Feathered Finds

 

Black-headed Grosbeak, El Polin Spring

I had high hopes for today's foray to find a few feathered friends migrating through some well-known birding locations around the Presidio and Fort Mason. I started at El Polin Spring, which had changed a lot since I was last there. I thought my last visit might have been around ten years ago, but I was mistaken. It was more like fifteen years ago! Time flies like a bird. I might post some of those shots from June 2008 and September 2009 another time (oops, already did). 

This morning I saw the migrating black-headed grosbeak shown above shortly after I arrived (two of them were foraging together), but nothing else of special interest either there or at the Simonds Loop, Fort Mason, or Crissy Lagoon.

While I was out I had the pleasure of meeting a birder whose name I recognized from the SFBirds email list, David Assman. He was also shooting with an FZ80, and I'm pretty sure it was seeing photos he's made with that camera online that inspired me to try one out.

Grosbeak in a Willow, El Polin Spring

I believe this coloration marks it as a female or immature male.

Scrub Jay, El Polin Spring

Hummingbird with its tongue sticking out, El Polin Spring

Lesser Goldfinch, El Polin Spring

Lesser Goldfinch Feeding on Yellow Evening Primrose, Simonds Loop

I couldn't resist stopping for the perched red-tail on my way to Fort Mason.

A cabbage white butterfly... on cabbage! Or close enough. Cabbage family. At Fort Mason Community Garden.

Long-billed Curlew, Crissy Lagoon

Caring for its Feathers

Striking a Pose
(hey, if you've got it, flaunt it)

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Birdy!

 

Crowd on Sutro Rock

Instead of getting sunnier and warmer by late morning, it got foggier and colder. I wondered if the change in coastal weather had anything to do with the significant uptick in bird life on Seal Rocks since yesterday. The "wing fling" was so dense that even pelicans were resting on Sutro Rock (the big rock closest to the baths), something I'm not sure I've ever seen before. I'd have stayed longer to watch, but I was quickly becoming chilled and had to get back on the road to warm up.

There were more birds on Sutro Rock than I think I've ever seen.

All of the Seal Rocks were heavily occupied, at least by birds. I didn't see a single sea lion out on the distant, northernmost rocks.

Even flocks of ducks (I think these are mallards) were heading south.

Two-way traffic around Seal Rocks.

Seeing so many birds resting out there, I wondered when and where they go at feeding time. One of these days I hope to see them all diving and plunging after a big school of fish.

Pelicans skimmed the surface as they flew south into a stiff wind.

I had to stop to photograph the bison when I saw them heading through a photogenic area full of plants.

Blackberry Flowers in the Fog

Forest at Golden Gate Heights Park

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Peanuts

 

Raven at the Cliff House

Dozens of Heermann's gulls suddenly lifted off from their resting area on the beach in front of Sutro Baths. Some circled around the big rock as if to land back where they started, while others who knew better headed south along Ocean Beach. It was beautiful to watch, and I had a group of middle-school kids to thank for the displacement of so many birds at once.

I walked my bike a short ways to get a different view, noting a puddle of numerous peanut shells scattered at the base of the seaward wall. The shells weren't there yesterday. (Waldo's Lime scooter has finally been removed, btw.) 

The fog was too heavy to clearly make out more than shadows of bird life, even on the closest of the Seal Rocks. But there were lots of pelicans and cormorants again, and many whistling calls of black oystercatchers. Two of the oystercatchers landed on the beach near the small tidal bathing pool, and I raced to get my camera out of the bike bag, only to have two of the school kids come along and climb up on the bathing rock themselves.

I was just going to leave when a raven landed near me on the seaward wall. I still had my camera out, so I snapped a photo. The raven soon flew away, and I got on my bike to fly away as well. I figure the raven briefly mistook me for the peanut man.

Raven Realizes His Mistake

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Random Notes

 

Fog in the Monterey Cypress Forest at Land's End

Although I started my walk to the beach in glorious, warm sunshine, I was soon immersed in fog as I crossed 19th Avenue. There was very little wind, though, so at least it wasn't cold. Other than encountering a large welcoming committee of gulls at the beach and picking up a couple packs of "smoky bacon" tempeh at Gus's Market on the way home, the walk was an uneventful pleasure.

I got home and stepped out the back door to cool down before heading out on the bike, and spotted a squirrel making its way through our little garden. The back door opens to a tiny deck and a staircase, so the garden is maybe 20 feet below, and the squirrel didn't notice me. It eventually reached the chewy antler I posted about back in June, and I was glad to see that it's not just the rat who likes to nibble on it.

Yesterday my wife and I decided to "ride the wild robot," taking our first trip in an autonomous Waymo car from the Inner Sunset to Cow Hollow (where we had an excellent brunch at Wildseed). It was an enjoyable novelty to see how autonomous driving works from inside the car, and to watch other vehicles, plus pedestrians and bicyclists, showing up on the monitor that lets you see what the car sees. 

