Flyers

 

Red-bellied Sapsucker, Golden Gate Park

It was so densely foggy when I began my ride up to Mt. Tam on Thursday morning that I had to take off my glasses to get a clear view of where I was going, especially in the Presidio where fog-drip puddles might conceal road hazards. The fog remained heavy across the Golden Gate Bridge until it abruptly faded near the northern end, where the day became instantly sunny and warm.

There's been very little activity at the trail cams on Mt. Tam. I brought the cams home to get them out of the creek bed before it rains.

There was a 5.8-foot high tide at Richardson Bay right around the time I returned, so I was surprised by all the flooding on the bike route between Mill Valley and Sausalito. In normal times that area wouldn't flood below around 6.5 feet, but I hadn't accounted for the "super El Niño" effects, which can turn a 5-foot tide prediction based on lunar charts into an actual 6-foot tide.

Except for heavy fog on the Golden Gate Bridge, the sun was out in San Francisco by the time I got back, so I ate lunch, took a shower, and drove down to Middle Lake to try to get a better view of the popular vagrant that birders were still reporting there. Although it didn't show itself while I was there, it was nice to see my first-of-season Red-bellied Sapsucker, which I last photographed near South Lake back in January. We were first drawn to the bird by its interesting call while it remained out of sight, high in a densely-branched tree. Lucky for us, it soon swooped down within sight and camera range.

As I circled Middle Lake a couple of times without seeing the esteemed visitor, I became interested in the dragonflies. I'd never photographed Black Saddlebags or Common Green Darner in San Francisco before. I thought about how cool it is that a dragonfly begins its life crawling around underwater before finally climbing out to become a creature that can fly.

I also spotted an Umber Skipper that was perched on a Beach Strawberry leaf, where it was being dive-bombed by another umber skipper. The perched one would begin to vibrate its wings, and the other would begin to swoop around it. It had to be a mating ritual, but the two flew away before consummating anything in my presence.

The pool is a shallow version of its once proud self after being filled with gravel in the storms of 2022-23, and even a local Gray Fox only dropped by a couple of times in three weeks. (Composite image.)

Coyote Creek came all the way up to the boardwalk.

Luckily it was just a small portion of the Mill Valley-Sausalito Pathway that completely flooded. I hate riding my bike through salt water. I was able to ride an alternate route to avoid the worst of the flooding around the freeway interchange.

I didn't see any Turkey Vultures while I was on Mt. Tam. This one was flying over Middle Lake.

This is a composite image with the swooping skipper caught in two places.

Skipper Courtship Display

There were some unusual flying critters in the sky, and I wondered what the vagrant bird from South of the Border thought about the roaring Blue Angels.

The first time I photographed a Common Green Darner was in the Chicago area. I didn't even realize we had them here.

When I looked up Black Saddlebags dragonflies on iNaturalist this morning, the most recent sighting listed was in Texas, so these guys get around too.

* * *