Return of the Flickers

 

Norther Flicker in the Oak Woodlands, Golden Gate Park

I won't call it a "resolution," but I've been thinking about uploading more San Francisco species to iNaturalist this year, so I started today since I had such a diverse haul of photos, most of which came out of the Oak Woodlands near the Horseshoe Courts. (I'll occasionally see lawn bowlers in the park, but I have yet to see anyone playing at the horseshoe courts.) 

Another non-resolution is to do more photography outside the city. I renewed my annual CDFW Lands Pass this morning, and the plan is to use it more often than I have the last few years. I also hope to use my National Parks Pass more often, and I'd like to discover some new and interesting natural areas to explore around the state.

The fact that we're getting a decent rain year so far is good encouragement for doing these things. I started the Mt. Tam blog back in 2013 during a long period of drought, which put a crimp on the available biodiversity to explore. If you've been thinking about photographing someplace special in a deep way, this year is shaping up to be a great time to get started.

I saw a pretty sunrise in the making this morning and biked over to Grandview Park to get an unobstructed view of it.

Agaricus californicus in the Oak Woodlands.

Leucopaxillus albissimus

This little troop of Mycenas (possibly Mycena haematopus) was growing in a log just up the trail from the solo mycena I recently photographed.

I can only recall finding a bolete in the park once before. This might be Xerocomus subtomentosus.

I started photographing flickers in the Oak Woodlands in mid-December last year and have been waiting expectantly to see them this year. Today was finally the day.

I cropped the heck out of this shot to show the Jerusalem cricket in the flicker's beak.

And down the hatch.

I don't know if the males were more skittish or just fewer in number, but this was the only one I was able to photograph.

I keep forgetting about Hutton's vireos. I'd assumed this was a ruby-crowned kinglet until iNaturalist suggested (correctly, I believe) otherwise. 

Brown Creeper on Lichen-tassled Oak

Townsend's Warbler on Oak Branch

Grooming Squirrel, Oak Woodland

Miner's Lettuce on the Edge of the Fuchsia Dell.

There was quite a lot of this cup fungus, Peziza repanda, growing in the cycad area near Lily Lake.

And if you find the cup fungus, the bear is very nearby.

This was one of several male and female ring-necked ducks diving inside a circle surrounded by duckweed at Lily Lake. The ducks themselves likely created the clearing with their constant activity.

Yellow-rumped warbler in eucalyptus, Inner Sunset just off Irving Street.

An Anna's hummingbird was feeding on a different tree across the street.

* * *

Looking Back & Forward

 

Sunrise at Chimney Rock, January 2012

We'd hoped the rain would hold off until late afternoon on this last day of the year, but no such luck. The plan was to explore some tidepools down the coast, but I didn't like the idea of trying to photograph in the rain with my DSLR. You can't really get a clear shot through a rain-speckled water surface. One of these days I might have to spring for a waterproof camera that I could dunk underwater. 

Stuck at home, I was looking back at Pt. Reyes photos I shot during the month of January over the years and felt a little inspiration to photograph out there more often in 2026. We'll see. The long drive is a bit of an "anti-inspiration." In the meantime, here's a look back. 

I hope all you folks out there who share this blog with me have many excellent things planned for the new year, with a sprinkling of spontaneous pleasant surprises to put it over the top. All the best for '26!

Estero Cloudscape

Sunrise in the Limantour Dunes

Alder Thicket Along Muddy Hollow Trail

Sunset at Elephant Rock

Bull Elk at Tomales Point

Various Fungi on Bed of Lichen

Liquid Landscape

Arch Rock Before The Fall

Black Mountain & Nicasio Reservoir

Coyote At Ease, Yet Always Alert, As a New Year Unfolds

* * *

Snowy Plovers

 

Western Snowy Plover, Ocean Beach

I saw them on the beach, a smattering of little white balls in the sand, when I was down there a week or two ago, but I didn't have the camera with me. I actually left the house without the camera again this morning, but I turned back to get it when I noticed the wind was blowing offshore. I wanted to be able to photograph surfers in case there was a big swell. I'd forgotten about the plovers until I got to the beach and noticed them once again. 

There was just a small swell, but it looked pretty fun out there.

