Hunt of the Warblers

    On the 3rd of June, my mom decided to do another one of the drop me off at SF during her work day to wander around days. Similarly to last time with the gray catbird, there were eastern vagrant birds within Golden Gate Park, this time with two: the chestnut-sided warbler and American redstart.
    Just like last time, I started the day by going to the botanical garden. Within the New Zealand Christmas trees in full bloom with their bottlebrush-like flowers near the entrance, I got my first yearbirds of the day: Allen's hummingbirds and (embarrassingly enough) purple finches. The rest of my few hours at the gardens yielded no new birds but gave me nice views of unusual plants and abundant insects.

Anna's hummingbird at one of the Christmas tree flowers.

Banksias have such fascinating flowers. In this species, the foliage is also quite interesting as well.

I did not expect to find any California quails in the gardens or in the City at all as they are usually mountain birds. According to my later ebird range map research however, it turns out Golden Gate Park is the only place within San Francisco where these attractive birds are regularly found.

The bobbing of their topknots is definitely within my top 10 most adorable things seen in the natural world.

The spot where I waited so long for the catbird that would never appear. For more about that day, read here: http://insertcreativetitleheregkoprs.blogspot.com/2014/01/hunt-of-catbird.html

Male Allen's hummingbird

Female Anna's hummingbird

West Coast Lady, the only native butterfly seen during the entire day.

Raccoon remains

Wonder who was tearing the dead guy apart

Great blue heron at the pond

Chestnut-backed chickadee nest

Tachina sp. (I think) on yarrow at the native plant garden

Purple finch

Protea cynaroides, the national flower of South Africa and the largest flowerhead of all proteas. What an awesome flower. This fantastic genus of plants is just one of the countless reasons why South Africa is high up on my bucket list.

Right before I exited, I took a little time to enjoy the wonderful alpine garden. The yellow mossy-looking patch is Raoulia australis - in full bloom. This genus is apparently quite difficult to cultivate, requiring moisture but also perfect drainage along with relatively cool conditions, not a plant for me to attempt in the south bay.

    Following this fun three hour foray, I walked over to Stow Lake, as I had misinterpreted directions to the Eastern vagrants I was seeking. However, the trip was still a nice walk, with many interesting sights to see.

This bushtit nest was quite a spectacle

Parents visiting

Botta's pocket gopher enjoying a nice morning of not getting eaten.

Double-crested cormorant

Their sky blue eyes are so fascinating

If only all birds could be this cooperative.

One of the several newly-fledged robins out and about

Brewer's blackbird enjoying a nice, free lunch. Hope it doesn't ingest any plastic.

    I then continued wandering, taking a while to figure out where this "Pioneer Meadow near the Log Cabin" was. When I arrived there, I proceeded to check every single oak in the area as the warbler was reported in one, with my mind focused only on live oaks as I didn't realize that other oaks grew in the area. Oops. I finally noticed a patch of soft-leaved oaks and only then did it dawn upon me that those were oaks too so I headed towards them. Another person then appeared on bike while I began to look up into the tree. The beautiful male CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER stood there in plain view. The person who had magically forced the bird to appear turned out to be Josiah C., the birder who first found this lost guy a few days ago and who I met last year at the catbird stakeout.

Bird of the day

    Josiah then showed me around quite a bit of the park and told me a lot about urban ecology, especially about the dynamics within the local area. For example the poison hemlocks, although being non-native, invasive, and toxic, tend to harbor large numbers of aphids as well as host caterpillars, both valuable food resources for the native birds. A very interesting lesson.

Just a small leak in a pipe can become a welcome birdbath. This pygmy nuthatch that came down from the trees was just one of the many birds attracted to the tantalizing running water.

Never would have noticed this if Josiah didn't point it out. Apparently this is where a mole has been burrowing underground.

Possible California gull at Lloyd Lake

The bird was significantly smaller than the surrounding Western gulls and had a less heavy bill.

Male mallard showing off his spectacularly purple speculum.

    From Lloyd Lake, Josiah biked home while I headed back to the Log Cabin area to continue my search for the redstart. However, no redstart was seen or heard. 

Bathing song sparrow in the leaky pipe

Tree swallow flying about in the meadow. There seemed to be several nesting in the nearby eucalyptus trees.

    Deciding then that my time would be better spent elsewhere, I went to the Academy of Sciences for the first time in forever and stayed for the hour before closing. Oh what a wonderful place it still is. 

A beautiful school of altum angelfish

Just a few of the beautiful tridacnids at the reef tank's shallow area

Young mangroves

One of my favorite butterflyfish, the copperband.

Cownose ray with pompanos

Four-eyed fish. Their eyes are half above and half below water.

The tank was dedicated to the shrimp / goby mutual partnership but I was most impressed by the non-photosynthetic organisms thriving, as they often require constant plankton feeding. At the separate sea pen aquarium, the water seemed to be filled with small particles so perhaps there is a 24/7 feeding system.

Harlequin shrimp in a separate tank. These guys on the other hand require feeding of sea stars and nothing else. The husbandry staff here is amazing.

Arapaima at the flooded forest tunnel. The largest freshwater fish of all.

Steinhart reef aquarium. The kaleidoscope of fish was breathtaking. The reef's other highlights were the dazzling schools of multiple anthias species that didn't hang around with the larger fish and the garden eels.

The green roof

Owl butterfly in the rainforest

Doris longwing

Violaceous euphonia

Turquoise tanager. Unfortunately my favorite bird of the birds that this exhibit supposedly has, the paradise tanager, did not appear.

Saffron finch

    I stayed until closing time after which I went back....to the log cabin. A few other birders appeared, hoping to find the redstart and chestnut-sided but it seemed that now both of the lost Easterners had moved on. I walked around and saw a few WILSON'S WARBLERs, my first seen ones, and a small flock of late cedar waxwings.

What a delightful-looking little guy.

Bathing purple finch

Mother and child robins.

Chestnut-backed chickadee feeding on hemlock insects

   Shortly afterwards, my mom picked me up and I went home, concluding my great day spent at SF. I hope that I can do another one of these days soon! Until next time, enjoy life and love nature! Or wait, is there more?

For an especially scarring picture, continue scrolling down.

In case you were wondering, this is the face of a dead rat, flattened to cardboard-thinness. The head is pointed to the right (see the snout?) and the eye is still present. The scariest thing is that this rat looks almost exactly like Remy's dad from Ratatouille. Ok have a great day.