Good Day for Coyotes

Female Coyote, Golden Gate Park

A good day for coyotes, a bad day for gophers.

I altered my Tuesday walk by just a little bit, but it made a big difference. After trekking along the Sunset Parkway (where I photographed a red-tailed hawk), I normally head back toward home at Irving Street. For some time, though, I've been thinking about continuing along Sunset until it empties right into Golden Gate Park, and today I decided to go for it. 

The new route was immediately better. I was walking on a trail instead of a sidewalk, surrounded by trees instead of houses. I'd hoped to photograph a few songbirds in there but was stymied by having the morning sun in my eyes. I couldn't really complain, though, since the sun is almost never in my eyes around here.

I'd gone about eight blocks when I spotted a coyote on the trail up ahead, and she was in stalking mode, with her ears pointing at the ground in front of her and her body tensing for the pounce. A couple of joggers had recently passed by, and I hoped one wouldn't scare the coyote away before she could pounce. Thankfully, she pounced and caught a gopher before a jogger showed up, and when the jogger got close, the coyote just sauntered a little ways into the weeds.

I followed along for a while as the coyote continued to hunt, and when she squatted a little to pee I realized she was a female. I'd encounter her "husband" a little farther up the trail.

Red-Tail Perched on a Pine, Sunset Parkway

The coyote makes her pounce...

...and gets her gopher.

Urban/Wildland Interface

Nice morning for a stroll in the park.

It's just a little bit unsettling (but in a good way!) when the coyote is walking toward me and filling the frame in my viewfinder....

I sort of snuk up on the male coyote and gave him a brief fright...

...but he quickly realized I wasn't going to chase him or anything, and he got down to business. Nice pounce, but he missed.

Mr. Coyote, Near 25th Avenue

I crossed the street to briefly check out Elk Glen Lake, just in time to watch a great blue heron coming winging in toward the water's edge. And then I noticed it had a mouse in its beak, which it dunked in the lake before sending it down the long and winding road to its stomach.

GBH, Elk Glen Lake

On the way up the Hidden Garden Steps (where the intrepid foxglove no longer had any flowers), I noticed this Official Geocache right out in the open. I wonder if someone found it in the bushes and carelessly left it in the open, or if it was set there on purpose. I'll be surprised if it's still there next week, and if it is still there, I'm not sure I'd want to open it to see what people put have put inside it.

A great blue heron was poised as if posed on what's left of the fallen cypress tree at Metson Lake. Interestingly, the photo looks fake, as if I pasted the GBH there like a magazine cut-out, but this is straight out of the camera.

I watched this red-tailed hawk make a couple of unsuccessful attacks from perches directly above Chain of Lakes Drive near North Lake. After its second pounce it landed on a branch right above me and didn't seem to mind my presence at all. I hoped it wouldn't collide with a car while doing its thing.

The cormorant on the right was fluttering its throat muscles with its beak open -- panting in the heat, birdy style -- at North Lake.

Land's End

When I first spotted the guys in this tandem kayak, they were surrounded by water, which didn't really call for a photo, but that all changed when they paddled past this rock just as a small flock of cormorants winged by in the background.

Beach Weather

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Yellow Rumped Warbler

 

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Sunset Reservoir

I've been wondering where all the yellow-rumped warblers have been lately, since the species has often seemed to dominate my sightings in the past. I was glad to have brought my camera on today's walk, since that's when I finally saw one, working a tree on the edge of Sunset Reservoir on Ortega Street.

Townsend's Warbler, North Lake

Orange-crowned Warbler (?), North Lake

This red-tailed hawk was sunning its feathers in a pine tree on the edge of the Bison Paddock.

I went around to the other side to try for a better view. After sunbathing for a while, it began preening, then went back to sunbathing.

Gulls were chillin' in their usual spot on Ocean Beach while the chemical/oil products tanker STI Magic (flagged in the Marshall Islands) was under way from the Port of Richmond to (possibly) South Korea. Long trip!

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Day in the Fog

 

Goldfinch, El Polin Spring

I can't say if birding in the sun is better than birding in the fog, but I don't need to tell you which one is colder. I was glad I wore a longjohn top on today's ride.

I guess we're in for more whipsaw weather after today (where it's 58 degrees outside my door), with temps even here in the Sunset District forecast to reach 82 degrees on Tuesday. 

Last week I was planning to head out on a little road trip this coming week, including a stop at Death Valley, but once again I find myself holding back due to a seriously hot weather forecast.

Although I didn't photograph any rare birds today, it's always enjoyable to get outside on the ebike for a few hours. I started at Inspiration Point on Arguello Boulevard in the Presidio. The Point used to overlook El Polin Spring, but you can't really see down there anymore through the brush. I'm not complaining: the brush is stuff like toyon and California lilac and it looks great!

From there I rode down the bike-legal Ecology Trail where I spotted a couple of camera traps soon after thinking to myself what a nice job they're doing of creating great habitat. There's actually lots to explore down there, and it was easy to imagine the place teeming with wildlife. Maybe someday.

I pretty much wrapped up the day at Sutro Heights, where I did see a bird that was new to me. Unfortunately, it flew away before I could get my camera out. 

