Hawks & Herons

 

Red-shouldered Hawk, Golden Gate Park

When I passed by North Lake yesterday I couldn't find a single black-crowned night heron (ditto for South Lake) or any other heron-like birds, but today I saw two night herons, two great egrets, and two great blue herons, plus a young red-tailed hawk perched on a nearly vertical tree branch.

The female hooded merganser at South Lake was all alone yesterday, with the male no longer present, and I didn't see her at all today. The two pied-billed grebes were still there, diving and occasionally chattering to each other. Yellow-rumped warblers are still active over the lake, zipping out from their perches to snag insects. Out at Seal Rocks, the once-plentiful cormorants and pelicans have been gone for weeks, although I did see two cormorants standing on the oceanside edge of Sutro Baths today, presumably drying out after bathing in the fresh water there. 

Resting Bison

Bison Profile

Signs of Approaching Spring

I wasn't sure if it was cherry or plum, but Plantnet solved my problem, indicating it's probably a cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera)....

This looked like a species of Ceanothus, but I don't recall seeing one with such tiny leaves. Plantnet came up with Santa Barbara ceanothus (Ceanothus impressus).

No real sign of approaching spring at Mallard Lake, although a few green leaves had sprouted on the black oak at Elk Glen Lake.

I'd detoured from my usual route to check out the bird action around Mallard Lake, but the place was overrun by tiny human beings climbing on rocks, exploring, and engaging in other enthusiastic play. This red-shouldered hawk flew over my head and landed in a nearby tree as I crossed MLK Jr. Drive near 25th Ave.

This is the red-shouldered hawk from the top of the post, and from the previous frame. It hopped from the tree branch to this perch before flying away to look for mousier pastures.

Short video of a bubbling spring near Elk Glen Lake.

This young red-tailed hawk stood on its somewhat strange perch at North Lake for quite a while. I had my camera ready for it to take flight, but the hawk eventually exited away from me instead of toward me.

Reflective Great Egret at North Lake

Resting Great Egret

Resting Great Blue Heron

Two Juvenile Red-tailed Hawks Along the Great Highway

I think this one is Marlon Bando.

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Big Offshore Holiday

 

Ocean Beach, San Francisco

The waves were big, the wind was blowing offshore, and almost everyone had the day off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. It was a good day to be out and about, and I can never resist trying to photograph surfing when the conditions are about as good as they get at Ocean Beach. These shots were all made at the beach around Noriega and Ortega streets, where it always seems to be bigger than the northern stretch of beach in front of the Esplanade.

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Tamalpais Sunrise

 

View of Mt. Diablo from Mt. Tamalpais

I figured it would be quite dry in the woods up on Mt. Tam, but the forest duff was even crunchier than expected. The main event was setting out my trail cams once again, but I'd also hoped to find some fungi to photograph. No such luck. 

I didn't run into much traffic on the way up the mountain from Mill Valley, and  I wondered if things had gone back to their pre-tech-boom days when I'd be the only one waiting for the ranger to open the gate at 7 a.m. Nope! About a dozen cars  were already waiting at the gate when I arrived. A ranger was already there but had apprently brought the wrong key to unlock the gate. Another ranger swooped up a few minutes later to save the morning.

Sunrise Watchers

Frosty Trail

One of the highlights of the morning was hearing coyotes howling. A lone coyote carried on near Rock Spring before the sun came up, and again a little after, but got no answering calls. Farther out West Ridgecrest, though, a group of coyotes went off together. It sounded like they were somewhere out in the landscape shown above, but I never saw even one of them.

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Chain of Lakes

 

Pied-billed Grebes at South Lake

The various waterfowl in Golden Gate Park seem to be pairing up more avidly these days. The coots, pied-billed grebes, hooded mergansers, northern shovelers, and mallards -- and who can tell with the various gulls and Canada geese since they seem to like hanging out in crowds.

As I walked under chilly clouds of fog and smog this morning it seemed like the streets were a lot less birdy than usual, and it wasn't until I reached the Oak Woodland that I finally heard birdcalls in the trees. Even that happy sign of life disappeared soon after, though. On Whiskey Hill (where even the usually ubiquitous ravens were absent) I tried in vain to get a decent shot of the only bird I saw: a Nuttall's woodpecker. Then nothing more until I was just a block from home and spotted a group of red-masked parakeets hanging out on the edge of an apartment building instead of on one of their favorite neighborhood trees.

On a still-chilly bike ride afterward (with air quality steadily improving, thanks to a changing wind direction) I stopped by North Lake to check out the bird life and heard the tell-tale rustling of a gopher at work beneath a layer of fallen leaves. As I was watching the gopher, a brown creeper dropped in nearby, and following it eventually led me to a Bewick's wren that made a rare and very brief appearance in the open.

Urban Parakeets, Golden Gate Heights

Brown Creeper at North Lake

Brown Creeper Scaling a Tree

At first I thought this was the creeper again, but was pleasantly surprised (it hadn't been vocalizing at all) to see that it was a Bewick's wren. 

Bewick's Wren, Top View

This little song sparrow was hanging out near my bike and was so fearless that I couldn't help snapping a photo.

A female hooded merganser paddles past a pair of mallards at South Lake, showing how much smaller the merganser is.

I don't know if the female hooded merganser was afraid of me (and my loud, chartreuse bike jacket), or maybe just annoyed by her suitor, but after getting quite close to me she suddenly bolted and took wing, with the male right on her tail.

This Anna's hummingbird was hovering nearby after the mergies took off.

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Lakeside

 

Black-crowned Night Heron at South Lake

I cruised by North Lake to check up on the black-crowned night herons that have been hanging out along the north side of the lake for weeks, but I saw only one.  As usual, it was too far away and too well-concealed to try for a photo.

Nevertheless, I stopped riding to have a more thorough look, and in the quiet I heard a soft tap-tap-tapping nearby. A red-breasted sapsucker was working its way up a maple tree that used to be full of warblers when the tree still had leaves. It's been ages since I last saw a bird in that tree (a squirrel eating its seeds was the last critter I photographed in it), so I couldn't resist trying to snap a photo. I last saw a red-breasted sapsucker up near Golden Gate Park's Oak Woodland in late December.

Later in my ride, I saw a juvenile black-crowned night heron chasing another one around South Lake and stopped to check them out. Their frisky interlude was soon over, though, and they returned to doing what these herons seem to do best: standing absolutely still. I won't hold my breath to actually see one hunting, because they don't call 'em "night herons" for nothing. One of the youngsters did a little preening today, so I settled for that.

Red-breasted Sapsucker at North Lake
(I moved to the right to get that branch out of the foreground, only to end up with a more difficult background....)

According to All About Birds, the males and females look about the same.

Here, it's beak is pointing toward its next stop.

Big waves are still rolling in and booming against the cliffs. Still no sign of the Cliff House yellow-rumper.

Now you see it.

Now you don't.
I've always enjoyed seeing the sand paintings down here (a rake is the paintbrush), but the timing wasn't great when I was there a little before noon, when we still had a six-foot high tide at Ocean Beach.

Marlon Bando
(The Say's phoebe was posted up nearby, but I didn't try to photograph it.)

Marlon dropped in on a potential meal but came up empty this time.

Night Heron Keeping An Eye Partly Open

The other juvenile was nearby, surrounded here by flying gnats before leaping up into the branches of the storm-fallen tree.

Now gnat-free, the heron preened for a few minutes before settling down for some shut-eye.

Preening those hard-to-reach neck feathers.

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