Squash Bug

 

Squash Bug, Golden Gate Heights

I saw what I thought was a spider ambling across my pillow this morning. The pillow was naked on the floor since the sheets and pillowcases were in the wash. I went to the kitchen for something to catch the spider in, and I grabbed a pair of glasses to put on while I was at it. Instead of a spider, which we do occasionally see in the house, the creature turned out to be a true bug.

I didn't know what kind of bug it was, but I immediately set out to photograph it, first indoors on a white background, then on a selfheal plant in the back yard, where I set it free. I kicked myself when I finally looked up the bug and found that it is a denizen of squash plants. My neighbor has a wild cucumber slithering its green tendrils all over the place, and I'd love to have photographed it on that actual member of the squash family. (I did look for the bug in our yard to no avail.)

The little fuzzies you see on the bug were no doubt picked up during its journey into our home. 

Glacier Point Road re-opened today.

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Sunbathing Red-tailed Hawk

 

Sunning Red-tailed Hawk, Golden Gate Park

It was probably in a journalism class that I first heard the saying about sunlight being the best disinfectant, used in the context of California's open-meeting laws under the Brown Act. But the saying came along much earlier and is attributed to the early 20th-century Supreme Court Associate Justice Louis Brandeis.

In any event, birds have been onto sunshine as a kind of disinfectant since long before our proto-human ancestors climbed down out of the trees. Although sunning does help a bird warm up, according to Audubon, "[A] growing body of research now points to one largely understudied purpose: to rid themselves of pesky parasites living on their skin and feathers." 

Today's sighting of a sunning red-tail was my second in less than a week, with the first one being at the Cliff House. This one occurred in the Horseshoe Courts within the Oak Woodlands of Golden Gate Park. I first saw the hawk perched in a pine tree, having been alerted to its presence by nearby bird alarms. While I was admiring the hawk it suddenly dove off its branch, whizzed right by me, and landed on a railing. I figured it had spotted a gopher, but then it jumped to the ground and waddled over to a flat, sandy, open area and lay flat as a pancake.

Banded Red-tailed Hawk in Pine Tree

Dive!

The red-tail didn't go immediately to the ground.

But it didn't take long before doing so.

Video clips of the red-tail sunning itself (with a brief clip from Lily Lake at the end, where some little fish are glad the green heron is gone).

Woodland Skipper at Lily Lake

Grebelet in the Water

The other little chick was sitting on the nearby nest with its mother.

I found a crow feather in the yard and stuck it in the ground, but it kept getting plucked out and dropped nearby. I wondered who was doing the plucking. Today I couldn't find the feather at all. Incidentally, the other day I found pieces of flour tortilla in the water bowl. In one of the clips above, a raven (or is it a big crow?) appears to be eating some small plants it pulled out by their roots.

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Two Grebelets

 

Two Pied-billed Grebe Chicks, Blue Heron Lake

The main thing I wanted to accomplish today was to get a haircut, so I left the San Francisco Botanical Garden around 11 a.m., when I figured someone would be open. After getting the quickest (and the cheapest, but probably not the best) haircut ever, I decided to ride back across Lincoln Way and stop by Blue Heron Lake to check on the pied-billed grebe nest.

I figured my timing would be good because the sun came out and warmed things up after a foggy morning, but the mama grebe was sitting on the nest when I arrived. However, she soon got up and paddled out on the lake, probably to score some lunch. I was excited to see two grebe chicks today, and also disappointed that I couldn't get a clear enough view of the nest to see any remaining eggs. Hopefully there will be more hatchlings soon on the way.

Willow branches that obscured views of the nest weeks ago are now leafing out and making it even harder to get a line of sight. I was discreet about drawing attention to the nest and must have looked oddly furtive to anyone watching me. The best shots required me to kneel on the ground, which I felt was almost too much of a giveaway, but I'll tell you what. Only one person in all the times I've visited the nest has come close to discovering what I've been up to.

As tempted as I am to share the discovery with anyone who might be interested, I don't want to risk creating unwanted attention that could provoke the mama to abandon the nest.

The red-shouldered hawk swooped down to the ground just as I walked through the entrance gate at the Botanical Garden, then soon flew back up into this fir tree, empty-handed. I hung around to see if it would pounce again, but it flew away to escape my attention.

I might not have attempted to photograph the Allen's hummingbird if not for the purple flowers in the background.

I was able to get a little closer, but I couldn't get an angle to keep the purple.

Fallen leaves in the little pond at the Children's Garden (where I found no sign of activity at the pygmy nuthatch nest cavity).

Back at the Succulent Garden I was watching the Allen's hummingbird dive-bombing something I couldn't see, when this Anna's hummingbird landed a few feet away from me.