I went after a Townsend's warbler and some pygmy nuthatches while hoping the rare bird would come back, and I somehow accidentally set the camera to start bracketing my exposures. Each click of the shutter fired off several frames with a variety of exposure settings. 

I still have no idea how I did that, but I had to stop everything, dig my reading glasses out of the bike bag, then press lots of buttons for an exercise in futility before turning to the menu settings where I finally figured out how to shut it off. By then my buzz was killed, and I'd given up hope of seeing the rare bird again. 

Bushtit, Presidio Ecology Trail

I love how its hanging onto that thin seedpod in its quest for insects. If there is an insect there somewhere, I can't see it.

Coast Redwoods, Presidio Ecology Trail

Bathing Song Sparrow, El Polin Spring

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Mr. Goldfinch

Great Egret Under Freeway Overpass

Killdeer Near Crissy Lagoon

A kingfisher was hunting from branches very near the great blue heron at Crissy Lagoon. The kingfisher was too far away to photograph (and too obscured by branches up closer), but I couldn't resist stopping for the heron, which stood like a statue for the couple of minutes I stood in the chilly wind watching it.

Classic Foggy Bridge View From Lincoln Boulevard

Western Bluebird Makes An Adjustment

Western Bluebird, Legion of Honor Museum

* * *

Day in the Sun

 

A Gathering of Gulls, Ocean Beach

My inbox had yet another migration alert from BirdCast today, but it's a national alert, not the local info I thought I'd signed up for. It seemed like I hardly saw any birds on either my walk or bike ride today, although there was a highlight at North Lake where I saw a small moth or skipper chasing a hummingbird. I guess they both wanted the same nectar-bearing flowers.

As I biked past Metson Lake today I couldn't help saying "Oh, no!" when I saw that the fallen cypress tree had been cut up. I first noticed the treefall on February 3, 2023, after a storm. At first I thought of it as an eyesore, but eventually it became wildlife habitat. Ducks, turtles, a kingfisher, great blue herons, cormorants, and even black-crowned night herons hunted from and rested among its branches.

Photographer, Gulls, Sailboat

The gulls were not easily spooked today, except by dogs.

The Metson Lake Cypress: Habitat Lost

Back yard squirrel foraging among lilly pilly leaves.

* * *

Western Flycatcher

 

Western Flycatcher, Golden Gate Heights Park

I'd reached the peak elevation for the day's walk and was heading down toward home when a bird shot out of the bushes to nab a passing insect. It missed its target, then ducked deep into the bushes when it spotted me walking toward it. I got out my camera, figuring the bird had been a flycatcher and would eventually return to the edge of the brush to hunt. It didn't take long!

After getting home and switching to my bike I was coasting down the cracked and broken paved path that winds along the northern side of the the Bison Paddock, when I thought I heard a coyote barking over by the dog park. The dogs' owners didn't appear alarmed or anything, so I rolled up to one of the park's entrances to get a better look. Two dogs immediately charged toward me, barking wildly. One of the dogs started to climb the fence and was only just stopped by its human. Given the fact that dogs are much more dangerous to people than coyotes are, I really don't get the antipathy toward coyotes. 

Pygmy Nuthatches in Cypress
(Note the opened cones showing their seeds.)

Nuthatch with Resinous Cone

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Captured Caterpillar

Townie Preflight Pose

Nuttall's Woodpecker

There were lots of pelicans flying by today. Most were going high, but some were going low -- very low.

I liked how this group flew into line with the Point Bonita Lighthouse, and also that the light was partially turned toward the camera.

Getting My Pelicans In A Row

* * *

Speed Eating

 

Townie Nabs A Snack

Whoa, another sunny day. It's nice when you don't need ISO 3200 to photograph a colorful little Townsend's Warbler that just nabbed a skipper, especially when the skipper appeared to be putting up a valiant but vain struggle to escape. 

I was keeping an eye on one Townie while getting my camera out of my bike bag, when a second one zipped over my head and appeared to chase something, then quickly catch it. 

I could see that it had something in its beak. The bird was close and in the open on a nice diagonal branch, but my shot was wild and not in focus. I felt like I could have hummed the entire Star Spangled Banner while the missed shot wrote itself onto the storage card and ended the viewfinder blackout. But by then, of course, the Townie was up in a tree.

Luckily it was still in range. I fired off a few frames while it stabbed its beak into its prey. In one frame, it's just got wings. In another, a leg. Finally, it got the good parts.

Pygmy Peek-A-Boo
(The Sunset greenbelt had very little bird activity this morning. A couple of pygmy nuthatches were busy working a pine tree while almost never actually showing themselves.)

First Miner's Lettuce Flower, Hidden Garden Steps
(The amazing foxglove was actually sprouting yet another flower.)

First, Get the Wings Off

Birdy Num-Nums
(Be sure to watch the whole clip if you watch it at all!)

The sun was still beating back the fog at around noon, and there was quite a raucous bunch of pelicans, cormorants, and gulls chattering on and around Seal Rocks. (No sign of the wandering tattlers in a while.) But that gray in the background is a wall of fog, and it was inexorably drifting toward shore.

* * *