Flycatching at dusk near the concrete bridge at Lake Merced.
Evening Feeding /
A Western Grebe at Lake Merced fishes continually to meet the demands of its relentlessly persistent progeny.
The begging calls were insistent and musical, syncopated and designed to draw attention. Whenever the parent emerged from the depths, with or without a fish, the calls would ring out until they were silenced by the parent descending into the dark water.
Rising with a fish, the parent swims further into open water to find safety, then transfers the catch to the young Grebe.
The chase then begins again immediately.
It was amazing to imagine the adult underwater in the darkness pursuing and catching fish. There couldn't have been much light, if any, reaching the fish below.
This young Western Grebe is getting a great start in life.
Eventually it got too dark and the pair wandered off, begging calls still piercing the cool night air.
Sanderlings /
Sanderlings on the run at Ocean Beach. Below, a loner forages along the wrack line.
Point Reyes Moments /
Wandering around Point Reyes with friends we found this adult Cooper's Hawk watching the bird strewn hillside below. As high strung as they are (the Coops, not my friends) this one sat at the crest of this tree for 20 minutes... Normally we would have engaged in an epic sit-off but my role as host meant not subjecting my guests to the thrilling motionlessness of an epic sit-off. We moved on.
The Elk are always impressive and when the day gives way to evening, the changing light renders them even more so.
Near Laird's Landing on Tomales Bay, a Common Loon called out. The sound carried over the water, echoed off rocks and returned, stretching the melancholic power of the call until it was washed over by the sound of Scoter wings thrumming in the distance. It brought me back to my Minnesota roots and a 2nd year Bald Eagle flying past only compounded the feeling.
Reflections turned the rising tide into a pool of liquid gold near the shore.
A Western Gull returns to earth in a land full of Turkey Vultures and bobcats, coyotes, foxes and raccoons.
The sun, having transformed the lagoon into a golden wonder, seemed to fall into the sea after the effort.
Shorebirds near Abbott's Lagoon /
Sanderling and Dunlin and a few other shorebirds unknown to my fledgling eyes gathered near Abbott's Lagoon in Point Reyes. Passing Harriers would send them into a whirl as I stood in my boots, calf-deep in the water, watching them fly.
They finally settled and fed contentedly, moving percussively, like raindrops on the surface of a still pond.