The GBGB Bird

 

Black-throated Gray Warbler, aka GBGB Bird

Not to be confused with the tookie-tookie bird, it's pronounced "Jee-Bee-Jee-Bee," kind of like the old New York punk-rock venue CBGB. I've noticed its melodious call on Mt. Tamalpais from time to time over the years, and thanks to the Merlin Bird ID app on my phone I was finally able to find its official name: black-throated gray warbler. Although I've never been able to put my eyes on one on Mt. Tam, I actually had photographed one once before, in October 2009 at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. 

When I tried to confirm the call on All About Birds, only the version recorded on April 14, 1986 on this page matched the jee-bee-jee-bee-jee-bee that I hear on Mt. Tam. The other calls were quite different. I've also noticed on my city walks recently that white-crowned sparrows (probably one of the most commonly heard songbirds in San Francisco) have slightly different songs from one neighborhood to another. It's just confusing enough to my untrained ears that I recently had to use Merlin to verify that a song sparrow was in fact a song sparrow and not a white-crowned sparrow with a unique call.

I most recently invoked the Merlin app on the GBGB bird when I was on Mt. Tam on Thursday. In addition to the target bird, the app also recorded (from the same location) brown creeper, acorn woodpecker, red-breasted nuthatch, northern flicker, wild turkey, hermit thrush, pacific-slope flycatcher, brown-headed cowbird, purple finch, and warbling vireo. It all made an excellent soundscape to enjoy with the little picnic lunch I'd brought with me.

Anyway, I had some spare time this morning and walked down the hill to Strybing Arboretum to see what birds I might find. I brought my very compact FZ80, but envied a couple of other photographers with nicer cameras that were still light enough for hand-held shots. One guy had an Olympus with what he said was a 600mm lens that looked surprisingly small. I hadn't been inside the arboretum in a good while, and it was interesting to see the changes around the nursery greenhouse and pond by the California Garden, and some nice upgrades to the Children's Garden (which even had some children in it).

A pair of Pacific Wrens were calling like crazy from nearby trees, but I couldn't get a decent picture, so I settled for this shot of iris on the edge of the Dwarf Conifer Pond.

Anna's Hummingbird

This pugnacious Allen's Hummingbird was spending so much time chasing away other hummers, like the Anna's above, that I wondered when it found time to eat enough to maintain its energy.

Much of the old California Pipevine area has been razed during construction of the area around the new nursery greenhouse, but there must be enough still around to support Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies like this one gathering nectar from Sticky Monkey Flower.

A pair of House Finches keeps watch from an old Yucca branch in the Succulent Garden.

I waited with a couple other photographers to catch one of these Tree Swallows entering and/or exiting one of the nest holes in this old Yucca stalk, but I gave up before seeing it happen.

Just above the Succulent Garden, a Red-shouldered Hawk was bringing material to its nest higher up in this Eucalyptus tree.

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Trip to the Tam Cams

 

A fading patch of goldfields along Bolinas Ridge.

I'd mentally prepared myself the day before to ride into cold, foggy headwinds to check my trail cams on Thursday, but the morning turned out to be a gift of calm and clarity. As my first view of the Marin Headlands opened up from the Presidio, a dappled sunlight caressed the mountains. I stopped to pull the FZ80 out of my trunk bag even though I was pretty sure it would be a futile attempt to capture the light, although a ship came along to give the scene a little more interest. At the Golden Gate Bridge I stopped again when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a beautifully sunlit and well-placed iris patch.

The fog had been thick to the south when I started out, but it looked clear to the north. As I crossed the bridge I thought it might have been another good day for Chimney Rock. But when I reached Pantoll the wind and fog was billowing up the western slopes. Even Stinson Beach was invisible, and Point Reyes was probably in a gale. The change in weather came on so suddenly that it was hard to believe it had really been clear and calm when I started out. 

The bulk carrier Port Pegasus heads out of the Golden Gate.

Springtime at the Bridge

All but one of the calypso orchids at the Bootjack parking lot spot I've mentioned in previous posts have faded away. 

Sun and Fog on Bolinas Ridge

Goldfield Meadow with Oak and Encroaching Douglas Firs

California Poppies and Cobwebby Thistle on Bolinas Ridge

A Very Downy Turkey Feather

Mournful Duskywing & Blue Dicks

Numerous Chalcedon Checkerspots were enjoying the sun at the Presidio's Immigrant Point Overlook.

As I was watching the butterflies, a pair of F/A-18F Super Hornets from the VFA-41 Black Aces strike fighter squadron flew over the bay toward the Golden Gate Bridge. Their base is in Lemoore, south of Fresno, about 175 miles away as the crow flies, and potentially just 15 minutes away.

I was watching butterflies and Super Hornets to kill time until this container ship, the One Hannover, would get in position to show the difference in the quality of light, since earlier in the day, on the background hills. Note the flock of pelicans wheeling above the ship.

