More Signs of Spring, or, a hodgepogerry of photography

It's staying light in the evening now, long enough to walk around and get some good shots after dinner. Who's hanging out at the lake these days? (Besides me!?)

Forster's terns are still around and eating fish bigger than their heads! Look at the razor sharp tail on that ninja seabird.

Hummingbird that color coordinates itself with its perch:

Check out the lovely blue green face of this great egret.

And check out egret's supercool park bench hangout. I like its posture here--it had just flown up and landed.

It also comes with a very extendable head, and a bad urban attitude. It was actually taller than me when it did this:


Random turtle. They show up in the lake periodically. They may be washing downstream during the rains, or people may be releasing unwanted pets into the lake. Either way, brackish water is not good for turtles. At least this one made it to the beach:


For Heidi: here are the goslings I promised. This is the third group I've seen, and I think this pair is actually the two I made fun of earlier for defending the spot on top of the chain link maintenance cage. I don't know how you geese did it, but I think you did it. There are three babies; can you spot them all?


And buckeye is blooming now, an adaptation that lets a broad-leaved deciduous tree survive California's summer--it makes a very early effort to get pollinated before it runs out of water and sheds all its leaves around July:

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.