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| Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher with Orb-Weaver, Golden Gate Park |
San Francisco's esteemed visitor from South of the Border made a lot of people happy this morning at Middle Lake. A dozen or so birders and photographers, at least one of whom had driven four hours to get there, had several opportunities to observe the stout-beaked flycatcher. Ironically, I had a relatively easy time photographing the rare vagrant while suffering total failure trying to photograph my local nemesis.
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| Perched on some willow stalks, the flycatcher surprised me by hacking up a pellet of indigestible insects' and/or spiders' exoskeletons. |
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| The morning was free of fog, making for some strongly back-lit angles. |
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| Rear View of the Sulphur-belly |
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| In the morning's first sighting I had to settle for seeing the flycatcher at a considerable distance across the lake, and I had trouble spotting it even with my glasses on and others pointing it out. |
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| Another view across Middle Lake. |
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| Looking almost straight up a tree. |
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| The flycatcher tried to swallow the huge orb-weaving spider once but coughed it back up, then successfully kept it down on the second swallow. |
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| Unfortunate shot, but it shows the flycatcher trying to sort of hover in order to snag a spider off its silky web. |
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| I didn't see the Belted Kingfisher make the catch, but it held the fish in its beak for a few moments before tossing it down the hatch. |
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| After the kingfisher left, a Great Egret flew over to perch on the same group of logs on the edge of the lake. |
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Anna's Hummingbird on Tobacco Flowers, Middle Lake
(I recently dried out one of these tobacco leaves as best I could. They are extremely resinous. Burning it, an oily black smoke rose up, and the odor was semi-pleasant, at least to my nose. It didn't remind me of commercial tobacco's smell at all.) |
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| I didn't see any back saddlebags skimmers at Middle Lake this morning, but a couple of Blue-eyed Darners were on patrol. |
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| Heading home via South Lake, I stopped when I heard my nemesis bird, which of course eluded me, as usual. I took an interest in the Double-crested Cormorant sunning itself instead. |
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| A lovely Great Blue Heron was poised just above and behind the cormorant. |
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| Sailing to a New Branch |
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