mt st helena … and puma sighting?!
Spent a good part of the day Sunday conquering Mt St Helena – found few feathered subject photo op’s, but some some amazing views both far and near.
Highest peak in the SF Bay area at 4342′, though it was hazy we could see really far in all directions.
lichen
And what is this? Finally, a picture of the elusive cat that I’ve so yearned to catch a glimpse of?!! A mountain lion ready to pounce on an unsuspecting deer from the rocks above?!?
Alas, despite the striking resemblance to a lion in the photo, this ground squirrel is probably harmless. PROBABLY.
black-crowned night herons
Black-crowned night herons … in Oakland? Yes. A lot of them. And other birds too. Lake Merritt has quite the array of bird life, including on this day white pelicans and cormorants (not pictured). Oakland even has a bird sanctuary, featuring aviaries, dried-up pool/fountain works, and small islands just off shore exclusively for the birds (Lake Merritt Bird Sanctuary). They even have pigeons.
black-crowned night heron
juvenile black-crowned night heron
hummingbird nest
This has been the year of baby bird sightings for me – this nest is in a potted ficus tree at an apartment building in Alameda, CA. I wasn’t able to ID the type of hummingbird, but very fun to see them so close. Taken on 7/1, the babies were very still, except for the occasional tired drooping of their eyelids as they lapsed in and out of sleep. The scene looked like someone set an island cocktail in a tree, their beaks sticking straight up in the air like straws coming out of a coconut shell drinking vessel …
The survival of this nest is amazing as it was very exposed and only four feet off the ground – in a potted tree in a parking lot. There was roof construction on the building next to it so there were shingles and other random debris flying down all over the place around it. Yet another species that has somehow found a way to adapt to city living. Maybe I can learn something.
on a lighter note … flicker babies!
I didn’t have to go far for this experience – the other day I heard a sound like a squirrel chirping in a redwood tree in my front yard. Finally after a day of hearing it I went to see what was up (was there a squirrel stuck in the mail box?) – it is a Northern flicker nest in a cavity in the crook of a redwood tree about 15 feet off the ground. The little one seems about ready to fledge, and didn’t mind being the subject of some photos.
As it turns out, there were two in there, and one of them fledged last night. I know because I heard the lucky one vocalizing in the yard around dusk and I managed to get outside in time to chase off one of the many cats in the neighborhood. The fledgling made its way behind my house in some thick plants between the wall and a fence. This morning I heard it moving around at dawn, and eventually it hopped back over towards the nest and part-way up a redwood tree. I was standing on the deck as it hopped up on the boards and scurried about two feet away from my feet – it was amazing. Status of both right now is unknown, but at least fledgling #1 has a chance after surviving the night on the ground.
These birds, a type of woodpecker found throughout the U.S., have amazing feather patterns and glowing fluorescent orange in some of their flight feathers.
Good luck little ones.
fruitvale bridge falcon update – sad news
For more information, also check out the San Jose Mercury News article at this link.
The picture below, of Haya, was taken by me on May 31st, the evening before she was shot. She is a beautiful animal, a fierce hunter and defensive mother – I am honored to have spent time with her and I hope she can once again fly free.
Haya
This picture of Marina I took on June 2nd, the day after her mother was shot and 8 days before she was shot. It was evening and she had just done what might have been one of her first solo hunting forays on the river in front of me. She drifted over me after making two passes at an alert water bird that was floating on the surface of the water. Hopefully she has the chance to hunt free once again.
Marina
I pray that we human beings can remember who we are supposed to be, and once were – stewards of the Earth and its plants and creatures. I feel sorrow for the birds, especially the survivors who might never fly free again, and for all of us who love them. And I feel sorrow for the lost and confused person who would perpetrate such an act.
Thank you falcon family, may you have better days ahead!
healdsburg osprey nest and peregrine falcon sighting
I’m a bit behind in my posts, I’ve been doing less computer time and more wandering time since summer weather has finally arrived (at least that’s my excuse for this week!). The hills are brown and the soap plant flowers are blooming in the evening now, as the last spring flowers have wilted in the heat wave last week. The air is dry and smells of fennel and many of the baby birds have already fledged and are beginning to make their own way in the world. We have seen so many fawns this year, and almost all of them are a pair of twins. Perhaps the profuse winter rains activated an as-of-yet unknown signal in the bodies of the does signaling an abundant food season with the promise of supporting two offspring. It’s been quite a gift to see all the fuzzy fawns frolicking together.
