Owl or Tree Troll?!

 

Lucky few minutes of SF visibility!

The marine layer, clouds and light fog cleared up just enough for a few minutes to get a mostly clear view of last night's partial lunar eclipse.

Images are a bit soft because there was still a fair bit of haze and light clouds. I was also hand holding the camera because we weren't expecting it to clear up at all.

So happy to see this since we have had cloud cover here in SF for months and have missed most of the recent astro fun.

This last photo shows the clouds coming back in to cover up the view but it was pretty spooky looking which was fun.


 

Cooper's hawk chilling in the woods

I came across this hawk just chilling out at about eye level. It seemed very calm and reminded me a lot of people I see chilling out on logs hidden away in Golden Gate Park.

I think this is one of the parents of the three fledglings I've been seeing in that same area.

Osprey has to work to keep its catch

I spotted this osprey just as it was catching a fish in the surf.

There was a seagull trying to steal the fish right away.

I know it shouldn't be surprising that the seagulls were right there trying to take advantage of the osprey's fishing skill but it seems odd to me that a gull would even mess with an osprey. But seagulls seem pretty pesky and the osprey is pretty busy just trying to hold onto the fish. So I suppose the gull is hoping to cause the osprey to lose its grip and drop it so the gull can scoop it up.

The osprey managed to shake off the gull and hold onto the catch.
 

"1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a thumb war!"

"Bro, we have talons not thumbs and I don't want to play."

These siblings were holding onto each other's feet for a minute or two. Not sure exactly what was going on but it sure did look like kids playing some silly kid game and maybe only one of them really wanted to play.
 

Tucked away

This barn owl seems to have returned to one of its regular roosts tucked way up in a dense pine tree.

I hope its young are doing well.

Quail Blue Steal?

This Quail knew exactly how to get it's photo taken.

It saw me with my camera, jumped up and struck a few poses for me before jumping down.