Walkin' on the Wild Side

 

Coyote Near Hellman Hollow

I spotted the coyote walking up Middle Drive just as it turned into the brush toward Hellman Hollow. I stopped and got off my bike, dropped the kickstand, opened the trunk bag, and pulled out my camera to see if the coyote would show itself again. It soon did, and although I wasn't terribly close, it spotted me right off (darn that high-visibility bike jacket!). The coyote stared at me for a breath or two, then calmly turned back and crossed Middle Drive, heading south. I tried to find it again to no avail.

This morning's rain was perfectly timed. With a window slightly open, I enjoyed listening to it while I had breakfast and coffee and read the news online, and it stopped right about the time I was ready to head out for a walk.

I reminded myself to put the news of the day out of mind as I walked, and pay attention to my surroundings instead -- not just for safety's sake, but to spot anything interesting or beautiful. I also thought about a book I'm reading called Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death, by Nick Lane. I'm only a quarter of the way into it, but here's a couple of things I highlighted:

"We have taken [cells] apart, in centrifuges or with optical tweezers, read out the code that specifies their structures, deciphered the regulatory loops that lend an illusion of purpose, listed all their parts. And yet underneath it all, we are barely any closer to understanding what breathes life into these flicks of matter."

And, "What were the steps by which thin air was transformed into the substance of life, starlight into matter?"

It's really beautiful the way the author discusses the intricacies of the Krebs cycle or photosynthesis, then derives succinct and poetic musings such as the two above. I also like the historical stories about the ingenuity and doggedness of the people who incrementally win the knowledge that we later take for granted.

This Nuttall's woodpecker really liked to work upside-down.

As I was watching the Nuttall's, this hairy woodpecker flew onto the same tree.

Mallard Lake
(I saw more red-eared sliders than mallards.)

Also at Mallard Lake, a couple of 4-spot orb-weavers (Araneus quadratus) were busy repairing their rain-damaged snares.

Working her spinneret to produce spider silk.

The red-shouldered hawk, also at Mallard Lake, screeched its call numerous times, but took exception to being watched and soon flew away.

You can't rely on the camera meter to get the correct exposure in such challenging back-lit situations, but thankfully it's easy to dial in a stop or two of overexposure with the FZ80D.

It has its limits, though, and the camera doesn't always find a place to focus the lens, or it finds a place that is in front of or behind the actual subject. Nevertheless, I was surprised to get a good enough shot to ID the bird (in the Merlin app) as an orange-crowned warbler.

I hesitate to guess which dragonfly this is. I recently photographed one with more blue in it at the SF Botanical Garden. It's a big dragonfly, and I wanted to say blue-eyed darner, but it doesn't really seem to have blue eyes!

I imagine all the preparations for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this weekend are causing coyotes (along with the rest of us) to alter their routes and routines. 

* * *