But there have also been a few late-comers this year. I stopped to check out the osprey nest near Healdsburg Memorial Bridge the other day and it appears that there is a young brood there. The attentive parents were busy over the nest when I arrived, and despite being quite a distance away, one of them (the lighter colored and larger bird, a female I’m presuming) took off from the nest to do a fly-over of me.
Once satisfied either with an appropriate greeting, or that I wasn’t a threat, she returned to the nest to resume her duties. As I watched, the almost-full moon was rising in the background in the blue sky, and as the evening light started to turn everything a golden hue, I saw a familiar form alight behind the nest. It was an adult peregrine falcon! This has been the year of the falcon for me, I have seen more falcons this year than ever before. A good sign. For all involved.
The falcon didn’t seem so interested in the osprey nest, though they seemed to keep an eye on it as it passed over and began doing gentle circles above the Russian River. It stayed within sight for about fifteen minutes as it hunted the area, until finally it spiraled up and away towards Fitch Mountain. The whole time it was escorted by nervous and agitated swallows who were trying to feast on all the river insects without the looming presence of the bird-hungry predator.
The osprey took turns hunting while the other parent remained vigilant at the nest, and even when I looked at the nest two days ago I couldn’t see any youngsters poking their heads up. I got an interesting shot of the female osprey releasing an electric-looking poo into the air as she came in to land on the nest.
Hopefully the appearance of the bird shitting on/towards my water mark in the photo above isn’t a sign of what it, or the general audience, think of my pictures.
More shots of the osprey …
The lizards are enjoying the warm weather as well, this one was sunning itself by the abandoned railroad tracks on the East side of the pedestrian bridge. It appears to be a Western Fence Lizard. Interestingly, when ticks infected with the Lyme’s disease bacteria feed on one of these, it cleans the ticks of the disease – just one reason of many that it is a welcome part of our ecosystems here. Plus they are just fun to watch. During territorial or mating displays they will do push-ups to display their prowess, and they also have the ability to lose their tail if threatened by a predator (in hopes the predator will be distracted by the severed wiggling tail, allowing the lizard to run away and grow a new one).
fruitvale bridge falcon drama
An interesting follow-up to my photos from June 2nd: it now seems likely that the falcon behavior that I ultimately concluded was “the adults playing and frolicking together in the warm late day sun, ” was in fact more aligned with my initial instinct of a third falcon invading their territory.
Lover's dance? Uhhh, maybe not.
According to my falcon news sources, the female Haya is missing and may have disappeared right around the beginning of June. A new female has been spotted at the nest, but the male and the juveniles are no longer hanging around there and have been spotted hunting further East in Oakland. Interestingly, a female falcon with an injured wing was admitted to Lindsay Wildlife Hospital on June 1st, having been picked up in an area that Haya was know to frequent. It seems plausible that on that Thursday I was seeing the initial take-over of the nest by the new female. Attempts at ID of the injured female at the hospital are pending recovery from wing surgery, and prognosis is unknown.
Sunday evening we had a raptor extravaganza driving out to Lake Sonoma which culminated with seeing two bald eagles fly directly overhead right at sunset. On the way to the lake we saw several white-tailed kites, lots of kestrels, and one mystery raptor. Once at the lake we climbed up to the South Lookout and watched the sunset and a few vultures heading for their roosts. Then for some reason I turned around to the Southeast and suddenly a silhouetted form alighted above the tree line and started traveling in our direction. It was flying directly towards us, and in the dim light I could see it was large and didn’t quite seem like a turkey vulture. As it passed overhead, we realized it was a mature bald eagle. And following not too far behind was what appeared to be a newly fledged juvenile! None of my photos turned out very well in the low light, but it was quite an experience. Quite a treat and a great way to end a rainy weekend.
Falcons all Fledged!
It has been very rainy here in Nor Cal the last few weeks, today we are expecting 2″ of rain – very unusual for this time of year. Typically the rain is a distant memory by now and would only return in late October or November. I love wandering or running in the rain, but today it makes it a little easier to be in front of a computer in my own dry cozy nest. With few dry days I’ve only been able to take snaps at the nest infrequently this week, but on Thursday I was privileged to spend some time at the Fruitvale bridge to see the two remaining female fledglings who are now flying quite well.
