Joy spring, or What we found in Briones

I got a good healthy dose of wildflowers, oak trees, and green rolling hills this weekend up at Briones Regional Park. I was hoping for more wildflowers actually, but we at least found some lupine, buttercup, and poppy... the usual. A few bird friends came out to play as well:

Here's a Black Phoebe doing the phoebe thing--sallying. They lurk on a branch or bit of barbed wire like the creepy flystalkers they are. And when they see a tiny little flying lunch--


--off they go in pursuit. The phoebe's family is the flycatchers, and even in other languages their name captures this habit. In Italian it's an acchiappamosche (catches-flies) or a pigliamosche (takes-flies). After it nabs the little doodad, it's back to the perch:

(I took this picture by putting the camera up to the binocualrs! Lowest-tech.) Phoebes sally. Two girl names for one little birdy.

Then we saw a fence lizard trying to become a tree-lizard:

And after poking around in a dead fallen tree, Tom found some weird orange things that might be eggs:


And a centipede:
You can tell it's a centipede because it has 100 legs, all of which it is willing to use to murder your babies. If you're a sowbug anyway.

Now for some forensics: MORE DEAD THINGS ALERT:

We smelled a skunkety skunk skunk while hiking, and that made us look around for the source of the smell. And we found it:


Ok, now here is what's super freaky about this. That thing on the right that looks like a possum tail? That's the spine. That pink thing on the left, near the stick? That's the skull, with the nose-end still in the skin and the rear part (the occipital and parietal) skinned and bare. And in the middle are some leg bones, paws, and an inside-out, holy skunk skin, Batman! Help us, Sherlock Bones! What kind of predator would do this? How could it do it without thumbs!? It is very weird. The internet is inconclusive on this subject, and as I often find, all the real knowledge is locked away behind JSTOR or other things that you have to pay for in order to get access. Wikipedia, HMPH. You can't answer THIS mystery.


Here is what I was able to piece together:
--Bears often turn their prey inside out and so do sea lions. Neither is a candidate in Briones.
--Coyotes, bobcats, and possibly foxes are big enough to kill a skunk, but would likely bury or at least move the carcass from the side of the trail where it was killed. So, they are probably not the killers.
--Racoons could probably kill a young skunk, but I didn't find any descriptions where they turned their prey inside out.
--Great Horned owls are known to kill skunks, but I couldn't find descriptions of what parts of the skunk they would eat, or what they might do to the carcass.
--Eagles are also said to skin out their prey like this, as well as leaving talon-holes in the skin. Although I've never seen one, eBird has sightings listed of Golden Eagles in Briones. However, they are also supposed to leave white streaks of poo everywhere around the carcass, which we did not observe.

Well, until I get a chance to dig deeper into some better documentation, this will remain a mystery for now. And now, just so you don't have nightmares about decapitated skunks, here's a little scrub jay and blue sky. SLEEEEEEEP! AND FORGEEEEEET....

Woodpeckers!

Tiny cameras with weak zoom aren't great for photographing small birds in trees, but I've managed to get a few shots of two different kinds of woodpeckers that live in the park:

First, Nutall's woodpecker. I almost always hear this one before I see it. And it's all like PRTT! PRTT! PRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!


This dude (see the red?) hangs out near the long-boarded-up snack bar across from the garden center, though I've also seen it in the sycamores on Grand and in the cork oak near the garden entrance. There may be a lady somewhere around--I've heard them calling.


Second, the tiny little downy woodpecker:


I saw this little dude (and that red patch means you KNOW it's a dude) in the flowering cherry, gleaning from the twigs, not even pecking! Sheesh, what kind of woodpecker ARE you? "What? it's hard working drilling holes with your face! I don't see YOU doing it..."


Right now you are thinkin,g "these things look the same, what are you talking about two kinds of woodpecker?" You can't see the size difference, but trust me, the downy one is about an inch smaller. Also, the downy has a big white splash on its back, like someone pooped on it. In contrast, the Nuttall's has tiny black rat poops on its tum, and the downy has a clean white tum. In conclusion: POOP!

Dead things, or, The Ciiiiiircle of Liiiiiife.

For the first part of the circle of life: here are two of the many Brewers' blackbirds that have shown up around the lake, ready to make a bunch of babies. They typically perch up high (like on the sycamore gnarls) and do their little "CHK" song, indicating that they will totally murder you if you if you go near the place they intend to nest. Lady blackbirds dig a dude who isn't afraid to attack something 100 times his size. Dude b-bird is on the left, lady b-bird on the right. Hard to tell in this shot, but she's the brown and sassy one, while he's an iridescent black bundle of rage.

