Visitors 22
Modified 10-Feb-26
Created 9-Feb-26
26 photos
Bare oak branches fill with morning light, reaching for sunlight to quicken leaves, to turn air into branch. Below, fresh green grass emerges from moist soil. Dawn from Escobar Gate.
Twin tire tracks lead beneath oak canopy to sunlit rise. Looking back: rising sun, long shadows yielding to day’s warmth.
On tip of budding branch: Lesser Goldfinch, fluffing, ready for the day. Another branch balances tiny hummingbird, preening. No cowl or collar, no hint of red. Maybe not the usual male Anna’s? Could it be a Rufous? Or just the other gender.
Nearby photo gallery shows an encounter with a White-tailed Kite – from watching, to kiting, to devouring the catch.
The next photo gallery: Northern Harrier. Two encounters, separated by an hour in time and a mile in distance. Each going our own way, we meet again.
Record shots of bird sightings, for my fellow birders: American Kestrel (in Kite gallery), Double-crested Cormorant, Northern Flicker with American Robins.
My attention is drawn to Valley Oaks, bare twisted branches just ready to bud out; to tangled Blue Oak branches; and to dark green Coast Live Oaks -- some in lone copse surrounded by serpentine grassland, cool oasis for hot days to come.
A favorite tree at ridgetop: the “Phainopepla Tree”, an old Valley Oak once bedecked with mistletoe, haven for birds locally rare. Now bereft of leaves and mistletoe, it remains as lookout perch for raptors, nesting site for bluebirds, and granary tree for Acorn Woodpeckers.
One showy flower: Lowland Shooting Star, Baroque flowers on bright green stems, bright pink folded silk above, yellow-black-crimson-purple pattern below. Blossoming in wet, almost boggy soil, despite a rainless five weeks. Thank fog and dew for keeping soil moist.
A final separate photo gallery features a Say’s Phoebe, sallying forth for insects, showing off for me.
Enjoy!
Twin tire tracks lead beneath oak canopy to sunlit rise. Looking back: rising sun, long shadows yielding to day’s warmth.
On tip of budding branch: Lesser Goldfinch, fluffing, ready for the day. Another branch balances tiny hummingbird, preening. No cowl or collar, no hint of red. Maybe not the usual male Anna’s? Could it be a Rufous? Or just the other gender.
Nearby photo gallery shows an encounter with a White-tailed Kite – from watching, to kiting, to devouring the catch.
The next photo gallery: Northern Harrier. Two encounters, separated by an hour in time and a mile in distance. Each going our own way, we meet again.
Record shots of bird sightings, for my fellow birders: American Kestrel (in Kite gallery), Double-crested Cormorant, Northern Flicker with American Robins.
My attention is drawn to Valley Oaks, bare twisted branches just ready to bud out; to tangled Blue Oak branches; and to dark green Coast Live Oaks -- some in lone copse surrounded by serpentine grassland, cool oasis for hot days to come.
A favorite tree at ridgetop: the “Phainopepla Tree”, an old Valley Oak once bedecked with mistletoe, haven for birds locally rare. Now bereft of leaves and mistletoe, it remains as lookout perch for raptors, nesting site for bluebirds, and granary tree for Acorn Woodpeckers.
One showy flower: Lowland Shooting Star, Baroque flowers on bright green stems, bright pink folded silk above, yellow-black-crimson-purple pattern below. Blossoming in wet, almost boggy soil, despite a rainless five weeks. Thank fog and dew for keeping soil moist.
A final separate photo gallery features a Say’s Phoebe, sallying forth for insects, showing off for me.
Enjoy!
Dan Quinn