All three nestlings fledged within the last 10 days, sadly the only male nestling disappeared after fledging on Saturday – it is presumed that he fell into the water under the bridge and drowned after he took his first flight and landed on a railing just above the water. I was informed that falcons are capable of swimming, but there is no point of exit by the bridge footings for a bird to be able to crawl out. This is one of the risks of using a bridge for a nest site. Regardless, that first flight is a brave and monumental rite of passage but can have the gravest of consequences – and the next year will hold many more challenges but much growing and excitement for the remaining two females. Here they are playing with some dinner left-overs on top of the bridge span …
The fledglings are vocal, and the one was calling (begging) for quite a while on the Alameda tower as the one adult seemed oblivious across over on the Oakland side. Finally she was moved to take-off while still crying (see pic to the right) – she is amazingly beautiful and a good flyer already. I was so excited to get to see a mid-air food exchange between the adult male (named Hiko by his fan-base – he was actually a nestling from the nest in downtown San Jose a few years ago) and the older female fledgling (know as Marina – the other is Fern). Sadly my snap of the action came out blurry, but it’s still worth posting because it was just so awesome. It’s a good perspective also to see how much bigger the fledgling female is than the male (generally female raptors are larger than males). And she’s larger than her sister as well, a big falcon!
The food item can barely be seen in her right talons, and I couldn’t tell what the unlucky snack had been in life a few moments prior.
Soon after, the adults put on a display of aerial acrobatics that was thrilling to witness. At first I thought a third adult falcon had intruded into their air space and prompted an aerial battle, but I think it was the adults playing and frolicking together in the warm late day sun. Perhaps they were giving a lesson for the fledglings to show what they will soon be able to do with their newly found flying capability.
They can move so incredibly fast through the air, and as they swoop towards each other one will flip on its back with talons stretched out as if doing back stroke in the clouds. Rolling, tumbling, soaring, diving, turning abruptly as if on an invisible track in the sky.
It is good to be a falcon, their dance says.
It’s difficult to choose just a few snaps to display here, there is incredible beauty in everything they do. Such a gift to witness and be able to share this.
Just as I was about to leave that evening, I saw a falcon in the distance to the West just above the river. As I watched, it made an impressive effort at striking a cormorant that was sitting on top of the water, just missing it and then alighting on a building rooftop nearby. I figured it was one of the adults looking for one last meal of the day to feed their hungry fledglings, but as I saw the bird move to a rounded skylight on the roof, then comically and awkwardly slide down each time it tried to walk up to the top of the skylight, I realized it was Miranda, the big female fledgling. She was the first to fledge and it seems her hunting instincts are good. It was a so special to see her in action and on her own, it gave my heart great joy to be able to share that moment with her. With the light dying, she flew directly over me and returned to the bridge as I made my way back to my car.
First falcon fledge!
It’s fledging time for many bird babies here in the Bay area, including the ones at the Alameda falcons’ nest. I’ve been so grateful to be able to get to spend a lot of time watching them the last few weeks. The large female chick took her first flight last evening, but I arrived an hour too late to witness it. Evidently the world DOESN’T revolve around me. Huh. Despite my absence, it was a success, meaning she took her first flight and, more importantly, completed a safe landing.
Today I was told she made five or six flights throughout the day. When I left at sunset this evening, she made her final flight of the day and found a protected spot to spend the night just under the nest where her two seemingly fledge-reluctant siblings still sat.
There is something remarkably beautiful about the fledging process – a true rite of passage into the unknown. It’s inspiring to me, and a metaphor for many parts of our lives, some of which we haven’t yet experienced. In what ways are each of us still sitting in our nest of safety? What unknown joy are we missing by sitting on the ledge and not flying into what could be our true destiny and birthright?
That evening we were also treated to quite a show when one of the adults attacked a pair of shore birds (clapper rails?) directly in front of us. They were so close I could barely get my camera focused on the action. The falcon made about five passes at them and ultimately zoned in on one of the two in particular, and upon realizing it had become the target, the long-beaked bird made a fast and ungraceful plunge into the water. The falcon took one last pass at it as it sat in the water but the bird avoided it and eventually took off after its other lucky partner.
Tuesday I stopped briefly again at the Lafayette Reservoir and the osprey were in full fishing mode. At one point one of them came over my head and appeared to be as interested in me as I was of it …
That one was looking DIRECTLY at me. Intense!!
There always seems to be a lot of bird activity at the reservoir, and the great-blue heron evidently wanted to be part of the action too.
