I Left My Eyes in San Francisco

Matty and I drove to SF yesterday for my first visit ever to the City by the Bay, and we had a blast! It was overwhelming but exciting. Lurker and good friend Christine drove us around the city yesterday, you'll be glad to know, taking over my car Graybow and doing a masterful job of driving. It's been way too long since I had to drive around in a big city, and my unfamiliarity with SF was way too much to handle driving and sightseeing at the same time. You know me: safety first!

I didn't see a whole lot of new birds, but along with the million pigeons I did see this little guy at the entrance to the Botanical Gardens:Is that an Anna's Hummingbird? Check out this lucky shot:Wow! Please tell me it's not just a plain old Ruby-throated! I really couldn't tell; the backlighting is murder in the pics too. Anyone? Anyone?

Also saw this other little guy in someone's garden on Page Street:
Is that maybe a Common Ground Dove? No, it can't be--they don't live up here, nor do Inca Doves. But he was tiny, much smaller than a regular Mourning Dove, and his plumage has that scalloped look of an Inca Dove. Hmmm. Is it just a MODO?

By the way, the Botanical Gardens were amazing. Here's a small sampling of flowers:









And we saw this beautiful Painted Lady, a butterfly I haven't seen since I was a kid in Texas:


Plus we saw a lot of city. Here's a sampling of that:




We saw some racy stuff, which is just side by side with other stuff:





We we buzzed Haight-Ashbury, we skimmed by Golden Gate Park, were up on Twin Peaks, and we even saw Absinthe restaurant where my no-longer-future-girlfriend Jamie Lauren (of Top Chef) works as executive chef! We didn't eat there, however, as Christine and Matty said the best time to see her is during brunch and we didn't get up early enough. It's like two blocks from Christine's house, though, so maybe next time. We ate some great food during our two-visit and had drinks at Marlena's where we saw the owner's amazing Harry Potter memorabilia collection. Cool!

We came back today, determined to do Fisherman's Wharf and other touristy things on another trip. I was just so overwhelmed; so much new stuff to see, and I'm still trying to get used to all the new stuff in Rohnert Park (or RoPo, as I'm told the locals call it--how tragically hip!). It was nice to come off the 101 to our low-traffic low-stress little town.

P.S.--some new lifers from RoPo too, though I don't have pics: Bushtit (hee hee), which is such a tiny bird!, and Brewer's Blackbird, which are everywhere here! Like grackles back east! So that's 206, baby!

Finally--Sonoma Valley, Bodega Bay, LIFERS!

We finally arrived on Thursday afternoon and got our furniture and stuff on Friday, and we've been unpacking and settling in. It's still a little unreal, this whole "we now live in California" business, but it's sinking in. I sure do miss AB, and it's tough talking to her when there's a three hour time difference, but she'll be visiting soon!

I'm slowly learning my way around, and we've finally gone to the grocery store and started cooking our own meals. We've discovered that food prices here are a lot higher, and that all these cool local-produce stores are great except when you just want to buy something simple; you end up either not finding it or paying a lot more for it. We need to hit someplace like Trader Joe's where we can get staples for a little cheaper, Matty thinks. Any advice from you other Californians would be appreciated!

Here are some first views of Sonoma County:

Not too shabby! It's incredibly beautiful here--just breathtaking. The sunlight seems so much brighter here than back east, or maybe it's just in our heads. It's definitely drier and not as lushly green, but it's still beautiful.

This morning we decided to see the beach, so we drove to Bodega Bay, about 45 minutes away--a little longer than I thought it would be, but the scenery was gorgeous. I'll show you some shots from the drive home later; first, here's the bay:
Brown Pelicans aren't lifers (I saw them in Texas), but they're so cool:I also saw a bunch of White Pelicans but didn't get a shot of them flying over me.

But this California Gull is a lifer, number 203!
What the heck are these little guys?They were flying in little flocks, fast as lightning, banking and turning as one, and uttering little squeaky cries the entire time. Here, I happened to catch a bunch of them as they took a little rest. They were not at the seashore, chasing the waves, so I know they're not Sanderlings; their behavior and flight was totally different. But what are they? Are they lifers?

They also had a little birdwalk marshy area at this one beach we went to (the name of which I no longer remember!):

A Snowy Egret showing off:

A tiny jellyfish no bigger than the front of my foot, but look at his spots!
Some kind of kelpy stuff?
Uh... kelp?
Looks like someone threw up blood here, but it's another sea plant:
And isn't this red seaweed pretty?
There were tons of dead jellies on the shore, some as big as a foot across like this one:
Matty found a Dungeness (I think?) crab shell:

Hey--I actually know this one--Bull Kelp:
Thanks to the Audubon Field Guide to California for that ID!

Way out in the water, I saw what looked like some kind of cormorant: Couldn't get any closer.

And check out this lifer, a Western Scrub Jay! I think I heard one of these guys calling back when I was in Texas in February, but now I've seen one and can count him! (and sorry to the lady who was stuck behind me while I snapped this pic--heh heh) Aw crap--I just checked my list and found that I DID count him in Texas. Hmph. What a dummy.

More lifers--Western Gulls!
And this sparrow--any guesses on ID?
Here are some pretty flowers:



That last one is some kind of lupine, like a Texas Bluebonnet only the wrong color.
Another shot of the Brown Pelican.

A cool shot of a Ring-billed (I think) Gull in flight.

Another shot of a Ring-billed:
And I found two little sand dollars!
Okay--so the road home; here are a couple of shots:

What a wonderful day. Lifers were Western Gull, California Gull, Western Scrub Jay (which I first thought was a Pinon Jay, until I learned that they're all blue and they aren't found by the beach), and (I hope) those unidentified peeps. I saw some plovers of some kind, but I couldn't get good enough photos to even see field marks, much less ID them. But I bet they were lifers too! Still, that's at least three more, combined with that Lark Bunting I saw in Colorado, so my ABA total is now a whopping 204! My goal is 300 by the end of the year--I'd better get cracking.