasp. I'm sure it's going to get more chaotic as more chicks hatch.

Video clip of the little hatchling trying to find a place to relax.

* * *

Duck Mob

 

Babies in a Bunch, Mallard Lake

I encountered a hodgepodge of nature scenes this morning and wasn't sure what to put at the top of the post. Another GBH eating a gopher? Too soon. Wandering tattlers on the move? Maybe. Hummingbirds? Hmmm. A bunch of cute little ducklings? Okay, why not.

As usual, the photos below appear in chronological order.

This possible Yellow Underwing moth (Noctua sp.) flew up from the sidewalk around Noriega St. and 32nd Ave., and glommed onto the wall of a business covered with advertisements and such.

I wondered if this was the same great blue heron I recently saw along the Sunset Parkway -- the one that took a relatively long time to kill and eat the gopher it had caught.

The herons I've watched in Golden Gate Park are so quick to consume the gophers they catch, I can't help wondering if this heron is an adolescent. After snagging the gopher and walking around with it, the heron set it down on the ground, perhaps to see if it was still alive. I detected no movement myself.

Apparently the heron didn't either, as it picked up its quarry once again, and sent it down the hatch.

Even after apparently swallowing the gopher, the heron had second thoughts and coughed it back up.

It swallowed the gopher once again, then coughed it up again.

Is it playing at being a parent?

Once again, the gopher is sliding down the heron's distended throat.

And once again, the gopher is coughed back up!

And swallowed again. For the last time?

Yes, finally. Elapsed time to eat one gopher: 4 minutes, 56 seconds.

I believe the graffiti panels are new since last week. A lot of pigeons hang out at this underpass. In the last few weeks I've seen "crime scenes" of pigeon feathers in a pile nearby, and my prime suspect is that feral black cat I recently photographed walking away with a mouse it had just caught.

Short video clip of the underpass, mostly for the bird sounds.

Lesser Goldfinch on Dried Poison Hemlock

Miner's Lettuce With Two Fallen Seeds

Hummer Catching Some Morning Sun

Blackberry Flowers Being Pollinated By Bumblebees

Ten Ducklings Sticking Close to Mama

Gathering of Cuteness

Shouting it Out

In a show of élan, the defiant Allen's hummingbird lands near the bossy Anna's hummingbird.

Today, the brown pelicans had moved off to the Seal Rock farthest from the coast. A long line of birds, possibly cormorants, is flying south in the background.

At first, the wandering tattlers were gathered, as usual, on top of some boulders below the Cliff House, just hanging out. The tide and surf were high enough that sand would be exposed only briefly, so I was surprised when the tattlers started flying down there, one after another, to try their luck.

The tattlers barely had time to bury one or two probing beaks into the sand before being inundated by the sea.

This one appeared to get a quick drink from a quiet pool.

They spent most of their time running for high ground.

Or flying for high ground when the need arose.

Out beyond Seals Rocks, a pretty cool sailboat (a sloop?) cruised south into the wind.

* * *

The Gopher Eaters

 

Great Blue Heron Catching a Gopher, Golden Gate Park

Pity the poor gopher. So much easier to catch than a fish. I'd just passed Lloyd Lake on my way to the beach when I spotted this heron with a freshly caught gopher in its beak. I moved as quickly as I could, but by the time I could stop my bike and get out my camera, the gopher was down the hatch.

I decided to wait a bit to see if the heron would leave or continue hunting. After evading a few close-walking humans and a dog that strained at its leash, so eager to pounce, it was able to circle back to its hunting ground where it soon caught another gopher.

Later, I stopped at Blue Heron Lake on my way home, arriving just as an adult heron swooped in to feed its eager nestlings high in a pine tree on the little island east of Strawberry Hill. The adult took its time before finally regurgitating a feast for the nestlings, then wasted no time before flying away to catch more gophers.

Down at the beach, meanwhile, it looked like there were zero brown pelicans in their usual place on Seal Rocks. I just read this morning that pelicans have been starving because fish are staying too deep for them to catch, due to relatively warm surface waters. When I got out behind the Cliff House, though, I saw that a group of pelicans had simply moved to the big rock just off Sutro Baths.

Waiting for the Coast to Clear

Heron Escapes the Dog

The heron set up on another gopher almost as soon as it was able to circle back around to its hunting area.

Brown Pelicans at Sutro Rock

Resting Pelicans

Short clip of the preening pelicans.

A snowy egret hunted in the tiny beach area in front of Sutro Baths, but the tide was coming in and making the sandy beach even tinier.

The egret was spending so much time running away from incoming waves that it had little chance to hunt, so when a second egret dropped in, it wasn't in the mood to share its spot and tried to chase off the interloper, but ended up flying around the Cliff House to hunt on the relatively peaceful beach to the south.

Three nestlings are ready for whatever mama brought home for lunch.

Video clips of the adult and nestlings. 

After feeding the nestlings, it was time to head back out to resume the hunt.

* * *

Skyline Spring

 

Tidy Tips, Goldfields, and Baby Blue Eyes on Skyline Boulevard

I could hardly believe my eyes when I spotted a wildflower patch along Skyline Boulevard next to Lake Merced. It wasn't a big patch -- maybe 15 yards long by 2 feet wide -- but it goes to show what's possible here. On the other hand, if it were any bigger, and wasn't situated next to a stream of fast-moving cars, it would probably have been flattened by people taking selfies while lying down in the middle of it.

I biked out to Lake Merced in the hope of seeing Clark's Grebes running across the water in their mating display, following up on a tip from the local birding email group. It was cold and windy this morning, though, and not a grebe in sight. From the North Lake Bridge I managed to snap one frame of a singing marsh wren while watching a dragon boat race.

Boulevard Bouquet

Reaching For The Sun On An Overcast Day

A few groups of whimbrels were foraging along the tide line at Ocean Beach. Before going down there with my camera, I waited for a small group of humans to pass because they were letting their dogs chase the shorebirds away as they went. I figured they would soon chase off the birds up the beach, and that those birds might circle back to where I was. Unfortunately, the group turned around before they reached those birds. I remarked to the group that they were doing a good job of scouring the beach of wildlife with their dogs, to which the only guy who responded to me said, "Good, that's what we're trying to do."

Whimbrel Snags a Mole Crab

Short video clips of foraging whimbrels.

Graffiti canvas at the new Sunset Dunes Park. The coolest art work I saw today was at Lawton Street. A giant rock had been placed on an axis that allowed even a little girl to twirl it around.

I stopped to check out a great blue heron that appeared to be ready to snag a gopher, and indeed it did so very soon, only to snag a second nearby gopher 35 seconds later (according to the timestamps on my photos).

The robin swooped down there just as the heron was heading toward its second gopher. 

The first gopher was caught at 11:35:01, and the second at 11:35:36. 

The one with the bloody beak puts a little distance between itself and a passing human.

And puts a lot more distance between itself and humans with a dog.

These two Nuttall's woodpeckers flew onto a tree right behind the heron, so I moved to get closer and scared the heron away. The woodpeckers soon absconded as well.

The red-shouldered hawk swooped out of the woods around South Lake and glided over MLK Drive into a tree, then soon continued across Lincoln Way to hunt in the Outer Sunset's back yards.

The eagle chicks were hunkered down in a light snow storm yesterday, with the temperature at the time a balmy 31 degrees, not including wind chill.

They came through just fine.

* * *