Waxies & Friends

 

Western Tanager at South Lake, Golden Gate Park

I pulled my bike off the road near South Lake to check out a boisterous bunch of cedar waxwings, hoping they would come down from the highest branches of the eucalyptus they seemed to be feeding in, when I spotted a western tanager on the sidelines. It's a rare pleasure for me to see such a beautiful songbird. 

As I watched the waxwings flutter high and low, always managing to keep a tangle of branches between us, the immediate area was bustling with hummingbirds, robins, sparrows, and even a pair of Pacific wrens. The waxies eventually massed together in their dozens and swirled off toward Middle Lake.

A huddle of waxies.

Cedar Waxwing

Three little babies wait for mom or dad to bring home the gopher bacon at Blue Heron Lake. Earlier on my bike ride I'd stopped where several people were staring at an adult GBH. Once I came to a stop I noticed it had blood on its beak and a lump in its throat. A pair of tourists confirmed that I'd just missed seeing it nab a gopher.

Family Time

I heard on KALW radio this morning that today, May 15, is Bring Flowers to Someone Day, so I took a couple of phone snaps while out for a walk.

There were lots of rhodies in bloom along the way.

Fog view on a windy and chilly morning at Golden Gate Heights Park.

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Wind's Up!

 

Swell Time at Ocean Beach

I noticed the wind had picked up and shifted during my walk this morning, and I looked forward to checking out the relatively rare offshore conditions at Ocean Beach during my bike ride. There were fewer surfers than I expected to find on such an apparently fun day to be in the water. For us folks on the beach it was another matter, with sand blowing into eyes and mouths. Kudos to the beach-cleaning crew that went to work in the midst of it all.

Full house with terns, pelicans, dogs, and human.

Wind conditions at Ocean Beach around noon today.

I told myself I wouldn't photograph every great blue heron I saw, but I couldn't resist stopping on the way to the beach when this one strolled into a field of yellow flowers.

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Great Blue Herons

 

GBH at Metson Lake

The great blue herons of Golden Gate Park seem to be out more than usual lately. I recently passed one hunting gophers in the thin grassy strip between the pedestrian path and the road, seemingly without a care about all the human activity around it. I didn't have time to stop and watch, but yesterday I was primed to stop at the first one I saw -- a beauty who flew out of one tree, sailed across the intersection of JFK and Transverse Drive, and landed in another tree.

They are definitely nesting at Blue Heron Lake, but I can't tell if any young have hatched yet. There are nests in the island trees near the boat docks, and also on the little island east of Strawberry Hill.

As I passed Metson Lake two days ago I didn't see any bird activity, but yesterday there were two great blue herons, a cormorant, a black-crowned night heron, and several turtles on the branches of the fallen tree.

Beautiful GBH in breeding plumage.

Two pairs of red-tails in flight eluded my camera's autofocus, but this youngster was placidly on lookout on one of the Murphy Windmill blades.

The California poppies, as well as the bees who visit them, are loving all the sunshine.

I think this was a first for me -- a western fence lizard in Golden Gate Park. This one was basking in the road on MLK not far from the windmill.

I don't know what all the ruffled feathers are about, but while the other GBH rested nearby, this one was constantly on the move and occasionally raised its head up and croaked, or pointed it down and clapped its beak.

A couple of turtles basking on the Metson Lake windfall.

Antsy GBH on the move...

...and striking a pose.

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Pier 39 Sea Lions

 

Sittin' by the dock of the bay, wastin' time.

One of my nephews is graduating from law school on Friday, so my sister and her husband are in town, staying at Fisherman's Wharf (which apparently has the most reasonably priced -- i.e., not $800/night -- hotels). I wish we had a guest room at our place, but even if we did it would probably be filled with art stuff. 

Anyway, despite being surrounded by chowder bowls and fried seafood we managed to find pretty good veggie sandwiches for lunch at the Boudin Bakery, then mosied on down to Pier 39 to visit one of the biggest crowds of sea lions I've ever seen hauled out on the floating docks there. Apparently they've been drawn in by huge numbers of anchovies. On the way to the pier we watched a lone sea lion who'd caught a crab as he chewed it up while gulls hovered overhead hoping for scraps.

