California Ground Squirrel

 

Ground Squirrel, Strybing Arboretum

Waking up to a thick, dripping fog lounging outside the window this morning, I felt kind of ho-hum about making another bird foray to Strybing Arboretum. But then I remembered the ground squirrels and decided to try my luck. 

I think it was down at Piedras Blancas, where I went to watch elephant seals giving birth on the beach, that I saw almost as many ground squirrels as seals. But in all my years of living in San Francisco I'd never seen one in Golden Gate Park until just the other day. I'd love to know how they get here.

On the way to the ground squirrel patch, I couldn't resist trying to photograph another Townsend's warbler that flew into range.

About to Take Flight

Fast Foraging

I caught this tiny bushtit as it took a little break to do some preening.

I was glad the ground squirrel didn't bolt for its burrow as soon as I showed up.

If you look closely, you can see a golden-crowned sparrow in there among the lichen-crusted branches.

At one point I turned around and saw the squirrel dive into its burrow, but I wasn't sure if I had frightened it, or something else. There were three noisy red-shouldered hawks in the area, and a not-too-old coyote scat down by the pond.

Foraging Finches

There were a couple dozen or so finches feeding very near the ground squirrel. They were eating the seeds produced by the purple-flowered plant in the background.

Finch Food, Wild Radish Pods

I couldn't tell what the ground squirrel was eating.

Gorget Flashes

Song Sparrow

I think this is a western flycatcher, poised to fly even deeper into the dark thicket around the pond...

...but eventually coming back out through the cattails.

I hadn't expected to see the ground squirrel again, but I caught him scampering into a different area where gardeners are storing various rocks and whatnot.

It was a good place to keep an eye out, and I'm sure there are plenty of good crevices to escape into if needed.

I expected this woodpecker to have a white patch on its back.

It's like a cross between a downy and a ladder-backed woodpecker. But it might be a Nuttall's woodpecker.

Finch & Aloe

California Towhee

I couldn't resist the hummer with those nasturtium flowers in the background.

I hadn't realized we had an albino form of coast redwood right here in the arboretum.

One last hummer shot, with a ball of sticky resin stuck to its beak. It tried unsuccessfully to wipe it off on the bare branch to its right.

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Townsend's Warbler

 

Townsend's Warbler, Golden Gate Park

I'd spent around three hours walking through Strybing Arboretum, cruising the woodland around the Bison Paddock, and walking my bike around the west side of North Lake with no luck. At North Lake I saw a brown creeper -- a bird I've been looking forward to seeing again -- and despite getting it in my viewfinder, I could never get a clear shot through all the foliage. A couple of Townsend's warblers showed up and diverted my attention, but they moved on very quickly, and when I looked back for the creeper, it was gone.

It was only after I left North Lake and started riding toward the beach that I spotted a townie approaching like a yellow missile along the north side of the road and landing in a tree very close to me. I got off my bike and gave chase, and finally got the shot above.

Besides the brown creeper, the other cool critter I saw but didn't get to photograph was a ground squirrel (or two) in the Children's Garden at Strybing Arboretum. With the first glimpse I got I knew it was a squirrel (of which there are many in the park), but thought it moved suspiciously like a ground squirrel. Then I got a much better look at what I'm pretty sure was a second one, confirming my suspicion. A sighting near the arboretum entrance was reported to iNaturalist in April 2023. Although I've looked, I haven't seen old Grandview Gus since that first time in July.

Fox Squirrel Sampling Blackberries

A couple of goldfinches were the only birds I photographed in more than an hour in Strybing Arboretum. The Flower Piano thing is still going on, so there's good music all around, but also lots of people.

Japanese Anemone

Floating along with a raft of kelp was this party balloon. The young gull pecked at it but thankfully didn't ingest any of it. Quite a few gulls showed interest in the floating kelp and are hanging around just outside the top of the frame. The current was carrying it north very quickly.

I just love the feather details on this passing gull.

There was a pretty good crowd of pelicans and cormorants on Seal Rocks again, and many gulls resting on Ocean Beach. As I was leaving, yet another photo got away from me as I watched a multitudinous flock of gulls fly over my head, with the Giant Camera in the foreground.

Kingsley was back at Metson Lake...

...as was G. B. Heron.

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Garden Variety

 

Passion Flower, Garden for the Environment

A couple of things I noticed with the new FZ80D that I somehow failed to notice on Wednesday are that the ISO goes to 3200, and the faster SD card still leaves plenty of shutter lag. And I also had to figure out how to make the 1-Area focus square smaller. Thankfully all the info needed to make such adjustments is in the online manual. Another welcome feature on the new model is the USB-C connection. Finally my phone, tablet, and camera all plug in with the same cable.

Angel's Trumpet

Pig's Ear

Borage

This bushtit looks like a pygmy marmoset.

