Nature Where I Live: San Francisco: Town & Country

Sonoma Chipmunk, Mt. Tamalpais

My wife wanted to have a lunchtime picnic on Mt. Tam, so I spent some time looking for birds in the SF Botanical Garden earlier in the morning. I had a nice walk but only photographed a few of the usual suspects and didn't expect to post anything to the blog. I guess the chipmunk sort of changed my mind. And the velvet-antlered buck, the acorn woodpeckers, the California quail, and the wood nymph butterfly. As beautiful, and sometimes even bountiful, as San Francisco nature can be, my spirits needed a change of scenery.

Chickadee Foraging on Poison Hemlock

I don't know if the bushtit thought it had caught a caterpillar, but it just turned out to be a thread of plant material.

Bushtits always travel in groups, so if you miss the photo on one of them, you'll probably get another chance.

The robin ate a couple of berries, but nabbed them so quickly that I couldn't get a shot with a berry in its beak.

I settled for this Anna's hummingbird, but I'd wanted to photograph an Allen's hummingbird to show that they are still around. Alas, they were too skittish for me this morning. As I was waiting for one to return to a favorite perch in the Children's Garden, a coyote wandered into view but hurried into cover when it saw me.

I think this is hairy dude is some kind of bee fly.

I was heading out of the garden and just about to put my camera back in the knapsack when a fellow birder pointed out this red-shouldered hawk on a low branch next to the trail.

It was very amenable to being photographed, and we thought it might be a youngster. I hoped mom would show up with a prey item, but junior flew away before it could happen.

It was quite foggy and windy up at Rock Spring. I took a short hike to set out a trail camera, but we drove to a different spot for the picnic.

This velvet-antlered buck greeted us as we carried our gear up to the picnic tables.

The acorn woodpeckers were uncharacteristically quiet today.

It's that time of year when the acorn pantries are just about empty, and before the new season's acorns are ready for collection.

I rarely see chipmunks on Mt. Tam, and even more rarely do I get a chance to photograph one of them.

I saw a dark spot in some bare branches and could only tell it was a quail when I looked through my 840mm lens.

Wood Nymph Resting in Meadow of Dry Grass

Plant Bug in Oxeye Daisy

Back on Tuesday I did my usual SF walk and was surprised to see a banana slug -- and not just one, but quite a few, all in the same small area at the base of Rocky Outcrop Park on 14th Avenue.

I circled the slugs in this phone snap to show where it was. Earlier I'd stood in a different spot and counted 18 banana slugs within my field of view.

I loved the way this velvet grass (Holcus lanatus) at Mallard Lake is compressed on the stem lower down, only to open up in a feathery plume neara the top.