Friday Roundup

 

Canada Gosling, Blue Heron Lake

Life feeds on life, but seeing the destroyed grebelet nest still felt like a punch in the guts. There was a raccoon-sized hole in the dense foliage on the edge of the lake that led directly to the second nest. I wondered if the raccoons had heard the grebelets' cheeping. The nest itself was obliterated, and willow branches had been snapped. It probably happened last night. All was quiet now, with no cheeping to be heard....

As I looked out over the lake I soon saw one of the adults paddling back from the opposite side of the lake with a branch in its beak. Holy cow, I thought. What resilience. It's going to build a new nest and try again to have chicks.

I wandered over toward the new nest location but couldn't see it through the dense foliage. Once I got past the bushes and had a clear view of the lake again, I saw the two grebelets paddling around! I was glad to see they'd both eluded the raccoons.

As I entered the San Francisco Botanical Garden I heard a robin squawking nearby and looked up to see this red-shouldered hawk preening its feathers. I wondered if it had been bathing in the small water fountain next to the garden's library. A young woman saw me watching the hawk and thanked me for tipping her off. She turned away too quickly for me to voice my response that she should thank the robin who tipped me off.

The hawk flew off its previous perch to land in this tree above the lily pond.

Iris Leaves at the Lily Pond

Hummer Ablutions

California Towhee Fledgling

The one on the right had just fed a morsel to the one on the left.

The pipevine swallowtail caterpillars had grown a bit since I last saw them in this location. At another location there were just a few very small ones.

The Matilija poppies are blooming.

Adult Brown-headed Cowbird

Juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird

Backlit Hummer

A few house finches were eating the foliage of the wild radish since the seeds aren't ripe yet.

Mouse Feet

The red-shouldered hawk didn't appreciate being photographed with its quarry and soon carried it far away.

Ladybug on Poison Hemlock

Allen's Hummingbird in the Children's Garden

Woodland Skipper on Milk Thistle

Red-shouldered Hawk in Children's Garden

Crowding the Frame

A blue-eyed darner graciously hovers long enough to be photographed flying over Blue Heron Lake.

Both adult pied-billed grebes gathered materials for their new nest.

I was just starting to head home after admiring the grebes when I spotted a pair of adult Canada geese watching over a half-dozen goslings.

The cute goslings were real crowd-pleasers, but one lady was going on at length  about them with a friend on the phone while holding a small dog on a leash. The adult geese were hissing at the dog, but the woman didn't appear to notice. The dog paid the geese no attention whatsoever, and the geese finally stopped hissing and went back to cropping grass.

Video clips of a red-shouldered hawk, a pipevine swallowtail caterpillar munching leaves (while a ladybug ambles by in the background), a grebe swimming with nest material, and goslings.

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