Hoodie Gets A Fish

 

Hooded Merganser in the Lily Pond, Golden Gate Park

I had plenty of time to get the camera out of my knapsack when I spotted the female hooded merganser struggling to eat its large prey this morning. I couldn't tell it was a fish until I zoomed in, and I was able to fire off a few frames before it finally got the fish down the hatch, which it did while underwater.

I wondered how such big prey got past the bird's crop, but it turns out diving ducks don't have a crop, which many birds from sparrows to red-tails use to pre-digest their food. Instead, the prey of hooded mergansers gets ground up by the gizzard, which is part of its stomach and is tough enough to pulverize even crustaceans like crayfish. Although all birds have gizzards, few have such tough ones as the hooded merganser.

The hoodie holds onto its prey with a narrow, serrated beak. The fish appeared to be dead by this point, but Mergie still had a tough time getting it down the hatch.

It almost seemed like Mergie was playing with her food, as here she has let go of the fish. On her next dive, she took the fish along for the ride and soon surfaced by herself, presumably having swallowed the fish while underwater.

Another crop-less, gizzardy bird, this great egret was hunting along the edge of the Lily Pond.

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Bando's Territory

 

High Voltage Hawk

I stopped to check out Bando on the way up to the Cliff House overlook today, but he was busy preening and seemed in no hurry to start hunting, so I rode on. The ocean had been super-calm yesterday, with very light wind and almost no swell under a sunny sky, and today was also calm, with a breeze rippling the surface a bit under cloudy skies. Not much bird action other than a few surf scoters, gulls, and cormorants. The four willets who'd been feeding on the beach in front of Sutro Baths the last couple of days were gone.

On the way back down the hill I noticed that the leg-banded juvenile red-tail I call Bando was no longer on his light post. Oddly, he was on the road below it. I stopped and whipped out my camera to see if he'd caught something, instead catching him just as he took wing with empty talons.

He flew over to a highly built-out power pole on Balboa Street, and a second juvenile red-tail flew into a nearby cypress tree just as I was getting over there. Bando soon flew over to the tree as well -- not to shoo away the interloper, but apparently just to say hello. He didn't stay for long before winging it across the tiny Balboa Natural Area to land on a perch of his own along the Great Highway (a perch that had been occupied by a raven who flew away with a squawk).

P.S. I just finished reading The Wager about the last sailing adventure of a ship by that name. It was an excellent story overall, with interesting characters, incredible hardship and resilience, and the conundrums and meaning of justice. But I also I liked the little reminders about the nautical origins of common sayings such as "three sheets to the wind" for loose sails putting a ship out of control, and "under the weather" for putting sick sailors below the weather deck. Now the next time I feel under the weather I'll at least have a clear picture in my mind of what the heck I'm talking about.

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Ruffled Feathers

 

Red-tailed Hawk Ruffling Its Feathers, Sunset Parkway

A guy in an ugly gray Tesla rolled through his stop sign this morning (I didn't have a stop sign), forcing me to brake to avoid getting splattered on his windshield. Later, a woman in an ugly beige Subaru nearly plowed me into a grease spot while speeding through Golden Gate Park. And oh yeah, earlier in the day, a guy's ugly dog suddenly went psycho on me. I guess two potentially fatal motor vehicle crashes and a mad dog (at least it was leashed) ruffled my feathers a little bit, but it's the kind of thing pedestrians and cyclists deal with every day in San Francisco, so we learn to take in stride, nothwithstanding the occasional fantasy involving rocket propelled grenades....

Anyhow. Such a beautiful day! I watched a red-tailed hawk land in a pine tree right in front of me as I was walking along the Sunset Parkway and decided to get the camera out. Instead of immediately flying away, the hawk simply hopped to new branches to get out of my line of sight. I followed, no doubt ruffling its feathers, and just as it seemed about to take its leave for good, I noticed it had a thin branch in its beak, and instead of flying far away, it fluttered to the top of the next pine over, sending a second hawk flying off toward the park. I guess it's safe to say there's a nest being built up there. I noted my location and look forward to keeping tabs on the nest, hard as that might be from the ground.

Still trying to get away from that pesky photographer.

Branch Dancing

Have Stick Will Travel

Very brief video clip of the red-tail in its presumed nesting area.

Tree Monster of Mallard Lake

The hummer refused to look toward me and flash his gorget colors, but he's a handsome devil anyway....

