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!"
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).
Friends!
