Coyote Hills Re-visited June 2009
We weren't expecting to go out today - our plan was to head into San Francisco and see some friends, but they didn't get back to us (which is not really surprising as we don't really have any friends). So .... we decided to head out to Coyote Hills - a little bit late in the season to see the variety of waterfowl they have there, but seemed like a change nevertheless.
We didn't get to see anything new, but I'm quite pleased with some of the pictures I got. The first lot of pictures are all taken in the same location at the front of the visitors center. There's a barn swallow nest and it looked like one of the young had taken its first flight and come up on top of the visitor's center. The second hadn't ventured out and was still in its nest. The photos jump around as there was also a mourning dove on a nest, a black phoebe building a nest and several hummingbirds floating around. I think my favorite photo is the second one that shows the baby barn swallow on top of the visitor center roof shouting at its parents for more food. How can something so small make so much noise and eat so much? I have no idea, but for some unknown reason I decided to call the little baby William .... (any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental ... or so they say).
Leaving the barn swallows behind we trudged up a bloody great hill to the tune of “when are we going to have lunch .... when are we going to have lunch .... when are we going to have lunch ....” And so on. Well, we weren't the next ones to eat. Seems a red-tailed hawk got hold of a ground squirrel for lunch. I pictured the hawk looking and I saw it dive down, but didn't see it collect its prey. I have it pictured at the top of a tree landing with its lunch - the picture's not too clear, but you can make out that it has something in its talons.
Last, but not least, we got to see some more bullock's orioles. The animals photographed are:
- American White Pelican
- Barn Swallow
- Black Phoebe
- Bullock's Oriole
- Great Egret
- Mallard
- Mourning Dove
- Red-Tailed Hawk
- Western Fence Lizard
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