I found this old poster I made back 2004 when I was looking for other times of the year that I've photographed the snowy plovers. Mostly it's been November - February, but I was surprised to find shots from August 2008.

The great blue heron was hunting in the Bison Paddock but didn't make any strikes in the time I was watching him. He looked close a few times, as in the pose above, but whatever was catching his eye continued its run of good luck. I was surprised to see so much mustard in bloom already. The paddock looks very lush right now, and the bison were their usual relaxed selves.

As I was poking my camera lens through the chain-link fence, I noticed that one of the many yellow-rumped warblers in the area had perched close by. Its feet kept slipping as it tried to balance against the wind.

Lots of visitors in the park and down by the beach on this sunny day, but not many birds on Seal Rocks. It's not often that Chimney Rock at Pt. Reyes is so clearly visible in the distance (~28.75 miles away).

* * *

Walk In The Woods

 

Sulfur Tufts & Deer Mushroom, Mt. Tamalpais

Although I brought my full-frame camera in the hope of finding interesting fungi to photograph, I only snapped a few frames with my phone camera. There was very little fruiting in the fungal world. The woods, though, were spectacular. Crystal clear, clean air, fragrant with the incense of bay laurel and Douglas fir. Sunshine angling down through the forest canopy while all the creeks were singing and dancing down the canyons and every little ravine. It was a great day to be out on the mountain.

Scenes from the Woods

Checked the Tam Cam this morning and spotted a brocken specter (glory) over on the left side of the frame.

* * *

City Views

 

Slight Rainbow Over San Francisco Bay

We noticed a little rainbow weather on Christmas Day, but we couldn't see the 'bow very well through our condensation-fogged windows. I took my camera outside but couldn't get a good angle on the 'bow, so I went back for my bike and rode to Grandview Park. Just in time to watch the rainbow fade.

I stuck around as some promising storm clouds blew in, but the 'bow never got brighter than you see above. And then a mass of clouds blotted out the sun and it was time to ride home.

A Little Color at USF

Telegraph Hill & Coit Tower With Storm Cloud

Watching the Storm from Grandview Park

It's not often you see a lone Mycena mushroom. This was emerging from a crack in a tree stump near the southern entrance to the Oak Woodlands.

At the other end of the Oak Woodlands was a flat area with lots of wood chips sprouting the usual suspects -- and also these unusual and very viscid-looking, glutinous suspects, possibly Pholiota velaglutinosa.

Interestingly, the gooey stuff on the caps had hardened quite a bit, almost like a varnish.

* * *

Merry Christmas

 

Squirrel with Fresh Fruit, San Francisco Botanical Garden

Christmas is as good a day as any to reflect on my own core philosophy, which is that holiness is foundational to everything and everyone. I like the word "holy" instead of the perhaps less religious word "sacred," but that's a personal preference. I think of sacred as an attribute, holy as an experience. To experience the holiness that underlies everything from sunny days to hurricanes, from children at play to grown-ups at war, from glorified saints to vilified sinners, is to have empirical knowledge of a deep mystery that can only be explored by an individual person on an individual journey.

May all of you have a beautiful day filled with joy.

My wife spotted this huge chicken-of-the-woods on a stump in the back of the Botanical Garden. Some other interesting fungi were sprouting from the top.

I was surprised to find such a nice fruiting of turkey tails in the SFBG. One of the things we like about the Mendocino Botanical Gardens is that they leave in place any mushrooms that sprout, so it was good to find some unmolested fungi here at home. Also, it's excellent to have such a good season of rain to bring them out, and to let us forget, even for a little while, the threat of drought.

The Townie couldn't decide which tree to forage in next and hopped along the fence line until it found a congenial spot to re-enter the plant world.

A group of bushtits made its merry way through insect-laden trees.

This is one of the SFBG ponds decked out for its holiday light show.

Greetings from down in the pond....

This was the view of surface winds blowing this morning.

And this is the view of winds at 2,000 feet.

And speaking of the High Country, this morning also turned up a foggy yet cheerful snow scene in Yosemite.

On a recent visit at North Lake I collected a few small Chinese chestnuts and meant to put them on the railing at Cliff House. I kept forgetting to do that, so I ended up leaving them out back to see who would get them first, the jays, crows, or squirrels.

* * *