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| Two Pied-billed Grebe Chicks, Blue Heron Lake |
The main thing I wanted to accomplish today was to get a haircut, so I left the San Francisco Botanical Garden around 11 a.m., when I figured someone would be open. After getting the quickest (and the cheapest, but probably not the best) haircut ever, I decided to ride back across Lincoln Way and stop by Blue Heron Lake to check on the pied-billed grebe nest.
I figured my timing would be good because the sun came out and warmed things up after a foggy morning, but the mama grebe was sitting on the nest when I arrived. However, she soon got up and paddled out on the lake, probably to score some lunch. I was excited to see two grebe chicks today, and also disappointed that I couldn't get a clear enough view of the nest to see any remaining eggs. Hopefully there will be more hatchlings soon on the way.
Willow branches that obscured views of the nest weeks ago are now leafing out and making it even harder to get a line of sight. I was discreet about drawing attention to the nest and must have looked oddly furtive to anyone watching me. The best shots required me to kneel on the ground, which I felt was almost too much of a giveaway, but I'll tell you what. Only one person in all the times I've visited the nest has come close to discovering what I've been up to.
As tempted as I am to share the discovery with anyone who might be interested, I don't want to risk creating unwanted attention that could provoke the mama to abandon the nest.
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| The red-shouldered hawk swooped down to the ground just as I walked through the entrance gate at the Botanical Garden, then soon flew back up into this fir tree, empty-handed. I hung around to see if it would pounce again, but it flew away to escape my attention. |
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| I might not have attempted to photograph the Allen's hummingbird if not for the purple flowers in the background. |
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| I was able to get a little closer, but I couldn't get an angle to keep the purple. |
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| Fallen leaves in the little pond at the Children's Garden (where I found no sign of activity at the pygmy nuthatch nest cavity). |
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| Back at the Succulent Garden I was watching the Allen's hummingbird dive-bombing something I couldn't see, when this Anna's hummingbird landed a few feet away from me. |
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| She allowed me to come quite close. What I didn't realize was that I was moving between her and the flowers she wanted to visit. She eventually lost patience and darted toward the flowers, but chickened out and flew away. |
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California Sunshine (Leucospermum cordifolium)
This member of the Proteaceae is actually from South Africa, so I suspect the common name was given to it by SFBG staff. It's also called ornamental pincushion in English, or bobbejaanklou in Afrikaans. |
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| My second-favorite city buckeye is flowering nicely now. (My favorite buckeye is one that's growing from a seed I tossed into a vacant lot years ago; it too is flowering nicely.) |
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| I was sitting on a bench near a patch of Hummingbird Sage when this guy swooped in and started licking up the nectar. Unfortunately, it chose flowers that were blocked from my view. |
The hummer stuck around to preen on that branch, so I recorded a little video clip.
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Panting Grebelet
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