Bathing Beauty

 

Bathing Allen's Hummingbird, Mallard Lake

I'd love to know if this is the same Allen's hummingbird who bathed in the little creek in the same place last year. There are any number of apparently good bathing spots along the length of the creek, and this spot is out in the open next to a trail. It flew away when I first showed up, but all I had to do was sit on a nearby log and wait for its return. I can't tell if the same hummer dropped in twice, or if they were two different birds.

When the weather forecasters said the heat wave was going to end, I expected a wall of fog to come rolling in to cool things off. Instead, there is just a hint of hazy fog, and it's still sunny with beautifully warm spring days here in San Francisco. 

Droplet On The Beak

The morning light coming through these banana-like leaves was irresistible.

And since the Chilean rhubarb was so close by....

The latticed stinkhorn was in bloom near the backlit leaves (east of Mallard Lake), with quite a few "eggs" still ready to sprout.

Fly Perfume Factory

There were two separate female Anna's hummingbirds feeding in the same small area, seemingly at ease with each other's presence.

I was surprised to see them nectaring on these wild radish flowers on the edge of Elk Glen Lake. There were lots more of these plants a little farther from the lake, but they were being left alone.

This little Allen's hummingbird chased a female Anna's hummingbird out of the big Salvia gesneriiflora patch.

California Darner In The Salvia Patch
(ignored by the hummingbird)

It's been awhile since I saw gas over six dollars on 19th Avenue. Here it's $6.29 for regular, $7.89 for diesel.

* * *

Tam Cam Check

 

Young Bucks This Morning, Mt. Tamalpais

I left the trail cameras alone for about a month and was surprised to find not a single coyote or bobcat on any of the frames. The animals that showed up the most were deer, fox, squirrel, and most surprisingly, varied thrush.

I just finished reading Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, by Carl Zimmer. It was the first I'd heard of aerobiologists, scientists who study the microorganisms that live everywhere from the air around us, to up in the clouds, to high in the stratosphere. It was interesting to read a history of medicine from before the time microscopes came along, to the recent Covid-19 pandemic in which medical professionals refused to accept that the virus could travel as an aerosol, rather than as large droplets that would fall to the ground after traveling only a few feet.

"The conflict between Group 36 [who published Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Inhalation of Respiratory Aerosol in the Skagit Valley Chorale Superspreading Event] and WHO echoed William Firth Wells's struggles eight decades earlier. Wells had looked at diseases with an engineer's eye, using physics and statistics to track movements of pathogens inside droplets. He discovered that none of that mattered much to doctors, who put more stock in epidemiology. . . . In an August 2020 commentary, John Conly and his colleagues at the WHO Infection Prevention and Control Research and Development Expert Group for COVID-19 dismissed the Group 36 studies as 'opinion pieces' rather than rigorous science. They declared that 'SARS-CoV-2 is not spread by the airborne route to any significant extent.'"

Eventually the medical experts came around to the fact that it can indeed spread much farther than previously assumed. The interesting thing for me was how general acceptance of new scientific paradigms often comes very slowly, and often after careers have been destroyed by closed-minded authorities.

Another Beautiful Day on the Mountain

A gray fox leaves a little scent mark on a rock.

This fox checks out the scent but doesn't add one of its own.

Foxtail

A skunk came through on two occasions.

A fox reinvigorates its scent-mark on the rock.

This was the only jackrabbit to pass through.

A fox is wary of the trail camera.

I was surprised to see a couple of wild turkey toms displaying in the woods, with no one around to admire them. Just getting warmed up, maybe.

Tam Cam Clips

* * *

Oaks in Bloom

 

Townsend's Warbler, Golden Gate Park Oak Woodlands

There were several Townsend's warblers singing in the Oak Woodlands this morning, but the one above wasn't one of them. It just happened to be caught with its beak open. At one point I heard two Townies singing from branches in the same oak tree, resulting in a territorial dispute that turned into a chase from one tree to another accompanied by boisterous vocal scolding.

The first day of spring has felt really great despite the heat. On the one hand, it's just another day, but on the other it's an astronomical turning point that can also  be celebrated as a time of spiritual renewal. Even as the world celebrates a turn toward greater daylight, world events on nature's human stage have taken a turn toward greater darkness. Nevertheless, spring is a time for optimism, nuturing, and growth, and the evidence isn't on the nightly news, but right outside the door.

Dangling Oak Catkins

There's a nicely camouflaged yellow-rumped warbler in there.

Bushtit with Wings Extended
(It was birdy around the Horseshoe Courts, so I hung around awhile.)

A Townsend's warbler hunted at length in a nearby oak tree, rarely coming out in the open.

The mourning dove noisily fluttered right over my head to land on the fence railing but soon lost its nerve: too close to the human. The moment I moved, it flew to safety in the oak woodland.

Townie in the Oak

A set of jacks has joined the alphabet blocks near the Conservatory of Flowers.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee Gathering Nest Material from a Cycad

Chickadee With a Full Beak

A great blue heron was lurking in the foliage at Lily Lake, but soon realized it was too close to the pedestrian path for comfort.

It took off and tried to land on a chunk of tree, but the chunk was merely floating on the surface and couldn't support the heron's weight. The bird then tried to land on the duckweed-covered surface but the water was deeper than its legs were long. It finally flapped over to the opposite bank and fluffled its feathers to dry out.

A normally sleek-looking tree swallow fluffs its feathers on a pine branch overlooking the Bison Paddock.

A Western bluebird about to take wing.

I'd seen the Northern flicker land on a branch in the pine tree. After several minutes it dropped down to the ground to begin hunting.

It was a little tricky to focus and shoot through the chain-link fence, but the flicker tolerated my presence for quite a while.

Cedar Waxwing at Middle Lake

Singing White-crowned Sparrow

California Poppy at Middle Lake

Blue-eyed Grass

Hummingbird Sage

Hot Days for the Nesting Bald Eagles

I was worried when I saw this scene, especially since you could hear a raven in the background. A raven destroyed the eagles' previous eggs when they were left unattended.

Thankfully one of the eagles (still panting in the heat), returned a few minutes later.

* * *

Days in the Sun

 

Morning Shade for the Parkside Hummers

Leaving home without so much as a windbreaker feels slightly wrong, as if I'm forgetting something, or taking an unnecessary risk. But the real risk is more likely to be dehydration. And what a nice break, by the way, to be able to head out the door in shorts and t-shirt on a warm, fog-free day. 

I bought a box fan to put in the window at night to replace the 75-degree indoor air with 68-degree outdoor air. It takes a long time to make headway, but it feels good to be able to do something.

I did a double-take when I walked past this house, then quickly retrieved a camera from my knapsack, surprised that my luck was holding as the coyote remained focused on me. I finally got the camera out and began to zoom in, which is when I realized it was just a cut-out. Cute.

I watched from a distance as the red-tailed hawk glided into the tree, and I wondered if it had a nest in there. Nope. Just a crow-free rest stop. (I'd earlier seen a red-tail being mobbed by maybe a dozen crows.)

Water Specter at North Lake

Rainbows in the Sprinklers

You couldn't miss the great blue heron standing out in the open above the little island at its namesake lake.

A second heron was trying to keep cool at the top of a pine tree.

Balancing Act

There were three herons on the little island today.

* * *