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| Willet Nabs a Shore Crab at Heron's Head Park This Morning |
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| I was standing on the back stoop yesterday, overlooking our garden which has been abused by squirrels (besides riddling the garden with holes, they have eaten one succulent, leaf by leaf, and recently ran off with another whole plant), when this Cooper's hawk swooped right past me and landed on the neighbor's fence to look for a meal. I ran upstairs to grab my camera and was surprised to see the hawk still there when I returned. Unfortunately, it left without taking a squirrel along for a ride.... |
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| I recently read about improvements being made to India Basin Waterfront Park, so I was a little surprised this morning to see that the park has been demolished, only a year after its grand opening. I guess it'll have an even grander opening sometime in the future. |
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| Meanwhile, the bird life at Heron's Head Park has picked up quite a bit since I was last out there. |
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| Something was putting the shorebirds on edge. I never knew why with any certainty, but they appeared to be quite nervous around a nearby great egret that dwarfed the snowy egret above in size. In nature, throwing your weight around is par for the course. |
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| I don't often see a meadowlark in the city. This one appears to be in jail. |
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| It eventually came back over to my side of the fence. |
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| But not for long. |
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| It called out from the top of a toyon bush but received no reply. |
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| Meadowlark with Yellow Building in the Distance |
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| Kayakers on the Fog-shrouded Bay |
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| In no hurry to get back on the road, I sat down to watch this lone willet for a minute. |
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| The willet very quickly caught this lined shore crab, which seemed a little too big to deal with. I'm not sure if the crab ever got away or was mortally wounded, but the willet never appeared to really eat it. |
Quick Clip of Spotted Sandpiper
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| Spotted Sandpiper at Rest |
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| Urban Kayaking |
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| A red admiral landed briefly on some gumweed flowers, but quickly abandoned them in favor of warming up on the rocky shore. |
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| I'd never seen a surf scoter on land before. I wondered if it was injured. |
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| It wasn't. When I got too close, it bolted into the water. |
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| Ghost Ship Belching Smoke |
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| Container Ship Anchored Near Port of Oakland |
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| Urban Paddle-boarding. It looked like paddle boards and kayaks could be rented at Crane Cove. |
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| A flock of gulls and elegant terns was hanging out on the sandbar at Crissy Lagoon. The two darker birds in the lower right corner are killdeer. |
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| I love the sound of fog horns on a sunny day.... |
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