She allowed me to come quite close. What I didn't realize was that I was moving between her and the flowers she wanted to visit. She eventually lost patience and darted toward the flowers, but chickened out and flew away.

California Sunshine (Leucospermum cordifolium)
This member of the Proteaceae is actually from South Africa, so I suspect the common name was given to it by SFBG staff. It's also called ornamental pincushion in English, or bobbejaanklou in Afrikaans.

My second-favorite city buckeye is flowering nicely now. (My favorite buckeye is one that's growing from a seed I tossed into a vacant lot years ago; it too is flowering nicely.)

I was sitting on a bench near a patch of Hummingbird Sage when this guy swooped in and started licking up the nectar. Unfortunately, it chose flowers that were blocked from my view.

The hummer stuck around to preen on that branch, so I recorded a little video clip.

Panting Grebelet

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Latticed Stinkhorn

 

Emerging Latticed Stinkhorn Fungus near Bison Paddock

I stopped to photograph a pair of tree swallows that were hanging out near a nest box that I hadn't seen getting any attention so far this season. As I got off my bike I saw something orange in the sand nearby and knew what it was right off. Nothing else looks like a fruiting of latticed stinkhorn (Clathrus ruber). I especially like this one because it still sported a tattered remnant of the white membrane from which it spawned. I haven't seen them growing in such sandy soil before. Most of the trees in the area are eucalyptus. They seem to come up in spring and late summer. Two previous posts that show it in even more gruesome detail are here and here. [UPDATE: I dropped by two days later (5/9/25) and there was no sign of the fungus ever having been there. It looked like park gardeners might have poured a mound of dirt over it!]

You never know when you're going to run into some cedar waxwings. I hear them much more often than I see them, as they tend to hang out in high tree branches. This morning I heard them while walking along the sidewalk in Golden Gate Heights, but I couldn't see them and figured they were out of the sight in someone's back yard. I kept walking, then turned around again as their singing continued, and that's when I spotted movement in a street tree I had just walked under.

Rhododendrons Near the Disc Golf Course

When I saw them in the sunshine I thought it might be better to photograph them in the fog, but I'm not so sure I was correct.

Rhododendrons On Another Planet

While I was stopped at the rhodies I heard a woodpecker nearby and was lucky to catch this hairy woodpecker before it moved way up the tree and flew away.

Tree Swallow & Yellow Mustard Plants, Seen Through Fence

One of the two swallows flew away when I got right up to the fence to get a cleaner shot, but this guy stuck around, undaunted.

Basket of Weird

Western Gull Behind Cliff House

When I first spotted this juvenile gull, I had a very brief jolt of excitement as I thought it was a four-legged animal. Its head was out of sight as it tried to pull sustenance off the rock, so all I saw was its back.

You can just make out the chick's head poking out from beneath mom's wing feathers. Apparently the other eggs have yet to hatch.

The male pied-billed grebe called out from nearby, and I was finally able to record a little bit of the beautiful sound when mama responded. (I'm just guessing that's mama on the nest, not papa.)

Iris on the Water, Blue Heron Lake

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Radish Wild

 

Wings A-flutter for Wild Radish Nectar, Elk Glen Lake

There was lots of wild radish (Raphanus sativus) blooming along my walk today, and bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies, and hummingbirds were taking advantage of the bounty. This non-native plant has altered many native ecosystems, but at least insects and birds can take advantage of it. In addition to giving nectar, I've also seen house finches eating the seeds.

Regal Red-tail, Sunset Parkway

Lefty, the crop-eared, feral black cat that is probably a bane to the local pigeons who gather at the Sunset Boulevard underpass (where last week's graffiti had already been painted over), sat calmly while I snapped a couple of photos. I didn't try to approach the cat, but I was sure tempted, and wished I'd had some kibble in my pocket.

Hoverfly on Approach

Hoverfly Sipping Wild Radish Nectar

There was lots of splashing going on at Mallard Lake. The carp appeared to be spawning again.

Spawning Carp at Mallard Lake

Shady Allen at Mallard Lake

Dropping in for a Splash

Splashing in the Watercress

The Drakes, The Hen, and The Slider

There was different splashing going on at the other end of Mallard Lake.

Anise Swallowtail Nectaring On Wild Radish

Sunny Day in the Radish Patch

Brief Footage of Fluttering Butterfly

I'd set too high a shutter speed to get a proper exposure, so I boosted the exposure in Lightroom and kind of liked the high-key result.

Mama Hummer Loading Up

I finally got at least a so-so shot of a hummer going for the twinberry flowers at Elk Glen Lake. Most of the flowers have already gone to fruit.

The weather forecasters had predicted a return of the fog this morning, but all we got was a light haze. It was great to open the curtains to sunshine two mornings in a row.

Eagle Update!

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