Peregrine Falcon sighted at SF Palace of Fine Arts!

Haven't posted in a while, but I thought this was worth sharing. A co-worker at the Exploratorium, Walter Kitundu, recently took some great photos and video of a peregrine falcon that has been roosting on the Palace of Fine Arts. The dramatic friezes make for some picturesque shots!

PFA PEFA from Kitundu on Vimeo.

Another photographer, Glenn Nevill, also got some great shots of the falcon.

Click the picture to go to the gallery:

Elkhorn Slough

Back in June I went down south toward Monterey. I was dreaming that I'd perhaps spot a condor from Hwy 1 (there are sightings on ebird all along that area) but as it turns out during the summer, all the condors hang out inland. Even though I didn't find any condors, it was a nice drive along the rocky cliffs.

And there were plenty of other birds to spot. These black specks on the rocks turned out to be a bunch of murres and cormorants, nesting:

Murres are kind of like the penguins of the northern hemisphere. They're black and white, they swim after fish, they hold themselves upright... also, they can fly, so they'd probably win against penguins in a fight.
If you zoom in on the cormorants, you can just baaaaarely see that they have some purple and gold on their throats. That's how you know these are Brandt's cormorants and not your standard old double crested cormorants. Finally, a sea creature named after someone other than Steller!

Evidently these cormorants like to live near kelp beds... so seeing them around might mean that there's a good chance of seeing other kelp-loving things, such as floating logs:

Just kidding, those are totally sea otters.


While photographing them from some sand dunes near Elkhorn slough, we ran into a researcher who was collecting data on the otters' reactions to passing boats. Apparently there is a recommended approach distance (200 yards) but that number hasn't been actually been well-confirmed. So, whenever a boat passed, she had to record its distance from the otters (in otter-lengths) and the otters' reaction. Mostly their reaction was "continue being adorable."


We kayaked a bit and also spotted a pigeon guillemot. I didn't get a picture, but as one would expect from something with "pigeon" in the name, it had red feet and it was hanging out under a bridge that smelled like guano.

And, finally, here's a raven, familiar friend of cold, foggy lands.

Aaaaand, some rattlesnake grass.

Point Reyes. "Reyes" in Spanish means "Crazy windy," right?

(Wrote this in May... finally posted...)

Lots of wildflowers blooming at Point Reyes.

I didn't managed to photograph many of them though, because they were waving around all crazy in the wind! (Wind not pictured; effects can be estimated by the angle of the tree.)

But this little sedum was a sturdy fellow:

Supposedly, lots of migrating birds are around too. The day I went there, though, the only birds I saw were migrating backwards--blown by the 100 mph winds.

Actually, the white-crowned sparrows were huddled in the bushes, and the ravens managed to use the wind to hover close to the hillside.


Though mostly they were just lurking on the ground.

House Finch Nest

Tom found a house finch nesting in the eaves of his work building.



The babies are pretty small and gross looking now. You can see the yellow edge of their mouths in this picture--the "gape."

Many baby birds have a color changing mouth--it's thought to help the parents see where to put the food. Baby finches have particularly interesting mouth-interiors. Some of them kind of look like they licked a psychelic black-light painting of a clown. I couldn't find a picture of the house finch's version though.

Mt. Diablo: Spring

It's been 6 months since I last went to Castle Rock/Mt Diablo. It's rained quite a bit since then, which makes a big difference in the landscape, both birdy and flowery (as symbolized by this shot of poppies and a bluebird nest box).

Not a single acorn woodpecker showed itself, but I did spot a Nuttall's woodpecker fighting a bluebird for a nest cavity:

(FIERCE!)

And speaking of fierce, here's a terrible and blurry picture of a Cooper's Hawk lurking in the undergrowth.

Also going strong: lizards.

Darkling beetle in its tiny world:

Dragonfly
I think this is a tent caterpillar.

