Heron's Head

 

Willet Nabs a Shore Crab at Heron's Head Park This Morning

I was standing on the back stoop yesterday, overlooking our garden which has been abused by squirrels (besides riddling the garden with holes, they have eaten one succulent, leaf by leaf, and recently ran off with another whole plant), when this Cooper's hawk swooped right past me and landed on the neighbor's fence to look for a meal. I ran upstairs to grab my camera and was surprised to see the hawk still there when I returned. Unfortunately, it left without taking a squirrel along for a ride....

I recently read about improvements being made to India Basin Waterfront Park, so I was a little surprised this morning to see that the park has been demolished, only a year after its grand opening. I guess it'll have an even grander opening sometime in the future.

Meanwhile, the bird life at Heron's Head Park has picked up quite a bit since I was last out there.

Something was putting the shorebirds on edge. I never knew why with any certainty, but they appeared to be quite nervous around a nearby great egret that dwarfed the snowy egret above in size. In nature, throwing your weight around is par for the course.

I don't often see a meadowlark in the city. This one appears to be in jail.

It eventually came back over to my side of the fence.

But not for long.

It called out from the top of a toyon bush but received no reply.

Meadowlark with Yellow Building in the Distance

Kayakers on the Fog-shrouded Bay

In no hurry to get back on the road, I sat down to watch this lone willet for a minute.

The willet very quickly caught this lined shore crab, which seemed a little too big to deal with. I'm not sure if the crab ever got away or was mortally wounded, but the willet never appeared to really eat it.

Quick Clip of Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper at Rest

Urban Kayaking

A red admiral landed briefly on some gumweed flowers, but quickly abandoned them in favor of warming up on the rocky shore.

I'd never seen a surf scoter on land before. I wondered if it was injured.

It wasn't. When I got too close, it bolted into the water.

Ghost Ship Belching Smoke

Container Ship Anchored Near Port of Oakland

Urban Paddle-boarding. It looked like paddle boards and kayaks could be rented at Crane Cove.

There was a popular new sculpture along the Embarcadero.

A flock of gulls and elegant terns was hanging out on the sandbar at Crissy Lagoon. The two darker birds in the lower right corner are killdeer.

I love the sound of fog horns on a sunny day....

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Times Change

 

Resting Great Blue Heron at Lily Lake on Friday

As I biked past one of my favorite trees in Golden Gate Park on Wednesday, I thought to myself that I should come back to photograph it with my full-frame camera before winter storms blew it down. I had no reason to think it might fall over, but for some reason the possibility entered my mind. 

When I rode by again on Friday (Halloween) I was shocked to see that the tree had been cut down! All that was left was a low stump. A park employee at the scene told me the tree had developed a crack running up its trunk. He said an arborist noticed last year that its trunk had developed a three-foot-long crack, and when they checked it again this year the crack had increased five-fold, to fifteen feet. They figured it was better to cut it down now than to risk lives by letting nature take its course.

Although I subscribe to the digital version of the San Francisco Chronicle, I missed the story about the tree's demise. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they actually covered the event, which happened on Thursday, the day I was on Mt. Tam. Apparently the Monterey cypress was over a hundred years old! No wonder it was so full of old man's beard.  

Lily Lake's Namesake

I'd seen this incipient chicken-of-the-woods as I biked past North Lake on Wednesday, when I didn't have a camera with me. Not even my phone. I snapped this shot when I rode by again on Friday.

The flush of fungi probably needs more rain to grow out.

This is a phone snap of the 100-year-old Monterey cypress in Hellman's Hollow from September 2022.

This is what it looked like when I passed by on Friday.

It was kind of beautiful to find flowers left on the stump when I went down there this morning. A lot of folks loved this tree. I measured 112 inches at what looked like its longest diameter at the cut (from roughly 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock).

Foggy Autumn Scene This Morning at Pioneer Meadow

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Woodland Treasure

 

Jack-O-Lantern Mushrooms & Friends

Having enjoyed too many gorgeous sunny days this month (mostly in the Chicago area), I wasn't mentally prepared to go for a long bike ride under a dense layer of fog this morning. I checked the Mt. Tam webcam and saw that it was sunny up there around Rock Spring, so I packed my macro lens and drove on up.

On the way up to Rock Spring I stopped to collect my trail cameras and was taken by the beauty of all the acorns on the ground. I couldn't be certain based on the camera footage, but it looked like even the coyotes like to eat them from time to time.

Acorn River

Heading out on the trail I spotted a butterfly that I wanted to photograph. I watched where it landed, and while I was looking for it I spooked up this praying mantis in the grass at my feet.

I didn't spot the well-camouflaged butterfly until it flew away.

Luckily, a few more (orange sulfurs?) came into the area over the next few minutes to drink nectar from the few dandelion flowers blooming in an otherwise dry and brown meadow.

Dewy Oxeye Daisy

The woods still held some moisture, but much of the fungi was already showing its age. Much of it had been nibbled by various critters though, including a squirrel that left an unidentifiable mushroom reduced to crumbs beneath its perch on a log.

Forest Treasures

Still Life With Russula

Decaying Madrone

Madrone Detail #1

Madrone Detail #2

Mycena Mushrooms

Madrone Berries, Pecked-out Bay Nut & Tiny Mushrooms

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