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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.
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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. |
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Boulevard Bouquet |
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Reaching For The Sun On An Overcast Day |
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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." |
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Whimbrel Snags a Mole Crab |
Short video clips of foraging whimbrels.
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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. |
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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). |
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The robin swooped down there just as the heron was heading toward its second gopher. |
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The first gopher was caught at 11:35:01, and the second at 11:35:36. |
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The one with the bloody beak puts a little distance between itself and a passing human. |
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And puts a lot more distance between itself and humans with a dog. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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They came through just fine. |
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