The only glitchy thing it did was inch along in the backed-up left-turn lane on Oak. Our "estimated arrival" time kept getting later and later. Then, when it finally reached Masonic, the bot abruptly changed lanes to the right instead of turning left! It continued on Oak before finally making the left at Divisadero. As we got close to our destination, the Waymo honked at a car that had stopped in the middle of the road, but quickly ascertained that it needed to back up so the other car could could maneuver into a parallel parking space.

In the end, my wife and I both thought the Waymo was pretty cool. We didn't think to compare the cost with a Lyft ride, but the fee seemed reasonable, and robots don't expect a tip. We got picked up at home within two minutes of requesting a car (a benefit of having them "rest" in our neighborhood, I guess), but the wait was going to be more than ten minutes on the return trip. Since we were in no rush, we took the bus instead!

Our fox squirrel neighbor made time for a tine, gnawing away at this antler for close to a minute.

Disappearing Squirrel

Mostly Heermann's Gulls

Land's End

A pair of young Herring Gulls tries to coax some food from an adult.

While it was being harried by the youngsters, the sharp-eyed adult suddenly flew away from them, and it wasn't just to find some peace.

The crab was still feisty when the gull got hold of it, raising its claws to try to defend itself.

But once it got flipped onto its back, the jig was up.

The jig was up for this surfer's ride as well, but at least he threw off a nice rooster-tail to finish with a flair.

When I got home from the beach, the squirrel was still in the neighbor's oak tree, squawking away with an alarm call. I went down to see what the fuss was about, and the squirrel suddenly pounced from one branch to another, which frightened a cooper's hawk into a frenzy of flapping and fluttering as it escaped and flew right over my head.

Random web cam shot of an interesting sky on Saturday.

Every now and then I check Berkeley's falcon cams, and Friday there was someone home -- perhaps a bird fledged just this year from that nest box in the lower right corner of the frame.

Look Ma, No Driver

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Mountain Menagerie

 

Blacktail Buck

It was nice to have all the usual suspects show up at least once since I put the trail cams back on the mountain a few weeks ago. The deer above seemed to be looking for the good-sized pool of water that existed here last year, a pool that was filled with rocks and sand by a stormy deluge. There's very little left of the pool (which is slightly outside the lower right corner of the frame), but in the video below, a gray fox scampers off the log to go there for a drink.

Flicker

Bobcat

Coyote

Same Coyote

Gray Fox

Pileated Woodpecker

Raccoon

Gray Squirrel

Raccoon

Tam Cam Video Clips

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Killdeer Was Here

 

Killdeer, Richardson Bay

There were a couple of great blue herons and a great egret working the Richardson Bay mud flats during low tide on my way up to Mt. Tamalpais. Otherwise, not too much action out there.

It's been a while since I've made the trip via e-bike, and I was disappointed that there weren't any black-necked stilts in their usual area around Coyote Creek. On the way home, the bay had filled in with the high tide, but there was still surprisingly little bird life. When I heard a killdeer call, I pulled over to say hello.

I hadn't planned to ride up there and check the trail cams until next month, but with a slight chance of rain showers in the forecast I was concerned about one of the cams that I'd placed in the dry creek bed. Most likely it would have been fine, but if the rain turned out to be heavy enough to get the creek flowing, the camera could end up ruined or washed away.

P.S. Watch Flyways on Kanopy!

It was windy, foggy, and cool up around Rock Spring, giving the mountain a change-of-season feel.

Last time I was up there I thought the rosinweed was just about done for the season, but today it was still going great.

Even the usually chatty acorn woodpeckers were mostly quiet today, as fog billowed over the treetops and a strong wind rattled the dry grass and swept through the forest.

The killdeer allowed me to stop quite close to them.

They kept an eye on me, but what they really wanted to do...

...was return to siesta time.

They both lay down and stayed that way, even as I put the camera away in the bike bag and continued on my way.

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Light Show

 

We had a rare fog-free view from sunrise to sunset on 8/20,
the day of the Blue Supermoon.

One of the effects of having a fog-free evening is the "firelight" show that takes place in the spooky confines of the dense eucalyptus forest that covers this part of Mt. Sutro. The show is better in real life because the orange "flames" flicker as the trees sway in the breeze. Should that forest ever catch fire for real -- especially on a windy day -- damage to the city would likely rival the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. (The orange lights are caused by the sunset reflecting in the windows of houses behind the trees.)

Here's what the reflections look like on windows not blocked by the forest. This is a composite image of a supermoon and a sunset that took place on March 14, 2014. IRL, the moon came up too far to the right of the frame to be in the shot. Ten years later, this view no longer exists due to the growing forest.

I was surprised to learn that last night's supermoon (shot here with the FZ80) was also a blue moon. I hadn't known that more than one kind of blue moon exists.

The kind I was familiar with occurs when there are two full moons in the same month. But the blue moon can also be the third full moon in a season (e.g., summer) that has four full moons instead of the usual three.

But why, you may ask, isn't the first, second, or fourth moon the blue one? Turns out it must be the third one, "Because only then will the names of the other full Moons, such as the Moon Before Yule and the Moon After Yule, fall at the proper times relative to the solstices and equinoxes."

Got it?

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