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| Hairy Woodpecker Nabs A Spider, Golden Gate Park |
Well, it was 41 degrees when I began my walk this morning. A light breeze likely put the wind chill at around 39. Definitely one of the coldest mornings I've experienced here. Nevertheless, it felt great to be out and about after enduring a week of frequent rain and howling winds.
I'd left the house on Thursday only to greatly shorten my route when I saw a dark band of rain clouds that stretched across the whole horizon. I knew there would be no escape from that thing, and I was glad to have at least gotten in a short walk while making it home with five minutes to spare.
I'd briefly flirted with the idea of going up to Yosemite to be in the snow, but it's just as well that I nixed the idea. Rangers closed the gates on Thursday afternoon and required visitors who were still there today to leave.
It was great to get out and do my usual thing today anyway. Encounters that made my day were a singing house sparrow in the Haight, a mating pair of red-shouldered hawks near the Fuchsia Dell, the return of the Bison Paddock's Allen's hummingbird, and encounters with a flock of feasting robins (with no cedar waxwings joining them), a Hutton's vireo, and both a hairy and a downy woodpecker.
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| House Sparrow Goes Full Urban Jungle, Haight Ashbury |
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| At first I ignored the red-shouldered hawk squawking in a nearby tree, but when I finally looked up I saw that there were two of them and they had just copulated. The female is on the right. |
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| Tiny Yellow Papaya Flower, Lily Lake |
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| Head-scratching Hummer |
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| This Anna's hummingbird dive-bombed the Allen's a few times but never scared it off its branch. |
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| It looked up when the hummer dove from above, but never really flinched. (Here it's just fluffing its feathers, not responding to the other hummer.) |
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| It's in the same pokeberry bush as last year, but so far the bush remains just a skeleton. Maybe its taproot is waiting for warmer weather to send up a new season's shoots. |
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| Hutton's Vireo Near Murphy Windmill |
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| Vireo Snags A Caterpillar |
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| Pose in Repose |
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| Dozens of robins had descended on this large patch of Persian ivy along MLK Jr. Drive west of Chain of Lakes. |
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| I watched and listened for the sound of cedar waxwings (small flocks of which I've seen around my neighborhood lately), but the robins had the place all to themselves. |
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| Spider Goes Down The Hatch |
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| The pied-billed grebes were back at the nest, adding a few leaves and twigs, and sitting pretty. No eggs yet. |
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| The downy woodpecker was back in the willows near the grebe nest, and this time it gave me a much nicer pose. |
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| Couldn't resist stopping for another look at the buffleheads. The Northern shovelers and ruddy ducks are also still around. |
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| I ride past this tree on 10th Avenue pretty much every day, but today was the first time I'd heard our neighborhood red-masked paraketes in it. |
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| A couple of crows were keeping them company. |
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| This was the view toward Carrizo Plain this morning. |
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| Shasta This Morning |
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| Yosemite Valley This Morning |
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| And three shots from the High Country this morning. |
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