Cruisin' With Mr. Blue

 

Great Blue Heron Cruising Over Middle Lake

I was riding past Spreckels Lake when a great blue heron flew past me and landed in a nearby cypress tree. It looked like a photogenic spot, so I wheeled into position and snapped a photo. The tree seemed to be a waypoint for the heron, not a final destination, so I decided to stick around for a minute. I brought up my camera after seeing him poop, since birds often lighten their load before taking wing.

When the heron glided to a nearby patch of lawn in front of the boathouse and restrooms, I figured I'd hang out with him a little longer. He was remarkably casual about all the nearby vehicle and pedestrian traffic, and instantly became single-minded when he discovered a gopher moving nearby.

Over the course of about 40 minutes I cruised along with Mr. Blue from Spreckels Lake to the west end of the Bison Paddock, over to Middle Lake, then back to the Bison Paddock, and watched him catch three gophers in all.

Looking Regal

Going to Lunch

Just this morning I watched someone congratulate their dog for chasing the wildlife into flight along the shore at Ocean Beach, but this little pooch didn't give Mr. Blue a second glance.

Mr. Blue Strikes Deep

First Gopher Caught: 10:37 a.m.

Satisfied to have gotten a meal, Mr. Blue took wing as a group of adults and children came on the scene.

After checking to see if there was any swallow action around the nest boxes on the edge of the Bison Paddock (there wasn't), I caught up with the heron again a little farther west. Second gopher caught: 10:53 a.m.

The same group that he'd flown away from up near Spreckels Lake approached again, and again Mr. Blue took wing, this time heading for Middle Lake in the Chain of Lakes.

With two gophers down the hatch, it appeared that Mr. Blue was ready to relax awhile, although he did take an interest in a passing fish at one point.

With the fish playing hard-to-get, Mr. Blue's taste for gophers might have reasserted itself.

It was nice to be able to photograph him spreading his wings without a distracting background.

He glided over to the lawn at the north end of Middle Lake, then walked all the way to the road (JFK Drive), probably keeping a lookout for gophers along the way, but not pausing anywhere for more than a couple of seconds.

I suspect he was eager to get back to where he'd scored his second gopher. There was quite a bit of vehicle traffic on this sunny day, and I was glad when Mr. Blue decided to fly over it instead of continuing across the road on foot.

Another large group stopped to observe him, and he moved off the grass to this perch on a stump.

When a gopher presented itself, he wasted no time heading toward it and quickly scored a capture. Third gopher caught: 11:19 a.m.

After spending a fair amount of time and effort to make the kill on his first gopher, he was able to kill and swallow his second and third gophers very quickly, perhaps after piercing them with his beak.

I was tempted to continue trying to follow this prodigious hunter, but I was starting to feel hungry for lunch myself and continued with my ride.

Mr. Willet says: The solution to pollution...

...is dilution.

I could tell that a willet had caught a mole crab before I arrived because it regurgitated its empty shell. Neat trick. Here, a whimbrel nabs a mole crab and is set upon by another whimbrel who tries (and fails) to take it away.

Whimbrel Escaping to Eat in Peace

On Friday I noticed a couple of starlings hanging out on the Bison Paddock fence and hoped it wasn't an ominous sign for the tree swallows using nearby nest boxes.

Sculpture at Noriega Street This Morning, Sunset Dunes Park

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Mile Rock Beach

 

Mussels on the Rocks, Mile Rock Beach

It was a year ago this month that I last visited Mile Rock Beach. It was sunny then, but kind of misty this morning. Once again, any hope of finding actual tidepools to explore was dashed by crashing surf that kept me on my toes. I'd love to get down there during a daytime minus tide with virtually no swell at all, assuming that ever even happens.

[UPDATE: Thanks to Eric Sanford and Jackie Sones at the Bodega Marine Laboratory for clearing up the curiosities photographed below. I've left my original titles and included their corrections and amplifications in parentheses.]

Shorebreak at Mile Rock Beach

Barnacled Boulders

Periwinkles & Barnacles
(The larger snails are actually striped dogwhelks, Nucella ostrina, and the periwinkles, Littorina sp., are the tiny black snails near them.)

This little aggregating anemone was one of the few open ones I could find. Virtually all of the tidepools were subject to frequent inundation by incoming swells.