Squirrel uses man’s neck for launching pad / Fruitvale falcons ready to fledge
Today finds me returned to the Bay Area after a fun weekend in Nevada County in the foothills of the Sierras. I was fortunate to get to spend some time by the Yuba River, scrambling on the smoothed granite rocks and boulders that adorn its banks near Rt 49. We became instant friends, and as it turns out blood brothers, after I took a bit of a spill on the rocks and washed off my torn up knees in its cool waters. My thoughts just before I took my tumble were “wow, I could do this all day, every day,” then BAM! Down I went. Luckily the camera survived and my body will heal. I find few things as fun as scrambling and climbing and bouncing around on river rocks by flowing water.
Butterfly on banks of Yuba River
Upon my return to the Bay Area I decided to check out the falcons’ nest on the Fruitvale Bridge, as the nestlings should be fledging any day now. It was not long before sunset that I arrived, and the cloudy haze had given way to some magnificent golden and red light and a backdrop of blue skies. The scene was pretty quiet, but as I arrived one of the parents seemed to come to greet me with a quick fly-over from its post on the East side of the tower. As I sat patiently waiting for some falcon action, I was treated to several egrets perusing the waterway for a last meal of the day.
Fruitvale Bridge egret on coppertop post
It seems pretty brave to be working the waters right under the noses (er, beaks) of the falcons and their nest, but the two I saw today survived to fish another day. Especially given that I have now seen the falcons attack (unsuccessfully) two large seagulls that were half-again as big as the falcons.
Fruitvale Bridge egret in flight
To liven up my wait I thank my friend who sent me a report that he was apparently wrastling squirrels (yes I wrote “wrastling” – I’ve been dying to use the term). As I was enjoying the setting sun, I received a text from him that read:
“Dude a squirrel just fell out of a tree, landed on my head, and scratched my neck! Do you think I have to go to the doctor?”
I wish I could say that I wish I was surprised by this – but I LOVE the fact that weird things happen to me and my friends and would expect no less from them. I’m happy to report that at the time of this post he is still alive and shows no signs of infection, nor weresquirrelism. The timing of this event ironically coincides with the rumors I’ve been hearing about Benicio Del Toro’s newest film that’s in the works, The SquirrelMan. I thought he would have learned after The Wolfman.
Details of the encounter:
“I was on the sidewalk … I think it was battling another squirrel, and fell. I think it grabbed a low branch, when the branch dangled down and hit my head. Once the squirrel hit my head it freaked out, and skeetered off me, using my neck to propel itself, which left toe scratches on my neck.”
Yes, just to verify, he used the word “skeetered.”
Just as my shorts and I were ready to succumb to the chilly wind and dying light, I saw some movement by the falcon nest and saw one of the youngsters doing the distinctive “falcon swagger” along the I-beam by the nest. It is an awkwardly endearing sight to see these creatures, who’s body’s are so perfectly fit to fly in the air, bow their heads down and rock side-to-side as they do their hopping rolling walk. The one that I could partially see had what seemed to be full plumage, so the time is soon for first flight. So said the other one too with actions of its own, in the form of wing flapping exercises in the nest. But for tonight they still awaited mom and dad to bring their last course of the day.
Raptor hotspot of the day …
I stopped off at the reservoir in Lafayette today to make a few phone calls before I started driving North to Sonoma County, also to see what the osprey were doing – they were, shockingly, fishing And going big. There were more than a few jealous two-legged anglers looking on today:
Then, as I was about to head back to my jeep, a red-shouldered hawk came coasting over me – the image quality of my snaps today were disappointing, not doing justice to the amazing color this bird and its kind have here on the West Coast:
Lafeyette Reservoir red-shouldered hawk
There were plenty of vultures and ravens as well, in addition to the large number of swallows, pigeons, cormorants, and one or two white pelicans. It was tough to tear myself away, but I was treated to one last gift as I was sitting in my jeep ready to pull out – two red-tailed hawks dancing in the sky behind me.
red-tailed hawk pair dancing in the warm mid-day sun
red-tailed hawk pair
Not a bad showing for about an hour spent there in the middle of the day. Truly an unexpected gift!
Hopefully next time I can get my camera settings dialed in better … wah!
Feral Zach goes a little less feral by creating a blog …
It’s all about balance, right? The intent of this blog is to chronicle and share my adventures in the our natural world via words and images (I suppose that’s obvious). My interactions and observations in nature have been a source of fun, excitement, strength, learning, unification and healing, and I hope to share some of that with the world – my journeys outside have helped create and support an inward journey that has allowed me to become closer to my truth and who I am.
Enjoy!!
feralzach 