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| Great Blue Heron Hunting Gophers on Sunset Parkway |
Now that the sun is out, it seems like I'm back from another universe. This morning's universe was composed of cold winds and fog so thick it darkened the sky and speckled my eyeglasses with droplets of moisture. Nevertheless, starting with the great blue heron who nabbed a gopher shortly after we encountered each other, I kept finding new things I felt inspired to photograph, and an hour-and-a-half walk turned into three hours.
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| The heron picked up and dropped the gopher several times, each time stabbing at it with its beak while it was on the ground. |
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| Once it was satisfied that the gopher was dead, the heron worked to get it lined up for its trip down the hatch. |
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| Although I pitied the gopher, I also thought of the hungry young herons back at Blue Heron Lake. |
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| Gopher-Neck |
The photos make it seem sort of peaceful where the heron was hunting, but the video (and audio) tell a different story.
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| Pokeberry Flowers |
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| Calla Lily |
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| Calla Textures |
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Kangaroo Apple
(Solanum laciniatum) |
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| The Chilean rhubarb leaves at Mallard Lake have grown taller than I am. |
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| Yellow Iris at Mallard Lake |
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| Iris Leaves & Bud |
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| I didn't see the immature black-crowned night herons this week, but this solo adult was out in the open. |
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| Anna's Hummingbird on the Look-out |
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| Trouble on the Twig, Allen's vs. Anna's Hummingbird |
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| The Allen's hummingbird just wanted to find a mellow place to bathe. |
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| Nasturtium Flower & Leaves |
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| Nasturtium Flower Showing Its Spur |
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| The red-shouldered hawks were all over the place this morning, frequently calling out while soaring through the air rather than while perching on a tree limb. |
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| After the hawk flew away I noticed this dead mole near my feet. I wondered if someone's dog killed it since it kind of looked that way. And I wouldn't think a coyote or hawk would leave it uneaten. Rigor mortis had set in, indicating it had been killed at least a few hours earlier. |
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| Plantain Flowers |
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Twinberry Flowers, Elk Glen Lake
(Not to be confused with Twinflower.) |
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| Feather-flexing Yellow-rumper I |
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| Feather-flexing Yellow-rumper II |
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| Ambient light was so low most of the morning that almost every frame was shot at ISO 400 or higher, up to ISO 3200. When I saw the brown creeper on the same oak as the yellow-rumped warbler, it was on the dark side of the tree trunk and I had to pop a flash to capture it. I really just wanted to remember that I saw one here at this time of year. Also of note, I had tried to photograph a Wilson's warbler earlier, but it was too hopelessly dark to post the picture. |
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| I was surprised to see a pretty good-sized flock of surfbirds below the Cliff House late this morning. |
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| Note the rockweed among the other algae. I recently saw that biologists are monitoring tidal life in San Francisco Bay and finding a surprisingly healthy ecosystem (i.e., the animals weren't bug-eyed Simpsons-like monsters mutated by urban pollution). |
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| Surfbirds on Tidal Rocks |
Surfbirds at Work
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| A female Allen's hummingbird collects cattail down for her nest. |
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| Flying Fluff |
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| A robin has its feathers blown back on a windy morning. |
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| American Robin |
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| Pacific Forktail Damselfly |
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| I saw this light-colored, yellowish fly on a cattail leaf next to some apparent eggs and wondered if they are related. |
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| More Pacific forktails among the cattails at Metson Lake. |
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| The fluff-collector took a moment to relax on a cattail stalk, and I just got the lucky shot as it prepared to take off. |
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| Meanwhile, at Big Bear Lake in SoCal, the eagle chicks are coming along. |
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