Bird Medley

 

Walking Surf Scoter, Ocean Beach

I'm pretty sure I'd never seen a surf scoter on foot before today. This one was working the rough, splashing shallows in front of Sutro Baths and would occasionally get swept among the rocks by the currents of flowing shorebreak. This time the scoter decided to take an overland route to get back where he wanted to be. He was feeding in an interesting way, burying his beak part way into the sand and rapidly "munching" as the shorebreak retreated after washing up the beach.

I was less than a block out the front door this morning when a red-shouldered hawk swooped down onto the power pole, being chased by a few crows. 

The crows weren't content to let it hang around here, either, and the hawk flew away to escape the harassment.

Northern Flicker Near Bison Paddock
(Quite a few cedar waxwings were hawking insects from the flicker's pine tree and adjacent eucalyptus, but the waxies were too high up to photograph.)

Several yellow-rumped warblers were hawking insects from the cover of a redwood at North Lake.

Unattended Eagle Eggs

Less Than Five Minutes Later

It's Hot Up There

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Birdsong Weather

 

Singing Townsend's Warbler, North Lake

I watched the Townsend's warbler intermittently preen and sing for quite a while before it resumed its hunt for insects. The weather this morning was "California crisp" -- clear and bright, but cool enough for a light jacket. Birdsong trilling high in the trees in many places. A perfect day to be out on foot or bike. My only wish for improvement would be for people the world over to be able to share our good fortune to safely enjoy a beautiful day outside.

Spotted another sundog this morning, photographing it through the window. It was gone by the time I got outside.

I'm still hearing the lovely song of golden-crowned sparrows in the neighborhood. They are probably getting ready to head north to their breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska.

A female hairy woodpecker was working the other side of this large pine next to a house in Forest Hill while the male pecked into the bark on my side.

The main birdsong in many parts of the city is often the white-crowned sparrow. This one was broadcasting its song from atop an ornate and very tall old light post, owning the soundscape in Golden Gate Heights.

Ohio Buckeye, North Lake

I was surprised there were no hummingbirds working this huge patch of pride-of-madeira in Golden Gate Park.

That's okay. More for the bumblebees.

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Bathing Beauty

 

Bathing Allen's Hummingbird, Mallard Lake

I'd love to know if this is the same Allen's hummingbird who bathed in the little creek in the same place last year. There are any number of apparently good bathing spots along the length of the creek, and this spot is out in the open next to a trail. It flew away when I first showed up, but all I had to do was sit on a nearby log and wait for its return. I can't tell if the same hummer dropped in twice, or if they were two different birds.

When the weather forecasters said the heat wave was going to end, I expected a wall of fog to come rolling in to cool things off. Instead, there is just a hint of hazy fog, and it's still sunny with beautifully warm spring days here in San Francisco. 

Droplet On The Beak

The morning light coming through these banana-like leaves was irresistible.

And since the Chilean rhubarb was so close by....

The latticed stinkhorn was in bloom near the backlit leaves (east of Mallard Lake), with quite a few "eggs" still ready to sprout.

Fly Perfume Factory

There were two separate female Anna's hummingbirds feeding in the same small area, seemingly at ease with each other's presence.

I was surprised to see them nectaring on these wild radish flowers on the edge of Elk Glen Lake. There were lots more of these plants a little farther from the lake, but they were being left alone.

This little Allen's hummingbird chased a female Anna's hummingbird out of the big Salvia gesneriiflora patch.

California Darner In The Salvia Patch
(ignored by the hummingbird)

It's been awhile since I saw gas over six dollars on 19th Avenue. Here it's $6.29 for regular, $7.89 for diesel.

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Tam Cam Check

 

Young Bucks This Morning, Mt. Tamalpais

I left the trail cameras alone for about a month and was surprised to find not a single coyote or bobcat on any of the frames. The animals that showed up the most were deer, fox, squirrel, and most surprisingly, varied thrush.

I just finished reading Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, by Carl Zimmer. It was the first I'd heard of aerobiologists, scientists who study the microorganisms that live everywhere from the air around us, to up in the clouds, to high in the stratosphere. It was interesting to read a history of medicine from before the time microscopes came along, to the recent Covid-19 pandemic in which medical professionals refused to accept that the virus could travel as an aerosol, rather than as large droplets that would fall to the ground after traveling only a few feet.

