Happy Thanksgiving. I was feeling the
worse for wear today and didn’t venture out until late into the morning. I took
a walk to the bottom of Third Street in San Francisco hoping to clear my head
and ended up having a delightful Thanksgiving lunch (sitting on a damp rock
with a turkey foot-long from Subway) across from the AT & T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.
A tilting bridge over the water makes me wonder if the stretch of water that heads inland may once have been a dock. Now it is trendy apartments and a berth for a few houseboats. Across from the stadium, the water’s edge is shored up with a rock bank.
The tide had withdrawn and a small flock of 8 Least Sandpipers were picking through the green growth.
The water was perfectly flat and
giving some wonderful reflections.
Sitting on the rock kept my
silhouette low and the birds worked their way along, passing right in front of
me and giving great views. Anyone who reads this blog regularly
knows that I much prefer to see one bird well than lots of birds badly, so this was
a treat.
The call of a Yellow-rumped Warbler kept catching my attention from a row of
small trees just behind me. A single ‘pish’ brought it down, curious to see what
was making such a silly noise.
On a small patch of grass here, was a
small flock of mixed blackbirds. The Red-winged
Blackbirds flew in and out, but the Brewer’s
Blackbirds were very bold. A woman was feeding them and they had become
very approachable.
On the stadium side of the bridge is a marina. A walkway gives a view across to the breakwater and further out into the bay. Surf Scoters and Western Grebes were seen in the distance with Double-crested Cormorants, Western Gulls and a Brown Pelican roosting on the breakwater.
Birds seen; 10
Surf Scoter 35, Western Grebe 3,
Double-crested Cormorant 20, Brown Pelican 1. Snowy Egret 1, Least Sandpiper 8,
Western Gull 15, Yellow-rumped Warbler 2, Red-winged Blackbird 2, Brewer’s
Blackbird 8.
The stadium can be seen at Google Earth ref; 37 46 42.12N 122 23 22.94W
The stadium can be seen at Google Earth ref; 37 46 42.12N 122 23 22.94W
Visit the dedicated USA and CanadaPage for more posts from San Francisco, including;
Lovely. Such great shots--phew! The crab, if you didn't know, is a striped shore crab (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachygrapsus_crassipes). I LOVE pelicans in their breeding plumage--WOW. Fantastic shot of that. Sounds like a wonderful day. =)
ReplyDeleteYou certainly made the most of the opportunity, and got some good images.
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