Passing Storms

 

Passing Storm, Ocean Beach

A couple of minutes after snapping the photo above, I was pulling rain pants out of my knapsack. I was glad I'd brought them because there was nowhere to take cover.  The breakwater overhang, where I took refuge once before, didn't work because the wind was blowing the rain everywhere.

As soon as I had all my rain gear on I stepped out onto the beach to enjoy the passing squall. It was windy, but nothing like yesterday. The larger shorebirds like marbled godwits and whimbrels were farther south, so I planned to observe the sanderlings close by. 

On the way to the water's edge I discovered more by-the-wind sailors, some of which seemed to be abandoning ship. It looked like the blue animals were able to release from their chitinous sail enough to gather in a small puddle of life-giving water. With the tide coming in, maybe they had a chance of surviving until the ocean could pick them up again.

I was surprised to see this plant growing all by itself on the Sunset Parkway. At first glance it looked like Chinese Houses, but PlantNet tells me it's Moroccan Toadflax (Linaria maroccana). Both are in the same family, and both have been moved out of Scrophulariaceae into the plantain family, Plantaginaceae. So many changes since my early 1980s botany classes. Morphology has been replaced by genetics to group plant families by their evolutionary lineage.

A few groups of brown pelicans made their way south, gliding into the wind.

While little sanderlings foraged on the beach, Mt. Tamalpais came out from behind a thick dome of clouds. By the time I got home about an hour later, it was covered again. 

Velella velella, with the colony puddling into a tiny puddle of water to stay alive.

That slight depression in the sand is a lifeline for the colony of hydroids (or perhaps a single large polyp). It eats zooplankton but also harbors photosynthetic algae that produce additional nutrition. Each colony is either all-male or all-female and reproduces by asexual budding, creating tiny medusae which sink up to 1,000 meters below the sea surface where they reproduce sexually, creating larvae which then rise up to the surface to develop their sails.

Partly Exposed Sand Dollar

Probing Sanderling

Billowing clouds at the aft end of the storm squall.

Strolling Sanderling

Sanderling Catches a Mole Crab

Unlike the bigger shorebirds, sanderlings can't just down a whole mole crab, so they have to pull off little bits at a time.

Stopping by the bison paddock on my bike ride, I noticed a male/female pair of Western bluebirds that seemed to be inspecting a nest box.

The tree swallows were not amused, and they chased off the bluebirds.

I hadn't seen Sunny Allen in a while, figuring it has been too windy for him to hang onto his perch on a dried stalk of pokeberry bush.

Although he did manage to climb aboard, he didn't stay long. It looked a little like riding a bucking bronco.

I looked around and saw that he sometimes perches on top of the chain-link fence, or even on the rope fence that the swallows often use.

Tree Swallow Sitting Near Nest Box

This one appeared to be very excited about something.

The pied-billed grebe was still on her nest today, and it looks a little more built-up than before.

* * *

Shore Life

 

Marbled Godwit & Whimbrel Fly Into The Wind At Ocean Beach

The wind was blowing fairly hard out of the south, pushing me and my bike at 13-15 mph along the Upper Great Highway (the as-yet unnamed Prop. K park) with no pedaling necessary. I wanted to ride the whole length of Fogpatch Park (my pick for a name) without fighting a headwind, so I rode into Forest Hill and West Portal, then down Sloat (with a detour through Stern Grove) to arrive at the south end of the beach near the zoo.

Calla Lilies, Nasturtium & Eucalyptus in Stern Grove

Octopus Sculpture at Sloat & Great Highway

Beach Primrose & Ice Plant

Giraffe Sculpture

One of a handful of murals along the route.

There was a decent group of mostly whimbrels, with a few marbled godwits, foraging on the shoreline near Noriega Street, so I locked my bike to check them out up close.

All the shorebirds were slowly working their way south, into the wind.

Thanks to the cloudy sky and wind-blown sand, there were few people with dogs on the beach, leaving the birds to work in peace. 

The whimbrel tried a few times to steal any mole crabs caught by the marbled godwit, charging toward the bird when it pulled its beak up from the sand. It soon gave up after the godwit repeatedly came up empty.

Sandy Beak

A marbled godwit steps away from the foam.

A whimbrel comes up empty, as all the shorebirds do, many more times than it actually strikes a crab.

A marbled godwit swallows a mole crab.

Whimbrel in Sudsy Windrows

Out for a jog in the blowing sands.

A whimbrel makes a gentle landing, beak to the wind.

* * *

Get It While You Can

 

Nesting Great Blue Herons, Blue Heron Lake

With rain in the forecast for tomorrow I figured I should take advantage of a sunny Saturday to get out on my bike to Fort Mason. The chores I usually do today can wait until tomorrow. 

I'd hoped to locate the California thrasher that folks have been seeing over there, but had no luck. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful day to be out and about, so no complaints.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've seen tidy tips in the city. They were in a field just above El Polin Spring.

Goldfields and a great blue heron were also in the same field.

I liked this vertical composition with the heron between the two small patches of goldfields in the front and a tall yarrow stalk in the back.

The heron went into stalking mode three times, coming up with bupkis the first two times but scoring a gopher on the third jab.

There were also patches of Dougas iris here and there (above El Polin Spring).

While looking for compositions with the iris flowers, I heard shuffling in the shrubbery nearby and expected to find a sparrow or California towhee when I looked for the culprit. I was surprised to see two spotted towhees instead. 

The California thrasher didn't show up at the Fort Mason Community Garden, but there were hummers galore, taking advantage of all the colorful flowers (including tulips, as I was surprised to see).

A mockingbird vied with noisy parakeets for his place in the soundscape.

Here's a clip of the mockingbird strutting his stuff. I especially liked his take on the Northern flicker.

Coast Guard helicopter circling above Alcatraz Island.

The Hong Kong-flagged container ship YM Wish sails beneath the Golden Gate Bridge on its way to Busan, South Korea.

At Crissy Lagoon, where the tide was high and getting higher, a starling gathered material to feather its nest.

The starling in the back was vocalizing quite a bit. I'd have thought it was a youngster begging for food, but it seemed full-grown. Maybe all its chittering was a mating song.

Starlings hanging out at Crissy Lagoon.

Other than a couple of coots, this resting willet was the only water bird in sight.

I dropped by Lily Lake to see if the green heron was around and found this great blue heron hunting there instead.

When I got to Blue Heron Lake, I again spooked up the adult green heron I saw there yesterday. This time it flew across the water to the edge of the island in front of the boathouse.

The little heron soon took off toward the shore around Strawberry Hill and went into deep cover.

One of the big herons, meanwhile, was busily gathering more sticks for the nest.

The trips were surprisingly short.

Just a few minutes after taking off, the heron would return with a stick.

Looks like it's going to be wet and windy tomorrow. I hope the herons are able to get their chores done today.

* * *