Mile Rock Beach

 

Huge Ochre Sea Stars & Anemone, Mile Rock Beach, San Francisco

It could be, at least a little bit, that I haven't seen sea stars in so long that I forgot how big they are, but almost all of the ones I saw at Mile Rock Beach today were huge. The mussel beds clinging to the shore rocks were in great shape and no doubt help the sea stars (which eat them) get so big.

I biked out there, taking a dirt trail from Land's End, and arrived at just about the peak of low tide around 11 a.m. And I was glad it was a minus tide because some good-sized swells were constantly looming up and thundering against the shore. 

Peering in to the few tidepools I could reach, I didn't see much going on, and it was probably too much to expect to see any dainty little nudibranchs in such a powerful surf zone. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised to find so much shore life right here in San Francisco. In addition to the main creatures in the photo above, you can also find aggregating anemones, barnacles, a couple of chitons, crusty-looking sponges, and some kelp. 

Low tide with what's left of the old Mile Rock Light circled in red.

A host of limpets of various sizes waits for the incoming tide, surrounded by barnacle cases.

A pink sponge (at least, I think that's what it is) holds on against a tide of aggregating anemones.

The 7.5-foot swell (according to these guys) made low tide seem a little less low.

The swells plowing into the big rock blocking the view of the Golden Gate Bridge were the most thunderous of all. Just the sound of it kind of gave me the willies as I got as close to the edge as I dared.

Healthy Mussel Bed

Two-tone ochre sea star casually lounging in the tidal zone.

The lined shore crab was putting something in its mouth, but I don't think it was pieces of sea star. However, like many animals that are mostly plant eaters (plants being easier to catch), these crabs are omnivorous.

Gooseneck barnacles among the mussels.

Another lined shore crab, just before it ducked under a rock, stage left.

This western gull landed on the mussel bed and got busy plucking food right away. I couldn't see what it was eating and thought, because it was so busy, that it must be easy-to-catch algae...

...until I zoomed in on the picture when I got home. In this crop of the previous photo, you can just make out a tiny claw on the creature in the gull's beak.

This was a very handsome gull, and definitely provided a contrast against a bunch of young gulls and ravens that I saw fighting over some trash on the Great Highway as I rode home.

Okay, time to get out of here....

I locked up to the post with the same cable and U-lock combo I use when I lock my bike to a tree on Mt. Tam. I also took the battery with me. Not that I think bike theives frequent this area, but I figure a heavy e-bike with no battery isn't going to be anyone's idea of a joy ride.

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Monday Snaps

 

Red-tailed Hawk on the Lookout

Hawks, gulls, ravens, and pigeons are a common sight on light poles along the Great Highway next to Ocean Beach. Hawks use them as hunting perches, while the other birds usually use them for resting. This hawk was being harassed by a raven when I stopped my bike to check him out. I'd hoped to get a shot of the raven dive-bombing the hawk, but the raven flew away as soon as I got my camera out.

Before I left on my walk to the beach this morning I noticed it was hardly windy at all outside my windows, so I double-checked Windy.com to see if the coast was calm where I've been wanting to go tidepooling. The web site showed pretty strong winds, so I left home not quite convinced -- until I got my first look at the ocean. There were whitecaps out to the horizon, but they did not start until a mile or so off the coast. It was kind of interesting to see the wind coming in at such an angle that it missed the immediate coast here while pummeling the coast farther south.

I wondered if this hawk was one of the pair that I often see perching high on the blades of the nearby Murphy Windmill.

The wind had picked up quite a bit by the time I was near the beach on my bike, but the hawk had no trouble keeping its footing. When he took off, the wind carried him away so fast I didn't even see which way he went. That is, by the time I took my eye away from the camera's viewfinder he was gone. A nearby raven squawked, but only once.

Earlier on my walk down Ortega Street I saw this battered, but still alive, red admiral butterfly on the sidewalk and wondered if a bird had taken a swipe at it. That's a lot of wing to lose. (Closer to home I saw a lot of pipevine swallowtails but couldn't get a shot with my phone.)

Rock Purslane near the beach.

Wind-blown sand had closed the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard.

The great blue heron crossed MLK Jr. Drive to see if the grass was greener on the other side. It patiently endured passing joggers, dog-walkers, bike riders, a lady trying to get close enough for a phone-snap, and even a thundering garbage truck (which seemed to frighten it the most). The cross street is Chain of Lakes Drive, which also had a lot of motor vehicle traffic on it.

