Bird's Eye View

 

Even on a beautiful day, basking in the sun on a sandy beach, these whimbrels do not let their guards down. They are predators who don't want to fall prey to a speeding peregrine.

I wonder if marbled godwits ever fall prey to conspiracy theories the way so many people seem to these days. It's kind of shocking when people you know suddenly seem to disappear into the dimly gaslit atmosphere of outlandish tales from an unreal world.

I think such people could benefit by spending more time in nature, more time watching the flight of sanderlings, more time just letting nature heal minds that have been engrossed too long in a venomous sea of emotional manipulation.

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Welcome Visitors

 

I was sitting in the back yard the other day when a Cabbage White butterfly fluttered down to nosh on the nectar of our lantana flowers. We've had the lantana for years, but this was the first time I'd caught a butterfly taking advantage of them. I chalk that up to the fact that I'm spending more time in the back yard these days than when I had to work downtown.

I didn't have even my phone camera on me when the butterfly landed, but these shots are the same species, shot on another September day nearly ten years ago. Of course I'd really like to see a Green Hairstreak come streaking down to partake of our flower garden. There is a "Green Hairstreak Corridor" just a block or so away, but the only place I've actually seen one is Lobos Dunes, way on the north side of town.

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Ansel Adams

Thousand Island Lake

Ansel Adams Wilderness, September 2011

Wildflower Meadow

(Click on images to view larger)

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Dinner Bell

 

We've been adopted by one of the neighborhood cats, and I've been trying to get her to come when I make a non-verbal cat-call (if there is a word for that sound, I don't know it). She must not have been nearby because I didn't hear her footfalls in the leaves in the neighbor's yard, or even a meow to let me know she was on the way. It was last call, though, so I set out some food in the hope she would get it before the raccoons found it.

No such luck.

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At the Pool

Camera Trapping on Mt. Tamalpais

 

Bobcat

Gray Fox

Raccoon

Blacktail Doe

Coyote

Screech Owl

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Raven

The Day the Earth Stood Still

N95 Weather

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