Ginkgo Leaves, San Francisco Botanical Garden It was refreshingly cool and breezy down in Golden Gate Park this morning. Our apartment is only at about 700 feet in elevation, but it's quite a bit warmer up here. The temperature dropped deliciously as I biked down the hill. The National Weather Service reported the Sunset District was 61 degrees this morning, but it was 75 here at home, and that was as cool as it got all night.  I don't love it, but I'm not complaining. I know we still have it easy compared to just about everywhere else in the state. As I passed the entran ..read more

  Apple Muncher, Golden Gate Heights It's heading back toward 80 degrees in our livingroom already, and the sun isn't even striking the front (west-facing) windows yet. A cool and mild sea breeze faked me out this morning, and I began my West Portal/Forest Hill walk in good spirits, figuring the breeze would most likely pick up and cool things down even more. Nope. The breeze gave out less than half-way through the walk. Later on I was down by the ocean on my bike and casting fond looks out to the hazy, foggy horizon. But still no breeze to bring it in. I was just a block from h ..read more

Female Coyote, Golden Gate Park A good day for coyotes, a bad day for gophers. I altered my Tuesday walk by just a little bit, but it made a big difference. After trekking along the Sunset Parkway (where I photographed a red-tailed hawk), I normally head back toward home at Irving Street. For some time, though, I've been thinking about continuing along Sunset until it empties right into Golden Gate Park, and today I decided to go for it.  The new route was immediately better. I was walking on a trail instead of a sidewalk, surrounded by trees instead of houses. I'd hoped to ph ..read more

  Yellow-rumped Warbler, Sunset Reservoir I've been wondering where all the yellow-rumped warblers have been lately, since the species has often seemed to dominate my sightings in the past. I was glad to have brought my camera on today's walk, since that's when I finally saw one, working a tree on the edge of Sunset Reservoir on Ortega Street. Townsend's Warbler, North Lake Orange-crowned Warbler (?), North Lake This red-tailed hawk was sunning its feathers in a pine tree on the edge of the Bison Paddock. I went around to the o ..read more

  A Gathering of Gulls, Ocean Beach My inbox had yet another migration alert from BirdCast today, but it's a national alert, not the local info I thought I'd signed up for. It seemed like I hardly saw any birds on either my walk or bike ride today, although there was a highlight at North Lake where I saw a small moth or skipper chasing a hummingbird. I guess they both wanted the same nectar-bearing flowers. As I biked past Metson Lake today I couldn't help saying "Oh, no!" when I saw that the fallen cypress tree had been cut up. I first noticed the treefall on February 3, 2023 ..read more

  Western Flycatcher, Golden Gate Heights Park I'd reached the peak elevation for the day's walk and was heading down toward home when a bird shot out of the bushes to nab a passing insect. It missed its target, then ducked deep into the bushes when it spotted me walking toward it. I got out my camera, figuring the bird had been a flycatcher and would eventually return to the edge of the brush to hunt. It didn't take long! After getting home and switching to my bike I was coasting down the cracked and broken paved path that winds along the northern side of the the Bison Paddock ..read more

  Townie Nabs A Snack Whoa, another sunny day. It's nice when you don't need ISO 3200 to photograph a colorful little Townsend's Warbler that just nabbed a skipper, especially when the skipper appeared to be putting up a valiant but vain struggle to escape.  I was keeping an eye on one Townie while getting my camera out of my bike bag, when a second one zipped over my head and appeared to chase something, then quickly catch it.  I could see that it had something in its beak. The bird was close and in the open on a nice diagonal branch, but my shot was wild and not in f ..read more

  Dining on Blackberries, North Lake It's the second day of fall, and it finally feels like summer here in western San Francisco. What little fog there was last night quickly burned off this morning. While out on my bike I snapped a few photos around North Lake and Metson Lake in Golden Gate Park. The kingfisher and great blue heron were absent from Metson, but I was lured toward some cattails there by the distinctive chitting of a common yellowthroat. The yellowthroat eventually showed itself, but too briefly and too deeply in the cattails to get a shot. I'm starting to ..read more

  Ground Squirrel, Strybing Arboretum Waking up to a thick, dripping fog lounging outside the window this morning, I felt kind of ho-hum about making another bird foray to Strybing Arboretum. But then I remembered the ground squirrels and decided to try my luck.  I think it was down at Piedras Blancas, where I went to watch elephant seals giving birth on the beach, that I saw almost as many ground squirrels as seals. But in all my years of living in San Francisco I'd never seen one in Golden Gate Park until just the other day. I'd love to know how they get here. On t ..read more

  Townsend's Warbler, Golden Gate Park I'd spent around three hours walking through Strybing Arboretum, cruising the woodland around the Bison Paddock, and walking my bike around the west side of North Lake with no luck. At North Lake I saw a brown creeper -- a bird I've been looking forward to seeing again -- and despite getting it in my viewfinder, I could never get a clear shot through all the foliage. A couple of Townsend's warblers showed up and diverted my attention, but they moved on very quickly, and when I looked back for the creeper, it was gone. It was only after I le ..read more