Nature Where I Live: San Francisco: Hot & Cold

Lanky Coyote, Golden Gate Park

Two days in, the week is running hot and cold. Sunny and warm yesterday, foggy and wintry today. Walking into the wind toward the beach this morning was about as cold as it gets all year. Encounters with nature (not all of which I photographed) kept my mind off the cold, as did my change of direction when I took the Sunset Parkway into Golden Gate Park.

Neverthless, after about three hours I was borderline cold and hungry, and I almost skipped the bike ride afterward. I "almost" skip the bike ride from time to time, but I never actually do it. My stupid conscience always guilt-trips me into going, and I'm actually glad it does since the bike ride is always enjoyable once I get rolling.

Although I told myself I would just do the ride and make no stops to check out photo opportunities, I immediately hit the brakes for the coyote. She was so busy scratching and gnawing on fleas or whatever that she didn't immediately leave. I tried to intercept her trail when she did lope away through the tall grass but had no luck. She wasn't even drawing the attention of scolding birds. Coyotes are so good at hiding (as are so many animals) that I always savor even a brief encounter in the open.

It took me a second to realize this was Cotoneaster coriaceus (red cluster berry) without its striking clusters of red berries. It's interesting that some of the plants are full of berries right now while others are just flowering. Having berries at different times is probably a good thing for cedar waxwings and other berry-eating birds.

This is probably my favorite grass that I see around the city. The anthers are a nice reminder that grass is a flowering plant (and among the most successful and recently evolved of them all).

It's called Italian Ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum).

Although it wasn't really what I'd call "drizzling," some of the fog was condensing into tiny droplets that you could feel on your skin (and capture in pictures).

A fledgling Song Sparrow came out of hiding to noisily beg food from its parent, but soon clammed up and dove back into cover after spotting me on the nearby trail.

Black-crowned Night Heron at Mallard Lake

It was definitely hunting, but I didn't notice it actually catch anything in the short time I observed it.

A little farther up the trail I was surprised to see a duck lying down on a fallen log.

This guy was very nearby. Neither one moved as I stopped to check them out.

Here are both ducks in the same shot.

I'd seen the great blue heron from my night-heron observation point.

It was evidently a little tricky to get turned around to face me.

Red-shouldered Hawk Feather on Chilean Rhubarb Leaf

Some birds were making a fuss on the edge of Elk Glen Lake, making a sound I might not even have associated with a bird had it not been up in a tree. As I was looking for the source of the sound, two robins came flying out of the brush and landed nearby. The sound stopped. Maybe it had been coming from a fledgling robin (that I never saw).

Anna's Hummingbird Hitting a Fumitory Patch

This Anna's hummingbird was chill despite how close I was. That patch of white feathers, as well as her fearless demeanor, led me to wonder if she was an older adult, a senior among hummers who'd seen it all and didn't waste energy needlessly.

I'd wondered if the Allen's hummingbirds had departed the area until I finally saw one in the Salvia patch near Elk Glen Lake. Earlier, near Mallard Lake, I'd pulled out my Merlin app to identify a birdsong (which turned out to be a house wren, probably the same one I heard in the same area last week), and the app also "heard" a nearby Allen's hummingbird that I never saw.

I noticed several nervous robins and a Steller's jay making alarm calls, and soon spotted a red-tailed hawk. I didn't want to just photograph it sitting on the branch, but I almost didn't get a shot at all when it took off.