All the previous shots came out of the Garden for the Environment, but this shot of a robin in an Autumn Olive (Elaegnus umbellata) was from Golden Gate Park. 

Busy Bush

The robins were skittish and too fast for me, even with the ISO cranked up to 3200 as it is here. I never got a clean shot of a robin with one of the berries in its beak. I only learned what the plant was after I got home, but the berries are edible to humans as well as robins (but watch out for the hard seeds).

The Townsend's warblers have been eluding me since they recently started showing up more. I've been unable to get a clean photo. Still, I liked this shot anyway, with a spider snare in a cypress tree (in the park's Oak Woodland area).

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Panasonic FZ80D

 

Blackberry Flowers, Golden Gate Heights Park

When I accidentally dropped my FZ80 on a cement slab about a month ago, I was surprised it didn't simply explode into pieces. It actually still worked, but eventually the large ring at the base of the lens fell off, and more recently the lens would hesitate to zoom. Nevertheless, I'd have continued to use it until it died, but since Panasonic just came out with its successor, the FZ80D, I decided to upgrade now.

It arrived on Tuesday, so I took it around on my Wednesday walk and bike ride, and I'm happy to say I'm not disappointed. The larger viewfinder is my favorite part of the upgrade. The clarity is immediately striking. (I find it much easier to hold the camera steady and compose through a viewfinder than on a screen on the back of the camera.)

They also moved the diopter adjustment ring from the right side of the viewfinder to the left side, where it's less likely to be accidentally changed while handling the camera. However, I did still manage to spin it out of focus once while taking it out of my bike bag. [UPDATE: As of 10/9, I have never had to adjust it again. It's a big improvement.]

When I composed my first shots on my morning walk I remembered one glitchy feature shared by the FZ80. Even if the LCD screen is turned off, touching it can still change the settings. I'd set the focus to 1-Area (to better choose what I want most in focus, such as a bird behind branches), but when I went to compose the shot in the viewfinder, my nose touched the screen and moved the 1-Area dot from the center of the frame to the top right corner. Thankfully, you can go into the menus to turn off that feature. 

One thing I'd been meaning to do with my old FZ80 was take it more seriously as a camera instead of just setting it to Program mode and firing away. After all, that's why they call it a "point and shoot," right? Although I'd often end up with a shutter speed too slow to capture the action, I just accepted the missed shot and moved on.

Today I decided to try to remedy that situation, and it seems like the easiest way to increase the shutter speed is to increase the ISO, which can be set as low as 80 or as high as 3200. You can change the ISO with the little cursor button on the back of the camera. Now I set the camera to Program mode and crank up the ISO until I get the shutter speed I want. The max shutter speed is 1/2000th sec., so if you crank the ISO unnecessarily high, you end up with an over-exposed shot.

I also bought a new, faster-reading SD card, and the viewfinder black-out period after taking a picture is maybe shorter, but still somewhat obnoxious.

All the shots in this post used the camera's highest JPEG mode. (I haven't tried shooting RAW files yet.) The resulting FZ80D files are a bit larger than the old FZ80's, coming in at around 9,500 - 10,000 megabytes versus 7,000 - 7,500. Click on any picture to view it larger.

Autum Leaves, Forest Hill Steps

Redwood Leaves

Cloud Forest, Golden Gate Heights Park

Fallen Hazel Leaf on Moss

Echeveria elegans

Resting Bison

Black Phoebe, Cliff House (ISO 200)

This is the full-frame image view, with the full 1200mm telephoto extension (hand-held but bracing on a sea wall), from which the next cropped frames show different ISO settings.

Focus-tracking does work, at least sometimes.
(1200mm, image cropped, 1/1250 sec. @ f/5.9, ISO 400)

White-crowned Sparrow, Cliff House

Bathing Pelicans
(I kept them in my viewfinder in the hope of photographing them on take-off, but they just drifted farther and farther away, splashing and preening without a care in the world.)

Western Gull Flying Past Cliff House
(976mm, image uncropped, 1/2000 sec. @ f/5.6, ISO 200)

A foursome of wandering tattlers took a rest break on the sandstone cliffs during high tide.

Solo Tattler, Cliff House

This red-tailed hawk swooped out of the nearby woods in Golden Gate Park and landed on a branch right in front of me.

The take-off doesn't look terribly graceful, but at least the hawk isn't a complete blur (zoom at 855mm, 1/500 sec., wide open @ f/5.6, ISO 800).

Cabbage White on an Aster, Metson Lake

Cattail, Metson Lake

Lawn Agarics, Metson Lake

The FZ80D in a case within my bike's trunk bag. I got the case so it wouldn't get jostled around as much in the trunk. The case was made for the FZ80, and the FZ80D's larger viewfinder barely fits.

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