Travelin' Nuthatch

 

Red-breasted Nuthatch, SF Botanical Garden

I've been hearing red-breasted nuthatches for a couple of weeks, but I finally got a chance to photograph one this morning. My plan for the day was to eighty-six (i.e., "throw out," not "kill") my usual walk and bike ride, and instead find whatever the heat might bring to birdland. 

In my eagerness to get outside, though, I entered the SFBG around 8 a.m., well before the day actually got hot. I'd planned to stake out the little creek area back by the Moon Viewing Garden where I recently photographed Robins and Western Tanagers, but not only was it not very hot out yet, the creek area was being soaked by garden sprinklers.

On top of all that, it didn't seem very birdy in general -- until I encountered the biggest poppy on Earth. This huge poppy doesn't look anything like a California poppy, or even an opium poppy. This behemoth actually has bark on it, and that's why it's called Tree Poppy (Bocconia arborea). It's sprawled out right next to the Monkey's Hand and the Succulent Garden. I never really paid attention to it until today, because today it was very popular with the Western Warbling Vireos.

Since no other birds were eating the tree poppy's seeds, I wondered if the vireos had some prior experience with it. Lo and behold, tree poppy turns out to be native to southern Mexico, a favorite hang-out for western warbling vireos.

Anyway, getting back to the red-breasted nuthatch, I heard one calling while I was back in the Children's Garden area (where several pine siskins were working the alder at the pond, beyond camera range). The one I finally saw wasn't making any sounds as it gleaned for insects, but finally, just as I was about to leave, it made its telltale call which always reminds me of being in the Sierra Nevada.

Western Warbling Vireo on Tree Poppy

They squeeze the little black seed out of those oval pods.

The squeeze doesn't work every time.

I squeeze a seed out myself and was surprised how gummy it got my fingers. The vireos must be getting the seeds without all the mess. I was afraid to touch my camera (or my eyes) with my sticky fingers, so I washed them off in the spray of a nearby garden sprinkler.

Northern House Wren

Umber Skipper

There were more western warbling vireos back in the Children's Garden, mostly working the alder and the willows at the pond.

Western Flycatcher

A few Northern Yellow Warblers were drinking nectar from the Monkey's Hand tree.

American Lady Butterfly

A Townsend's Warbler made several forays from nearby trees to hunt for insects on the ground.

Steller's Jay

While I was watching the jay at my feet, a Townie landed on a branch right next to me.

It was just after the Townie flew away that I noticed a nuthatch in the branches above me. I was stoked to realize it was a red-breasted rather than a much more locally common pygmy nuthatch.

It was hunting by itself.

Which is something their kin, the Pygmy Nuthatches, rarely do. Here they were visiting the Schotia brachypetala.

Just across the pedestrian path, several Anna's Hummingbirds were nectaring on different red flowers.

I shot this through the bedroom window yesterday, a panting crow that appeared to be in heat distress. It remained in this position for a good while before finally standing up and flying into the nearby oak tree.

Sunset from Grandview Park, 9/9/26

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Spotted Towhee

 

Spotted Towhee, El Polin Spring

I've been on the lookout for a spotted towhee in the city ever since I recently checked iNaturalist and learned they're here. I heard it chirring in the brush long before I was able to lay eyes on it, and my first glimpse was too fleeting to capture with the camera. I was glad to finally get a couple of chances before it disappeared into the brush once again.

A third Pipilo species found in California is the green-tailed towhee. There are four records of it in San Francisco on iNaturalist, two in 2018 (photographed in Golden Gate Park; heard in Golden Gate Heights) and two in 2020 around Lake Merced.

It was interesting to see what the construction crews have been working on over there at El Polin Spring. The path has been made wide and flat, and even though it's still dirt, it looks like paving might be in its future.

I'd started off my ride with a visit to the eastern end of the Panhandle, where a mountain lion had been seen climbing a tree the night before. Whatever happened to the lion remains a mystery. The authorities arrived on the scene and apparently kept an eye on it late into the night, when it finally came down and wandered away. 

I couldn't resist photographing the scrub jay with its fluffy breast feathers since it so obligingly landed right next to me.