He'd just made a stab at what I assume was a gopher, but missed.

He had to take cover in the tall grass a couple of times when the humanity became too much.

He was determined to catch some lunch though. When he folded up a leg to settle in for perhaps a long wait for something to poke its head out of a hole, I decided it was time to get home to feed the cat and get some lunch of my own.

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Friday Snaps

 

Lichen & Red-Shouldered Hawk

I'd hoped to be an early bird at the tidepools this week, but the wind has been too strong. Next week looks good too (and not so early), so my fingers are crossed for the wind to blow itself out over the weekend. In the meantime, I took my itchy shutter-finger out for my usual walk and bike ride today and came back with a few snapshots that might or might not be worth sharing....

I don't usually bring the FZ80 along on my walks, but I hoped I might spot some cedar waxwings since I've been hearing them high in the trees every day.

As I headed into the Oak Woodland at Golden Gate Park I got stuck behind a school group and thought they would scare away all the birds. But they kept moving, so I stopped, and soon a flock of cedar waxwings showed up.

The waxies flitted through the eucalyptus trees pretty quickly and moved from open shade to deep shade, making it impossible for me to get any better shots than these.

Lots of flannel bush (Fremontodendron californucum) in bloom throughout the park.

The red-shouldered hawk couldn't have picked a better perch. The gauzy lichen reminds me of the sails on a ghost pirate ship.

Fluffle Ruffle

Phone snap of an oak on a quiet path next to noisy Lincoln Way.

It's been windy all week, but today might win out for the windiest. I wasn't sure how I was going to photograph the wind until I saw this guy kite-boarding at Ocean Beach.

This looked like a group of potential kite-boarders, but only one guy was in the water. That's the Marin Headlands and Mt. Tam in the background.

Along the Esplanade

I hadn't seen the black-crowned night heron all week, but today I caught him snoozing in the branches with a turtle pal nearby.

Metson Lake with fallen tree where herons and turtles hang out.

Metson Lake Robin

One of the nesting great blue herons at Blue Heron Lake (formerly Stow Lake). The heron was slightly wobbly standing on its nest in the strong wind. It appeared a bit antsy, too, and sure enough...

...it soon flew away, toward the boat dock. (It didn't fly away on my account; I was far away, with the FZ80 extended to its maximum 1200mm.)

This is a phone snap from earlier in the week, when I was struck by a bumblebee forcing its way into California poppy flowers that were refusing to open up to the foggy day.

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Earth Day

 

California Gold Field

This afternoon I heard President Biden on a radio news program use the phrase, "Come hell or high water." Also in the news recently: extreme heat and flooded cities. It appears that hell and high water are here already.

Like me, a lot of people (for a Monday) headed up to Mt. Tamalpais to celebrate Earth Day with a beautiful spring hike. I arrived at opening time, 7 a.m., and hardly saw another soul for more than an hour. The only exception was a bicyclist who stopped to snap a photo of the ocean and rolling green hills of Bolinas Ridge. 

I hiked up the Lagunitas-Rock Spring Road to a serpentine outcrop to look for sickle-leaved onions and was pleasantly delayed by the temptation of Douglas iris flowers. I was early for the onions, which were putting up enclosed buds for the most part, so I observed all the insects necataring among the manzaitas for a while, then headed back to the serpentine outcrop near Rock Spring which I recently visited on a bike ride. 

While trying to protect my bare knees from sharp pebbles, I was hunkered down over a sprig of phacelia when a curiously high number of cars drove by. Later on I drove out to the redwoods near the intersection of West Ridgecrest and Fairfax-Bolinas Road to look for Clintonia andrewsiana. All the parking spots were taken: I'd found the destination of that train of cars.

Morning sun on the hills, with a hazy layer of fog over the Pacific.

Iris flower with still-sleeping insect.

A lighter-colored batch.

One of the very few sickle-leaved onions I found blooming in the serpentine.

Nectar of the gods... and the drone flies...

...and the bumblebees...

...and crazy-looking flies.

Damsel at Rest

Phacelia divaricata

Cream Cups (Platystemon californicus)

This was a different patch of goldfields.

Focus-stacked version to capture the foreground goldfield flowers.

Like the sickle-leaved onions, it was a little early for the Clintonia at my go-to spot under some redwoods on Bolinas Ridge, but a few of the rosy flowers had opened up atop their tall, slender stems.

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