Bobcat

Turkey and Junco

Gray Fox

Coyote

Tam Cam Video Clips

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Morning at Pt. Reyes

 

Yellow Bush Lupine Above Point Reyes Beach

Looking at the weather forecast over the weekend, it looked like today might be the best day this week to head out to Point Reyes National Seashore to check out the current state of the wildflower bloom. By "best," I mean I didn't want to spend hours in the car to do photography in rain or heavy fog. I think the last time I was there, the fog was really socked in, and I never even took my camera out of the bag. Not that Pt. Reyes in the fog can't be amazing, but you have to be in the mood for it.

It was still well before sunrise this morning as I approached Nicasio Reservoir and Black Mountain and noticed some tell-tale patches of darkness blowing across in the sky. There was definitely some fog in the air, but it wasn't too bad, even all the way out at Chimney Rock (where I was pleasantly surprised that they'd resurfaced the beat-up road out by the Historic A and B Ranches).

I had Chimney Rock all to myself for the couple of hours I was out there. A few deer kept their eyes on me, a raven kept watch from the bluffs, and a peregrine falcon perched on a rocky fin high above a small group of very vocal seals on the beach below. I kept hearing voices and thinking hikers were finally arriving, only to realize the sound of merriment was coming from the seals.

Waning Moon Above Inverness Ridge

Wild Mustard at Drake's Estero

Getting My Bucks In A Row

Deer in Iris Meadow Near Chimney Rock

Morning Poetry Over Drake's Bay

Bush Lupine Along Chimney Rock Trail

Small Iris Patch

Point Reyes Bluffs

Seaside Daisy

Douglas Iris

Patch of Tidy Tips

Seaside Daisies & Goldfields

Point Reyes Beach
(with two deer at lower left)

Deer Browsing Among the Wildflowers

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Zooming In

 

Red-Shouldered Hawk in Golden Gate Park

Interesting mix of sun and clouds yesterday, with a fine line often separating blue skies from billowing clouds. Looking out at Seal Rocks from the Cliff House, the sky was practically clear, and dozens of Brandt's cormorants preened in the sun's warmth on the guano-painted little islands. A slight turn of the head toward Mt. Tamalpais, however, showed mountains of clouds towering over the pusher tug Jake Shearer as it barged into San Francisco Bay on its way to port in Rodeo. On the back of the barge in large lettering was "Fight Fanconi Anemia," a rare genetic disease that took the life of young Jake Shearer in 2003.

Seal Rocks

Zooming In

Zooming More

The Articulated Tug Barge Jake Shearer and Fight Fanconi Anemia enters the Golden Gate.

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Taking Out the Trash

(Click to view larger.)

Along the route of my daily walk I've often been amazed by the trash piled up around this can near the bus stop at Noriega Street and 28th Avenue. At some point I couldn't resist taking a picture to start a series, and this is it. 

Overflowing trash cans are a common sight all over the city, and this can is obviously overflowing because people are dumping their household trash. I knew a couple of artists who saved money by cancelling their trash pick-up. They also worked hard to keep their trash to a minimum, and certainly kept it far below the average of 2.7 pounds per day per San Franciscan, which seems high to me. If you don't count all the compost and recycling (much of it probably wish-cycling that ends up in the landfill), even my wife and I produce far less than that average. Of course, getting rid of one old couch (as someone did in the last frame above) could raise your average quite a bit.

What strikes me about this can is that, almost without exception, the trash is piled neatly. And not only that, but the city diligently picks it up so that it's never out there more than a day or two. The trash I see on the way to the beach is often gone by the time I pass it again on my return trip home. I used to wonder if the city ever went through the trash or tried any other way to figure out who was dumping it, but I suspect it's just one of those things the city takes in stride.

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Rhodies in the Park

 

Rhododendron Display in Golden Gate Park

I walked down to Ocean Beach after the rain let up late yesterday morning and was pleasantly surprised when I got there to find offshore winds blowing spindrift off the backs of a clean swell. One of the two main groups of surfers I could see was a good distance south of Noriega, and the other just north, but I only had my phone camera with me. After  taking a few minutes to fill up on the beauty of the ocean I turned around to walk home and was treated to a fantastic display of tattered storm clouds. 

At home I grabbed my FZ80 and rain gear, then biked back down to the beach by way of John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, where I was stopped by a sensational rhododendron garden at the top of Lindley Meadow. I've been appreciating the blooming rhodies and azaleas all over the park for some time, but this display went above and beyond.

I eventually reached the beach and rode out the Upper Great Highway (the southbound lanes were closed to cars) back to Noriega Street, but the wind had shifted to side-shore, the tide had come in a bit, and the swell had mostly turned to mush. 

I hung around for a while anyway, but my hope of getting at least one decent surf shot finally ran out. The sky was threatening rain again, and I had been sprinkled on pretty good for a few minutes, but I was a little disappointed, since I was dressed head to toe in rain gear, that it didn't start raining again in earnest until well after I got home. 

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Forest Abstracts

 

For a guy who almost always uses a tripod for nature photography it feels liberating to just let it all go, and take "camera shake" to a whole new level. For these images I picked a likely spot on Mt. Tamalpais, somewhere that had some pleasing spring colors, then made slow exposures of 1/2 to 1/8 of a second while moving my camera around in various ways. I was surprised how much I liked the images of the resulting chaos. They all remind me of something, though it's hard to say what. Maybe of being in a dream.

More Time Lapse Action

(5/2/23)

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