There were only about three flowers on this Brazilian bellflower (Callianthe megapotamica) last week.

A red-shouldered hawk was calling out from a piney area as I approached Elk Glen Lake, and then it suddenly glided into view and landed at the top of a pine right in front of me.

It put up with me for a while, but I was hoping to get a "burst mode" photo of it taking wing, and it eventually obliged.

Red-shouldered Hawk Taking Flight

I was trying to photograph a Townsend's warbler when I noticed this hermit thrush in the corner of my eye. I was surprised it didn't fly away as soon as I pointed my camera its way, but I think it had other things to worry about. A couple seconds later, another hermit zipped in and chased this one off its branch.

Nobody chases the Townsend's warblers -- except maybe Anna's hummingbirds.

Townie Gets Gymnastic

It appears to have caught a moth or something (which, unfortunately, is not in focus).

Looking for bugs in a clump of hanging lichen.

The yellow-rumped warblers took advantage of the backlight from the north side of Elk Glen Lake. Any insects that flew by were lit up like a glowing "Eat Me" sign.

I had been trying again to photograph a bumblebee nectaring on some gooseberry flowers when the mad dog went psycho earlier in the morning, and I tried again (and again in vain) to catch one on these flowers at Elk Glen Lake. I'm surprised the bumblebees are so skittish.

There were two great blue herons in the pines at Blue Heron Lake today, but this one chased off the other one soon after I arrived. Note the raven in the upper right, yanking on some strands of lichen with its beak.

You gotta love it when a GBH ruffles its feathers.

* * *

Skittish Coyote

 

Red-breasted Sapsucker at North Lake

The coyote was already getting off the road when I saw him. A young woman appeared to have seen him even though he was behind her. My impression was that she had stopped to get a phone snap, sending the coyote for cover. I got off my bike and quietly tried to intercept the coyote, though I was worried about my very loud, bright yellow bike windbreaker.

I soon saw the coyote moving toward me, following an animal trail through heavy undergrowth. There was no way I was going to get a shot of the moving animal through all that interference, so I pointed my camera at a small opening and got one frame as he passed through. 

I wasn't ready to just let him go, so I tried to intercept him again farther along, and sure enough I was in the right place at the right time, but the coyote spun right around as soon as we saw each other. No frozen moment of curiosity on the coyote's part at all, which was disappointing for me, being the first glimpse I've had of a healthy coyote since November. 

Sapsucker #2

Sapsucker #3

Brief Video Clip of the Sapsucker

Coyote on the Move

I've been checking the pines at Blue Heron Lake for any sign of nest-building getting started, and today I saw my first-of-season GBH in one of the nesting trees. It was alone up there, though, and soon flew away.

Double-crested Cormorant, Blue Heron Lake

* * *

In the Aloe

 

Townie in the Aloe

The sun is shining now, but it was cold and windy when I biked down to the SF Botanical Gardens early this morning. As I roamed around to enjoy the blooming magnolia trees and look for birds, a long and narrow bank of clouds remained cleverly placed to block the sun, hour after hour. There wasn't a whole lot of bird activity in there, but orange-crowned and Townsend's warblers foraging among some colorful aloe flowers up near the Children's Garden took my mind off the cold.

I made a quick pass of Blue Heron Lake and was surprised to see a pair of greater white-fronted geese in there. They were hanging out with a couple of much larger Canada geese, patrolling close to shore where someone had just been tossing bread to the birds. From there I rode past Lily Pond once again, and once again struck out on the green heron.

Pink Magnolia

Looking Up

Aloe Flowers

Hummer at Rest Among the Aloe Flowers

I was interested in the rapid breathing of this hummer while it rested on a branch, but the little bit of preening was a bonus.

Orange-crowned Warbler

The orange-crowned warbler soon flew out of range, but this Townsend's warbler stuck around for another minute or so.

These were shot with the FZ80D at ISO 3200 (1/1000th sec. @ f/5.6), then run through Denoise in Lightroom.

Golden-crowned Sparrow in the Willows

Golden-crowned Sparrow Munching Willow Flowers

Red-shouldered Hawk, Out On A Limb

White Magnolia Blossoms

Ring-necked Duck (Female)

Ring-necked Duck (Male)

White-fronted Goose, Blue Heron Lake

Canada and White-fronted Geese

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