Purple Finch

 

Purple Finch Near Elk Glen Lake

This finch is purple the way some prose is purple: both are elaborately ornamented. I wasn't very familiar with purple finches, and when this one, so much bigger than a typical house finch, flew into some nearby bushes to feed on the seeds of scarlet hummingbird flowers, I wondered if it was something exotic. It is definitely a handsome bird.

Brown Creeper at Mallard Lake

This lesser goldfinch was singing up a storm, so I tried to record some of it on video. Unfortunately, there was a lot of background noise from traffic and, in the distance, a wood-chipper....

Struggling to be Heard

The red-winged blackbirds are still very active at Elk Glen Lake.

Red-tailed Hawk at Elk Glen Lake

This Allen's hummingbird was the king of a big patch of scarlet, tube-shaped flowers -- garden ornamentals that I'm not familiar with. 

I only saw a hummer actually nectaring on the flowers for a fraction of a second before it was chased off. It's such a bounty that it's guarded more than it's used, like a miser's wealth.

While I was watching the hummers chase each other off the flowers, the purple finch winged in and took advantage of the seeds.

The seeds are down in the bottom of those calyxes, but presumably the finch is able to eat more than just the chaff.

Purple Finch

Something darted low to the ground in front of me, moving so fast I wasn't sure I'd really seen anything. I went to look for it, thinking it was probably a sparrow or maybe a speedy California towhee, and was pleasantly surprised to see it was a Nuttall's woodpecker.

I was surprised again when it landed on some nearby poison hemlock to hunt for more insects to stuff into its beak.

Another surprise was catching this mourning dove on a branch instead of pecking around for seeds in a patch of dirt. Unfortunately, it was very skittish and quickly turned around and took off.

I wondered if the gulls were in any way harassing the black oystercatcher, which continues to brood its eggs on the side of Seal Rocks, but I never saw any sign of it.

A couple of times the oystercatcher even got up off its eggs (circled in red) to stretch out and preen its feathers.

Meanwhile, very near the oystercatcher nest, this gull also had a nest. I wonder how that will go if both species have chicks at the same time in such close proximity.

The gull's nest, the oystercatcher's eggs, and the oystercatcher.

There were ten snowy egrets hunting on the beach near the Cliff House, where they got to enjoy a brief period of time with no dog-walkers in the area (and I do mean brief; they were soon disturbed by dogs and flew away). 

This one egret was catching things almost constantly.

Num-nums on the Beach

Snowy Egrets at Ocean Beach

Both of the Big Bear bald eagle siblings hung out in the nest for part of the day today.

Dancing in the Rain and Thunder

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Field Bison

 

Bison Hosting Brown-headed Cowbird, Golden Gate Park

With so many critters having babies, I wondered about the bison. I don't think I've ever seen bison calves out there, but apparently the park's bison do procreate. Five calves were introduced to the paddock in March 2020 for the park's sesquicentennial (150-year) celebration (and, as it happened, just in time for the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic).

I stopped by the paddock today to check up on the nesting tree swallows. It appears there are hatchlings now, but they are still too small to be poking their heads out for feeding, so the adults fly into the nest box with whatever bugs they've caught.

Bison Meadow

Traffic Jam

A tree swallow exits like a torpedo through the nest hole.

It was a beautiful, fog-free day for bug-hunting.

These might be the last two great blue heron nestlings at the lake, although I couldn't tell if there were more on the other side of the island (in front of the boat house). There was definitely one empty nest nearby, and the nest east of Strawberry Hill has been empty since Friday.

The baby eagle called Sunny has fledged, leaving her sister Gizmo behind. The adult here had brought a fish back to the nest, mostly for Gizmo.

Shortly after finishing off the fish, Gizmo stretched her wings in the wind and hopped a few times -- almost ready to commit. Her sister Sunny was in a nearby tree of her own.