Even though I'm home now, I can still hear the barking and belching of all those huge animals, and the smell.... You know how the smell of cigarettes gets in your clothes if you've been around smokers? It's kinda like that. And the wind was blowing it right onto us with enough force to create whitecaps on the bay.

Full House at Pier 39

Ah, the life.

Still wet and gleaming.

Territorial Tussle

Statuesque Sea Lion

Scritchin' and Scratchin'

Brown pelicans at rest on the edge of the bay.

King of the Docks

Snoozing with a belly full of anchovies.

A brief clip of the bunch.

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Yard Critters

 

Coco in the Garden

I recently brought the Tam Cams home and put them in our little garden to see who's been coming around lately. No real surprises, but a raccoon with a hairless tail came through, and I wonder if it's the same one that's been coming around for a couple of years.

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Morning on the Mountain

Bolinas Ridge View

 My wife took the day off yesterday to rejuvenate her spirit on Mt. Tam, so we took a short hike out to my trail cam location before heading out to find a good picnic spot to celebrate Beltane with bugs above Bolinas. While my wife painted watercolors in both locations, I poked around with the FZ80. 

There were lots of California poppies in the neighborhood along the ridge, as well as numerous small black flies that were dancing in the air around us. They never seemed to alight on anything, so I couldn't get a picture of them. But while I was taking pictures of various insects among the poppies I might have caught one by accident, although it was being preyed upon by a flower spider.

I've posted a short video below from the Tam Cam's latest location, including an intimate view of a young buck browsing on manzanita leaves in the wild. One of the clips is mainly about the morning birdsong, so be sure to have your speakers on. Incidentally, the GBGB birds were singing like crazy up there yesterday.

This guy puts the "giant" in giant crane fly. It sailed toward us as we hiked up Lagunitas-Rock Spring Road, then veered away and bounced ungracefully through the jungle of trailside plants before settling to rest on this young madrone.

Blue-eyed grass contemplating its shadow.

I've always called these zygadene lilies, but it has since been placed in a new genus as Toxicoscordion fremontii. It's also known as death camas (as the new genus implies), although a 150-pound person would have to consume three to nine pounds of the plant to get a fatal dose. 

We were in the neighborhood of the sickle-leaved onions, and although more were in bloom than I saw last time, there were still not very many. The critter-browsed leaves made them look even smaller.

As soon as I snapped the photo, the flower spider ducked behind the petals. At the time I hadn't even been able to tell what I'd just photographed.

I was surprised when I got home and saw that I'd caught a flower spider with some kind of fly in its grip. The fly looks like one of the many we experienced dancing in the air around us, but I can't say for sure.

A tussle of fluttering wings drew my attention to a pair of butterflies that presumably were mating. The pictures were blurry from the action, but they soon parted ways, leaving this one to cling peacefully to a stalk of grass while basking in the sun.

I caught this small beetle as it was exiting a poppy flower, presumably sated and ready to move on to its next adventure.

Only a tiny percentage of the poppies had insects in them, so I improvised with some non-native pinks.

Here's a pair of earwigs doing whatever earwigs do. The corolla looks pretty munched, so they might have started with the petals before moving down to the pollen and nectar. Although you can't tell from this shot, the other earwig did not appear to have horns (called forceps) on its hind end. This 1975 paper lists 10 species of earwig in California. Apparently they can fly, although thankfully they rarely do.

This little fella has pollen stuck all over itself.

Dual poppies with a duo of flies (one of which is airborne).

The darker fence lizard appeared to be the dominant reptile, but it only seemed to investigate its neighbor rather than tussle with it or give chase. Much of the time they shared the rock quite close to eachother.

But it was always the dark one, flashing blue, who showed who's boss.

A few clips from the Tam Cam, one of which is included specifically for the birdsong in the background.

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