One creature I thought I might find is chitons, but I didn't see any. These barnacles were interesting, but I have no idea what all the white circular things are. (The barnacles are Balanus glandula, and the circular things are the basal plates of where the barnacles were before they were knocked off the rock.)

The shore crabs were all too fast for me to catch out in the open.

The sudsy stuff is a mystery.

I thought these might be some kind of egg cases, but as I was thumbing through my hefty Intertidal Invertebrates of California, I came across another possibility: a relative of stalked vase sponge (Leucilla nuttingi), but apparently without a stalk. I didn't see any of the pink sponge I found last year. (Turns out these are egg cases of the striped dogwhelks!)

All the jumble, soon to be underwater again.

Ochre Sea Stars

Mile Rock Beach

These reddish-orange snails stood out among all the subdued colors, but I saw only two of them. (Turns out they are an uncommon color morph of the striped dogwhelk.)

Gooseneck Barnacles & Mussels

Western Gull on the Prowl

Inundated Potential Tidepool Area

Another, larger ochre sea star clings to a rock.

That's the same sea star.

The Old Mile Rock Lighthouse

This thick and twisty cypress on the stairs leading to Mile Rock Beach is supported in part by blocks of wood.

Vista Point Above Mile Rock Beach
(Later in the day, someone walking their dog slipped down the cliff and had to be rescued by emergency crews.)

Bushtits on Coyote Brush at Land's End

There were only the two bushtits foraging together. Maybe the small flocks break up during mating season.

Seaside Daisies at Land's End

I heard the Northern flicker calling out, but it took a while to finally spot him.

He was presumably going after insects in the rotten wood of the tree stump, but I couldn't tell if he was catching anything more than wood pulp.

Northern Flicker at Land's End

Flicker's Close-up

This is a mature puffball from the batch I spotted earlier this month near Metson Lake.

The Allen's hummingbird dropped by to collect cattail fluff again this morning.

Those tiny egg cases appear to be producing tiny white flies. Note the yellowish fly in the bottom center-left -- the same kind I saw a couple days ago.

The pied-billed grebe at Blue Heron Lake was busy making adjustments to her nest, and for the first time in a long time I was able to see the egg. I was a little surprised that the egg hadn't hatched yet, since I first saw it more than two weeks ago (gestation apparently lasts more like 3-4 weeks). I briefly thought I saw two eggs in the nest, but the hen got back on top of them before I could find a clear viewpoint through the tangle of branches. 

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Grace

 

Graceful Takeoff at Metson Lake

I stopped at Metson Lake to check out a great blue heron standing on the partly submerged branches left over from the big cypress that fell in the lake a couple of years ago. The heron was just hanging out, apparently neither hunting nor grooming. I wandered over to the cattail patches to see if any hummingbirds would show up to gather the cattails' downy seeds. A blue-eyed darner dragonfly buzzed very close to my face, paused for a moment to give me the once-over, then flew back over the lake. As I watched it fly away I noticed the heron in the background doing an about-face. Figuring it was about to take off, I pointed my camera just in time.

There is such grace in the heron's movements as it generates lift with its powerful wings, and it's another kind of grace -- a kind I'm grateful to experience every day -- to be able to witness such things.

This morning was warmer and sunnier than yesterday, and I wasn't sure if this monarch butterfly that was fluttering around the edge of North Lake was ever going to land. It finally chose an interesting perch to rest on, a big round nasturtium leaf.

I heard some new birdsong in the area and tried to zero in on it, when this Wilson's warbler flew out of a dense thicket to sing from a new perch.

The tidal rock that hosted all the surfbirds yesterday is usually empty, but today it was being colonized by pink-legged Western gulls.

A few more brown pelicans have been hanging out at Seal Rocks lately. Their numbers were a lot larger recently, but then they absconded to who-knows-where, leaving the rocks to barely a handful of cormorants and gulls.

Pelicans Over Ocean Beach

Soaring Above the Cliff House

Meanwhile, a pretty good-sized group of willets was foraging down on the beach.

They would chase the receding waves to probe for mole crabs, then become chased by the next incoming waves.

On The Run

I saw a couple of people running their off-leash dogs toward the birds and guessed what was going to happen next. The dogs chased off the willets, who flew far out of range to the south.

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