"The conflict between Group 36 [who published Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Inhalation of Respiratory Aerosol in the Skagit Valley Chorale Superspreading Event] and WHO echoed William Firth Wells's struggles eight decades earlier. Wells had looked at diseases with an engineer's eye, using physics and statistics to track movements of pathogens inside droplets. He discovered that none of that mattered much to doctors, who put more stock in epidemiology. . . . In an August 2020 commentary, John Conly and his colleagues at the WHO Infection Prevention and Control Research and Development Expert Group for COVID-19 dismissed the Group 36 studies as 'opinion pieces' rather than rigorous science. They declared that 'SARS-CoV-2 is not spread by the airborne route to any significant extent.'"

Eventually the medical experts came around to the fact that it can indeed spread much farther than previously assumed. The interesting thing for me was how general acceptance of new scientific paradigms often comes very slowly, and often after careers have been destroyed by closed-minded authorities.

Another Beautiful Day on the Mountain

A gray fox leaves a little scent mark on a rock.

This fox checks out the scent but doesn't add one of its own.

Foxtail

A skunk came through on two occasions.

A fox reinvigorates its scent-mark on the rock.

This was the only jackrabbit to pass through.

A fox is wary of the trail camera.

I was surprised to see a couple of wild turkey toms displaying in the woods, with no one around to admire them. Just getting warmed up, maybe.

Tam Cam Clips

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Oaks in Bloom

 

Townsend's Warbler, Golden Gate Park Oak Woodlands

There were several Townsend's warblers singing in the Oak Woodlands this morning, but the one above wasn't one of them. It just happened to be caught with its beak open. At one point I heard two Townies singing from branches in the same oak tree, resulting in a territorial dispute that turned into a chase from one tree to another accompanied by boisterous vocal scolding.

The first day of spring has felt really great despite the heat. On the one hand, it's just another day, but on the other it's an astronomical turning point that can also  be celebrated as a time of spiritual renewal. Even as the world celebrates a turn toward greater daylight, world events on nature's human stage have taken a turn toward greater darkness. Nevertheless, spring is a time for optimism, nuturing, and growth, and the evidence isn't on the nightly news, but right outside the door.

Dangling Oak Catkins

There's a nicely camouflaged yellow-rumped warbler in there.

Bushtit with Wings Extended
(It was birdy around the Horseshoe Courts, so I hung around awhile.)

A Townsend's warbler hunted at length in a nearby oak tree, rarely coming out in the open.

The mourning dove noisily fluttered right over my head to land on the fence railing but soon lost its nerve: too close to the human. The moment I moved, it flew to safety in the oak woodland.

Townie in the Oak

A set of jacks has joined the alphabet blocks near the Conservatory of Flowers.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee Gathering Nest Material from a Cycad

Chickadee With a Full Beak

A great blue heron was lurking in the foliage at Lily Lake, but soon realized it was too close to the pedestrian path for comfort.

It took off and tried to land on a chunk of tree, but the chunk was merely floating on the surface and couldn't support the heron's weight. The bird then tried to land on the duckweed-covered surface but the water was deeper than its legs were long. It finally flapped over to the opposite bank and fluffled its feathers to dry out.

A normally sleek-looking tree swallow fluffs its feathers on a pine branch overlooking the Bison Paddock.

A Western bluebird about to take wing.

I'd seen the Northern flicker land on a branch in the pine tree. After several minutes it dropped down to the ground to begin hunting.

It was a little tricky to focus and shoot through the chain-link fence, but the flicker tolerated my presence for quite a while.

Cedar Waxwing at Middle Lake

Singing White-crowned Sparrow

California Poppy at Middle Lake

Blue-eyed Grass

Hummingbird Sage

Hot Days for the Nesting Bald Eagles

I was worried when I saw this scene, especially since you could hear a raven in the background. A raven destroyed the eagles' previous eggs when they were left unattended.

Thankfully one of the eagles (still panting in the heat), returned a few minutes later.

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