A Tale of Two Lakes

 

Allen's Hummingbird, Mallard Lake

I finally managed to get some decent shots of the recently arrived Mallard Lake hummer this morning. Maybe he just got tired of flying away from me. Either that, or this one is not as easily spooked as the other one. I know there are at last two in the area because they often chased one another.

Before I even went out this morning, I heard a radio announcement for a show on KALW called Natural State. I was in the middle of morning exercises at the time and didn't get around to checking it out until later in the day, but the show consists of two-minute natural soundscapes from around the state. 

They mention bullfrogs in the Sierra Foothills edition, and I heard bullfrogs for the first time at Elk Glen Lake this morning. Bullfrogs are predators of native chorus frogs, so I was disappointed to find them in a pond out by Mt. Tamalpais years ago. But then we had four years of drought and the bullfrogs disappeared, while the chorus frogs survived.

This morning's walk yielded a bonanza of birds and plants (and dinosaurs) to photograph, all of which occurred near Mallard Lake and Elk Glen Lake. I ran into another birder at Elk Glen Lake who said the yellow-bellied sapsucker was back in the oak tree, and I did manage to find it. I keep forgetting how small they are, and I wondered if I'd have seen it had I not been tipped off it was there. 

Chilean Rhubarb Leaves, Mallard Lake

California Towhee

Yellow-rumped Warbler

This is the same yellow-rumper in profile.

Townsend's Warbler

Allen's Hummingbird Caught With Its Tongue Out

Lookin' Tropical

Grooming Fluff

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Song Sparrow

Before there were birds, there were dinosaurs.... I was surprised I'd never noticed these guys before today.

Unfurling Frond

Translucent Leaf

There's a tree I always check for red-shouldered hawks when I approach Elk Glen Lake, and once in a while I actually find one. It's always on a fairly low branch, though not always the same branch.

I didn't ruffle any feathers to get the shot. I suspect it's the same imperturbable hawk I've seen in this spot before.

The red-winged blackbirds were making a lot of noise this morning.

The yellow-bellied sapsucker was hard to photograph. It was always on the move and often had a very bright background that would fool the exposure meter. Luckily, it's easy to dial in exposure compensation on the FZ80D.

Yellow-belly working the cracks and crevices of oak bark.

The California towhee was calmly hanging out on a nearby branch, so I couldn't resist snapping a shot. Since they are so often seen feeding on the ground, which I don't usually find visually appealing, I like to photograph them when I can catch them on a branch.

A couple of brown creepers joined the yellow-bellied sapsucker on the oak.

I only include this because I've never gotten any kind of shot of a brown creeper with its wings extended before.

When I took this picture I thought it was a Nuttall's woodpecker that had just chased off the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The birds were moving so fast, I now can't be sure whether there were two yellow-bellies chasing eachother, or if this is the same one that circled back after being chased away by some unknown bird.

This flicker was acting suspicious. It called out as it landed in a nearby cypress tree, then eventually fluttered over to this nearby snag where it only briefly perched near the top before ducking low and out of sight. I figured it was going to the ground to feed, but I also wondered if there is a nest cavity down there. I decided it's too early to intrude to check.

I'd already put away the camera when I spotted a different white-crowned sparrow in a red-flowering currant bush. I figured it would fly away before I could get the camera out, but it worked out fine. After that first bird flew away, this guy landed in an even more picturesque spot.

Because the walk was so productive, I didn't really look for subjects to photograph during the bike ride. However, I couldn't resist a couple of equestrians on the beach -- not something I've seen very often down there.

The rake artist strikes again (with the horseback riders in the distance).

I also don't often see a Coast Guard cutter off Ocean Beach. This is the Legend-class national security cutter CGC Munro out of the Port of Alameda.

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On The Rocks

 

Surfbirds and Black Turnstones Foraging Together at Ocean Beach

I've been thinking about changing the name of the blog for a while since I've been doing almost exclusively San Francisco nature photography these days. The blog was originally called John Wall's Natural California, back in 2007. Then in 2013 it became the Mt. Tam Journal (or maybe A Circumannuation of Mt. Tamalpais) which was to be a one-year photography project on Mt. Tam. I deleted all the posts back to the beginning at that time, and although I don't fully regret doing that, I won't be deleting anything with this change of name and focus.

I'll continue to put most of my energy into this San Francisco nature notebook, but I'll also continue to wander farther afield on occasion. When I came out with my self-published book Revealing the Landscape: Mt. Tamalpais, I had it in mind to do other "Revealing the Landscape" titles on different places, figuring Pt. Reyes would be my next project. There's nothing like delving deeply into a particular place. From there I would expand to more far-flung parts of California. 

That could still happen, but what I've always wished for would be to find other photographers who would enjoy doing something similar by picking their own landscape and sharing their explorations. I'd love to have something like that happen with a sort-of photography club that would be a series of "Nature Where I Live" blogs from wherever folks happen to be.

