Whimbrel

 

 

After spending a couple hours at Lake Merced, I crossed over Highway 35 to Fort Funston, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The park runs along the coast, so I was hoping to find some shorebirds. My spirits were dampened a bit, however, as I climbed the hill to the shore as the park was swarming with dogs. People were walking around with not just one or two dogs, but with what seemed to be up to ten dogs.

I did some research and found that this is a very popular park for dogs in San Francisco and there is an on going attempt to put restrictions on dog use in many of the parks. Of course this is not going over well with dog owners.

The only trouble I had with the dogs (which was little) is when they flushed the birds I was trying to shoot.  While the beach was pretty desolate at first, it eventually became populated with several Whimbrels. Every time I'd get into position to get some reasonable shots, it seemed someone's dog would come running by and spooked the birds. One young lady irked me a bit as she walked her dog back and forth along the beach and flushed the Whimbrels several times as I was trying to get shots.  It was obvious what I was doing, but she made no attempt to move her dog further from the water as they walked by.

Away, I did take advantage of the situation and got some shots of the Whimbrels flying by as seen above.

 

Later, I had the beach to myself for awhile and I finally did get some reasonably close shots of the Whimbrels. It took some patience as they were careful not to let me get too close, but eventually I earned their trust.

Brown-headed Blackbird

 

I tried something that I've rarely done before. I spent some time at San Francisco's Lake Merced Lake yesterday and found myself quite close to a small flock of Brown-headed Cowbirds. Unfortunately it was about 6:30 PM and with heavily overcast skies, the lighting was very poor.

So, since they were tolerating me so near (within 15'), I decided I'd try my flash.  It turned out to work great.  The first few shots I took were a little over exposed so I adjusted the exposure down a full stop and ended up with some pretty good pictures.

The flash didn't seem to bother the birds, so I may try it more often in gloomy light. 

White-crowned Sparrow

I took these pictures along Lands End Trail in San Francisco on May 2. White-crowned Sparrows were easily the most numerous sparrow along the trail. The one in the pictures above was building a nest in the tall grass very near the trail. I watched as it would fly a short distance away to find some dried grass, sometimes yanking and shaking it to free it from the ground or untangle it from the brush.

I thought I may have found a new life bird. The mixture of brown and black on its crown was not something that I had seen before, but when I took a closer look on my computer I am pretty confident that this is a young White-crowned that is transitioning from the brown striped crown of a juvenile to the black and white crown of an adult.

American Robin

This Robin came hopping rather aggressively towards me as I was taking pictures of a California Towhee at Sutro Heights Park in San Francisco a week ago last Monday. It was rather odd looking and I thought it might be diseased, but looking at the pictures I think it had just gotten done bathing, although it looks as if its head and neck got the bulk of the water.

California Towhee

I got a chance to bird in San Francisco Monday morning. I spent the time walking Lands End Trail and Sutro Heights Park. I saw an interesting mix of sea and land birds. The highlight for me and only new life bird were a few California Towhees. They tended to be a bit flighty, but I was able to get a few reasonable photos of this one.