And the highlight of the season, all the flow'rs:

Blue dicks:
Owl's clover:

Monkey Flower (and a cool holey rock)

Blackbirds

I mentioned to my co-worker that I was seeing blackbirds on my way to work, and she responded "big deal, blackbirds, they're everywhere, who cares?" Brewer's blackbird is, admittedly, one of those trashy birds that is usually seen lowering property values in McDonald's parking lots, but there's something special about them for me, because they're absent in winter, and every spring they return to the same cluster of trees to nest. They're like robins,but cranky. Some of them also may be Narnia fans--they like this one particular lampost:

I see them chasing each other, but the magical moment where one pecks my head is still just a dream...

And just because, here is a video of the Brewer's Blackbird's cousins, Red-Winged Blackbirds, singing in Briones:

Cedar Waxwings

For days now, on my way home from work, I have been hearing this wheedly little cheeping coming from the flowering cherry trees. Some flock of birds going "Wheat, Wheat, WHEEEEET, Cream of Wheat, Wil Wheaton, WHEEEEEEEE!"

It's Cedar Waxwings.

They look so cool. With their spiky hair and little bandit masks, they're like the Bird Pirate Roberts, or something.


They have other cool accessories too, like this awesome yellow tail stripe. The yellow color can be influenced by diet; some birds that eat a certain non-native berry get red tail stripes.

I took about a thousand pictures on "burst" mode and I got this nice surprise view of the tail stripe:
Another diet-based measure of health and robustness is in the wing feathers, which have these carotenoid filled red dots on them. Supposedly this looks like sealing wax (hence the name "waxwing") but apparently the dots are actually a modified part of the central vane of the feather. What are these red dots for? You mean BESIDES looking AWESOME? It is apparently a source of some speculation, but this article suggests that the birds add dots as they age, and thus they can look at each others' wings to avoid getting a crush on a Waxwing Lolita.

If humans could live on a mostly-fruit diet, I bet we'd have cool stripes on us too! In fact, I'm going to go eat some berries RIGHT NOW. Here's hoping.

Things I saw just walking around.

Lots of friends spotted at the lake today.

Lady ruddy duck, resting tidily on a small rock, probably on her way to breed somewhere cool:

When she saw me photographing her, she looked a bit indignant, then waddled off.

Resident pelican is getting all decked out in bright orange, head tuft, and the beginning of a beak bump poking out from behind the wing...

Eared grebes still going strong, but they'll be gone any time now...

I think I bore them: they're always yawning when I approach. Right before they dive underwater to show just how jaded they are.

A rare sighting of a land cormorant. It was pulling at some frayed string at the edge of the rowing dock. Nest materials perhaps?

Night heron with green and gray stripe background.

Some cheerful humans who got excited when they saw me pointing my camera into trees. So I took their picture too. They waved (not pictured).


And another in the series of "animals sniffing the camera."

Friends!

Double Crested Cormorant

Cormorants are shy and prefer to have their pictures taken underwater. Sometimes I can catch them when they are sunning themselves on the trash-catching buoy things. This one looks like it is wearing fake eyelashes to go with its beautiful blue eyes... but that's just the double-crest it's named for.

One thing I like about cormorants is the texture of their feathers. At a distance they look plain black, but up close, they are beautifully scaly. Each one of the edges you can see here is the result of a thin black border to the individual feathers. And see how the back feathers don't have that scaliness?

I love the shy-looking cormorant. Another subtle detail is the stripy beak.

Here's another cormorant that has a much more impressive crest. Maybe that's a triple crest?

You know it's spring when the pink flowers are blooming, and the cormorants are perching in dead trees, grunting like pigs.

I guess every bird has ears really. It should be called the metaphorically eared grebe.

Here is what a winter eared grebe looks like

And here are some gorgeous shots Tom got of them last weekend (yes, with the toilet-tube-o-scope):

Sassy McBigForehead:

Here you can see the big lobed feet typical of grebes:

And this one's just pretty. Worth clicking to see larger, it came out pretty crisp.

Yawn and foot stretch!

I have never heard an eared grebe make a sound. It's probably saving up its squawking energy for when it reaches its breeding grounds, probably some inland freshwater pond.