Surfbird Exploring the Geologic Record

In addition to the surbirds and black turnstones foraging just below the Cliff House, a handful of willets was foraging in the sand nearby. Just offshore, several surf scoters were diving for fish, often coming right up to the beach where they appeared be getting pummelled in the shorebreak, yet they always popped back up looking nonchalant about it.

Red-tailed Hawk & Pine Cones
(I saw this hawk swoop into the tree and stopped my bike to check it out. It hopped from branch to branch until it got to the other side of the tree, where it appeared to be looking for prey. At least, it didn't do any serious preening. I watched for a while to see if it would pounce on something but left when I started getting a stiff neck from looking straight up for too long.)

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Big & Small

 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, San Francisco Botanical Garden

I hadn't been in the SF Botanical Garden in a while and hoped I'd witness something new and interesting after the rain let up. The first highlight of the morning was an encounter with a pair of Pacific wrens that I soon realized were foraging for nesting material. It got even better when I was able to follow them to their nest, where I hope they have a successful hatch that I'll get to see in the future. 

The second highlight was a mating pair of red-shouldered hawks. The female was resting on a high eucalyptus branch, with a small group of birdwatchers gathered below, viewing and photographing the hawk, as I emerged from the redwood grove. I continued past the group and made a circuit of the Children's Garden, and the hawk was still on the same branch when I circled back.

In the same general area I got after a couple different birds that eluded me in a thicket of aloe plants before a more cooperative Allen's hummingbird perched nearby. As I was taking pictures of the hummer, another red-shouldered hawk flew around the area making a lot of noise, to which the one in the tree responded with calls of her own. She soon flew onto another branch that was practically right above me, and that's when the male hawk swooped in to mate with her. It was over very quickly, but I managed to fire off a few frames.

Pink Magnolia

King Protea

I had the shutter speed set too high for the low light in the redwood grove, but I was able salvage the shot by boosting the exposure 1.75 stops in Lightroom, then running Denoise on the ISO 3200 exposure.

Pacific Wren with Nesting Material

The camera's autofocus had a little trouble in the low light.

Here's one of the wrens on a redwood branch just outside the nest.

Aloe Tentacles

Allen's Hummingbird on Yucca Stalk

I walked around to the other side to get closer, but I had to give up the better lighting.

A little junco popped up from the ground and landed close by.

Mating Red-shouldered Hawks

The male (on the left) hung around for maybe a minute before flying away, perhaps to go find a juicy meal to bring back to the female, who stayed put.

I was going after a chestnut-backed chickadee who eluded me, when this ruby-crowned kinglet popped onto the scene.

Hermit Thrush in the California Garden

Apulca Pine

Grooming Mallard

* * *

Battling Woodpeckers

Downy Woodpecker in Oak Tree Near Lily Pond

Three species of woodpecker seemed to be chasing each other through the trees around the Lily Pond this morning. There were downy, hairy, and Nuttall's, and it was hard to tell who was chasing whom. No one seemed able to feed in peace for very long before being chased into flight, or getting the irresistable urge to chase someone else into flight.

The morning started with a surprisingly brilliant sunrise, and my second surprise of the day was seeing a fox sparrow sing its song. I made a little recording of it that shows how much noise competition it faced. Ditto for a song sparrow later on. I'd never heard a fox sparrow's song before, and another interesting first for me this morning was hearing the song of a ruby-crowned kinglet. Unfortunately, it liked to sing while hopping around as madly as usual, so I never got a shot, much less a recording.

Down in Golden Gate Park's Fuchsia Dell, about a dozen squirrels were noisily chasing each other around and around the trunk of a redwood tree. 

I guess the spring-like weather is supposed to take a turn this weekend, and I'll be interested to see if the bird- and critter-action remains as dialed up as it has been the last few days. Hopefully it won't get too cold and wet for any newly hatched band-tailed pigeons in the Forest Hill nest. 

Big Sky, San Francisco

Sutro Tower & Twin Peaks

Nostalgic View of 1960s San Francisco Architecture

Quite a few of these old houses around the neighborhood have been sold and remodeled to look more modern. Others continue to be well-maintained by older folks who still have the money to keep them up. But elsewhere you'll see what I like to call the "ghost houses" that show their age to such a haunted-house degree that you wonder if anyone still lives there. (I don't say that to poke fun at anyone; these houses just show a remarkable contrast and are a good reminder that not every homeowner in San Francisco is wealthy.)

Singing Fox Sparrow, Windsor Terrace

The fox sparrow's song was soft and sweet, and not a great match against jet airplanes, passing cars, talking humans, or even white-crowned sparrows singing across the street.

This is probably the best patch of miner's lettuce I've seen yet.

Turkey Tails in the Oak Woodland

Ready to Launch if Necessary

Song Sparrow Between Songs

The song sparrow seemed to be waiting for a chance to be heard.

Hairy Woodpecker

Red-flowering Currant

Black Phoebe

Nuttall's Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Nuttall's Woodpecker

Raven Collecting a Branch for its Nest

Bermuda Buttercups at Whiskey Hill

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