****Part 2: DEATH. Warning, pictures of dead birds coming up!*******


Much like a naughty cat, Tom demonstrates his love for me by showing me dead things that he's found. It's a chance to look at animals more closely, since they aren't running away from you, or even moving. Today he pointed me to this ex-pigeon, found beneath a telephone pole.


We speculate that a hawk (maybe the Cooper's we've seen feasting on squab over the garage?) probably perched on the pole, ate the breast meat, and dropped the rest down for the cockroaches and feral cats.

Nom.

This seems to be a characteristic of the well-fed hawks around here; they'll only eat the choicest cut and leave the rest. Are they full? lazy? Or incapable of picking off smaller pieces? ("You have killed 10 pounds of pigeon, but can only carry 1 back to the wagon.")


Other things also die around Lake Merritt, from various other causes:

Roadkill possum (that's what you GET for being in the bike lane!):
Mystery coot:

With a cool lobed foot.

This coot also looks to have had its tasty flight muscles munched by a hawk. That or it choked after eating that entire package of Mambas.


And a Common Goldeneye killed by a feral cat and dragged beneath a bush:


Q: But Lisa, how do you know this ribcage belongs to a goldeneye? A: I found the body a few days before this photo was taken, and at that time all the feathers and the head were still on it. Naturally I didn't bring my camera that day, so I just poked it with a stick and vowed to come back next time it stopped raining.

I found these bones near the boathouse beach I like to call "Skeleton Cove!" Not only because it adds a tinge of piratey goodness, but also because, well, there are so many bones down there. Either the cats have been verrry busy, or the current washes every drowned mariner and bloated raccoon to that exact spot.

Other dead things found but not photographed at the Lake include: Canada geese killed by off-leash dogs, and a racoon that apparently fell out of a tree and died. "DOH!"

American White Pelican

There is one white pelican that lives at Lake Merritt. The caretaker told us that it had an injured wing that healed badly, and so it was brought to Lake Merritt to live, since it can't fly anymore. They feed it fish to make sure that it's getting enough to eat, now that it doesn't have a flock to herd fish with, as it normally would. The fish probably is delivered in plastic bags, which is why if you approach the feeding gate holding a plastic bag, the pelican comes right up like a hungry stray dog. If pelicans would pant, I think this one would be panting.

One thing that's cool about pelicans is that their feet are webbed across all four toes. Other web-footed birds, like geese, have webbing across 3 toes, and then a stumpy little thumb doodad.




Also, hygiene is tricky if you're a pelican. With that giant beak, it can be hard to groom your armpits...


or brush in those hard to reach spots... like that fluffy bit on top of your head. Plus it's hard to wipe your beak free of coffee grounds, milk, or giant bumps on your beak.


Just kidding. The giant bump (and possibly the extra tuftyness) are actually there because It's Business Time for pelicans. That's also why the pelican's beak is a sexy and garish bright orange. Mmm.... carotenoids....

This picture makes me laugh because it looks like the pelican is wearing a tiny egret for a hat.


Here, the pelican demonstrates why it can't fly... but it's a chamption when it comes to doing The Robot. Also, check out the black wingtips. Black pigment makes the feathers more durable, and since flight feathers get totally punched in the face by the wind when birds fly, they can't just wimp out and be all "I'm raggedy and old cuz you flew on me too much!" No. They must be strong. Thus, white wingtips are Out this evolutionary season, and black is the new.... Black.


Finally, here is the pelican doing something weird. I didn't get a great shot, but it was pecking at the spigot and clacking its beak.


In conclusion, pelicans: cool.

Sunset in the park

Went for a walk in the park to look for little duckies at sunset. Evidently it's a romantic time not only for humans, but also Muscovy Ducks. This lady heard the squealing, hissing call of her mate and hopped up on the fence for a tender glance...


Nearby, Egyptian Goose enjoyed a tasty alfresco dinner of organic baby greens with a goose-crap dressing. A passing cyclist told us that this goose is named Tut. You'd think he'd be auditioning for the Bangles, but here it looks like he's posing for a Village People shoot instead.

Lake Merritt is brackish, so the ducks have to get their freshwater from the cement duck pond, or from this drainage pipe. Mmm, Oakland's finest.

And finally, some lovely experiments with backlighting and lens flare.

Funny things I found on the way to the library

Headless ducks!










And some funny misspelled graffitti.

Spring Part 2: Pride of Madeira, M'dear

Purple Anenomes are blooming in the park now.


















So is Redbud...




And Pride of Madeira is verrry popular with the ladies... lady hummingbirds that is!













I don't know why Blogger keeps rotating this picture.













Horned Grebes are showing their horns (those weird orange things behind the eye):













And Snowy Egrets are getting a bit tufty!