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Wood Duck

 

Wood Duck at Blue Heron Lake

I felt like Friday's visit to Blue Heron Lake had gone really well, checking out the grebes' raccoon adventure and being surprised by a half-dozen golden goslings cropping grass under the protection of their hissing parents (and despite their protection, the six chicks of Friday had been reduced to five by Sunday). But when I got home and checked email I found out I'd missed a wood duck that had been reported that very day.

I was too busy to get down there yesterday when it was warm and sunny, but today I bundled up and biked down there in the wind and fog ("feels like" 49 degrees, according to my wife's weather app). Thankfully I found the duck almost immediately. However, it was preening itself while standing on a submerged branch behind a tangle of skinny branches. 

Eventually, a large Canada goose swam up with is entourage and forced a mallard off its perch on a submerged branch. The mallard then swam over and forced the wood duck off its perch, and I finally got to see it in the open.

Not for long, though, as it wasn't done preening. By this time I was practically shivering, so I took a ride around the lake to warm up, and when I circled back, the duck was out in the open again, and again just briefly.

The first time I ever saw a wood duck was at Blue Heron Lake (formerly Stow Lake), back in November 2009.

Wood Duck at Stow Lake, November 26, 2009

Wood Duck Video Clips

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Friday Roundup

 

Canada Gosling, Blue Heron Lake

Life feeds on life, but seeing the destroyed grebelet nest still felt like a punch in the guts. There was a raccoon-sized hole in the dense foliage on the edge of the lake that led directly to the second nest. I wondered if the raccoons had heard the grebelets' cheeping. The nest itself was obliterated, and willow branches had been snapped. It probably happened last night. All was quiet now, with no cheeping to be heard....

As I looked out over the lake I soon saw one of the adults paddling back from the opposite side of the lake with a branch in its beak. Holy cow, I thought. What resilience. It's going to build a new nest and try again to have chicks.

I wandered over toward the new nest location but couldn't see it through the dense foliage. Once I got past the bushes and had a clear view of the lake again, I saw the two grebelets paddling around! I was glad to see they'd both eluded the raccoons.

As I entered the San Francisco Botanical Garden I heard a robin squawking nearby and looked up to see this red-shouldered hawk preening its feathers. I wondered if it had been bathing in the small water fountain next to the garden's library. A young woman saw me watching the hawk and thanked me for tipping her off. She turned away too quickly for me to voice my response that she should thank the robin who tipped me off.

The hawk flew off its previous perch to land in this tree above the lily pond.

Iris Leaves at the Lily Pond

Hummer Ablutions

California Towhee Fledgling

The one on the right had just fed a morsel to the one on the left.

The pipevine swallowtail caterpillars had grown a bit since I last saw them in this location. At another location there were just a few very small ones.

The Matilija poppies are blooming.

Adult Brown-headed Cowbird

Juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird

Backlit Hummer

A few house finches were eating the foliage of the wild radish since the seeds aren't ripe yet.

Mouse Feet

The red-shouldered hawk didn't appreciate being photographed with its quarry and soon carried it far away.

Ladybug on Poison Hemlock

Allen's Hummingbird in the Children's Garden

Woodland Skipper on Milk Thistle

Red-shouldered Hawk in Children's Garden

Crowding the Frame

A blue-eyed darner graciously hovers long enough to be photographed flying over Blue Heron Lake.

Both adult pied-billed grebes gathered materials for their new nest.

I was just starting to head home after admiring the grebes when I spotted a pair of adult Canada geese watching over a half-dozen goslings.

The cute goslings were real crowd-pleasers, but one lady was going on at length  about them with a friend on the phone while holding a small dog on a leash. The adult geese were hissing at the dog, but the woman didn't appear to notice. The dog paid the geese no attention whatsoever, and the geese finally stopped hissing and went back to cropping grass.

Video clips of a red-shouldered hawk, a pipevine swallowtail caterpillar munching leaves (while a ladybug ambles by in the background), a grebe swimming with nest material, and goslings.

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