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| Western Gull Hunting Below Cliff House |
I didn't think I was going to post anything today since it was so ordinary, with the lone exception being the sighting of a female violet-green swallow gathering nest material. My only other post with a violet-green swallow (a male) is from last year's trip to see long-tailed weasels. Anyway, today's birds frequent fields (the swallow), forests (the woodpecker), the seashore (gull, pelicans, oystercatchers), and a pond (grebes).
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Violet-green Swallow, Golden Gate Heights Park
The swallow would zip through the air in an arc across the street, then land and seem to peck at something on the ground, then take off again and repeat the whole round. I finally got my camera out and managed to get this one shot where it picked up a bit of cut grass, presumably for its nest. I waited a while to see if she would come back for more to no avail. |
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| Hairy Woodpecker, GGH Park |
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| The main gathering of brown pelicans today was out at the farthest offshore of the Seal Rocks. |
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| This second-year Western gull was industriously working the shoreline below the Cliff House, at one point (before I got my camera out) nabbing something stringy, wiggly, silvery-clear, and about five inches long. |
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| Here's another highly-cropped view of the black oystercatcher with two eggs. |
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| An uncropped view. |
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| The nest was empty when I first checked it out. The grebelets were floating at the edge of the willows, sweetly cheeping. Only when mama returned and climbed aboard the nest did the two chicks also return. |
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| I don't think any feeding happened before mama jumped back in the water and swam away. |
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