It was very finchy around the spring, and I believe most of them were house finches.

But at least one was a more stout-looking purple finch.

The view of the spring has been cleaned up since the last time I visited. Now you can clearly see the birds going in for a drink.

I was waiting for the towhee to show itself when an Anna's hummingbird visited this nearby native beauty called Tall Annual Willowherb (Epilobium brachycarpum).

Pollen on the Beak

While I was out on the bike I stopped by Mallard Lake to see if the common yellowthroat would show up. It was around 1 p.m. by then, and nobody seemed interested in visiting the little creek. I was about to give up when I heard a group of pygmy nuthatches moving closer and closer, and finally zeroing in for a drink and a bath.

This is the one in the back of the previous photo. It was the only one really bathing.

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Bayou Buteo

 

Red-shouldered Hawk Eating Crawdad, Mallard Lake

The hawk reminded me of an old friend who'd grown up in Louisiana who talked about eating crawdads back home. The hawk seemed to relish the delicacy just as much as he did. (There used to be a popular crawdad joint down on 9th Avenue in the not-very-Cajun Inner Sunset.)

I left the house this morning with a plan to photograph a common yellowthroat at Mallard Lake. I'd seen one of the tiny but gorgeous birds there during my usual Tuesday walk. And although I haven't been bringing my compact camera along for a couple of months, I actually did bring it on Tuesday just for the heck of it, but I was unable to capture a photo of the yellowthroat as it darted in and out of the little creek in one of its darkest nooks. I brought the full-frame camera today, and the yellowthroat taunted me several times with its distinctive chittering, but never came in for a bath or a drink. I never did lay eyes on it, much less photograph it.

Checking e-mail this morning before I left, I saw a birding report from near the Lily Pond, in the exact spot where I recently photographed juvenile cooper's hawks, so I stopped by there first. I photographed a Bewick's wren, a Western warbling vireo, a black-headed grosbeak, western tanagers, and a couple of brown creepers that landed on a tree right next to me (the male, which I didn't see at first, was whistling its sweet, thin call, one of my favorites).

I've forgotten what species the other birders were hoping to see, but I enjoyed the more common ones I saw. The autumn olive bushes are still brimming with berries, and numerous robins (and a couple of western tanagers) were taking advantage. 

The Bewick's wren streaked through so quickly I wasn't sure I'd gotten a shot.

I believe this was a female or juvenile. It remained still after landing on the tree and appeared to be listening to the male's singing. Note the speck of tree resin on the tip of its beak.

I think this might be the male. It's hard to tell these birds apart, but there is no tree resin on this one's beak.

I was so happy to see this burly little black-headed grosbeak land nearby, and I couldn't believe my luck when it didn't immediately fly away after spotting me.

It even obliged me by turning around.

Note the little tidbit of autumn olive berry on the tip of the western tanager's beak.

There are two big autumn olive bushes nearby, but all the birds were focused on the one on the north side of the street, even though the other one was bigger and more laden with berries. It was, however, more exposed.

Western Warbling Vireo

The last time I saw one of these was at the Bristlecone Pines campground.

At one point, it landed on a branch right above me.

Eventually I headed down to Mallard Lake and set up along the little creek where I'd previously seen the yellowthroat. This time the tiny yellow critter that stopped by was a Wilson's warbler.

A brown creeper also stopped by to briefly sit in the water.

A Townsend's warbler also dropped in.

I was surprised that no hummingbirds were dropping by, but it turns out they were visiting a different section of the creek.

There were several hummers, and they sometimes jostled for their favorite drinking spot.

Three in one frame.

A dark-eyed junco dropped in to get a drink.

And another reached out for a bite of ripe blackberry.

I had my bike helmet on and my camera packed away, just about to leave, when I looked up in a tree toward a rasping noise that sounded like a squirrel munching on a pine cone.

First time I've seen a red-shouldered hawk eat a crayfish.

From Tuesday's walk:

Since I had the compact camera with me, I was able to photograph this raven who seemed in no hurry to eat the apparent mouse he'd caught.

This one flew over and landed on a branch above the one with the mouse and began hailing about as loud as I've ever heard a raven hail. Such excitement! 

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