23 March 2015 - Birding in SF plus Pterodactyls

While I was working hard in San Francisco, I did get a couple opportunities to go birding. In addition to seeing so many beautiful birds that I don't get at home, I was able to add twelve new birds to my life list. Hooray!

Common loon

Red-throated loon

Bewick's wren

 Orange-crowned warbler

Black-and-white warbler

Acorn woodpecker

Pelagic cormorant:  he is the one in the middle and smaller than the two double-crested cormorants that flank him. Notice the DC cormorant on the right is showing his crests--little white fluffs.

Brandt's cormorant

In addition to these, I had really good looks at four more birds but did not get photos, darn it.  I added Hooded oriole, Cassin's auklet, Rhinoceros auklet, and Pigeon Guillemot. 

The following birds are not new, but it was a fabulous high diving show.  I was able to spend almost an hour at Heron's Head Park watching twenty Brown Pelicans diving for food. It looked like they were eating both fish and bat rays. But the diving positions make them look like pterodactyls. Scarily so. The pictures below are all different birds, not a progression of a single bird in a dive. The sun was behind the birds which turned the pictures into black silhouettes.

All of these dives ended up in various iterations of this:

So much fun. So little time.

16 March 2015 - Art is a State of Mind

I have been back in San Francisco again.  It is such an amazing city. Vibrant, buoyant, eclectic and artful. What more could anyone ask of a city?  I don't want to live there mind you, but visiting is such a treat. 

I get a kick out of walking on the Embarcadero during morning rush hour. Where else do you see men suited up in full business attire with a phone to the ear while skateboarding to work? Or women in heels, skirts, big  purse over the shoulder et al, riding a motorized scooter (or kick type) down the sidewalk?  

The city celebrated St. Pat's Day on the previous Saturday. After the parade, you were likely to see sights like this everywhere as everyone put on their Irish and hit the bars. 

Golden Gate Park is a wonderful place for people watching. You will run into Peace Marches led by saffron-robed monks followed by hundreds of people all banging drums and chanting. 

Or you hear loud music and as you round the corner you will find a parking lot filled with disco dancers on roller skates. 

 And naturally, bystanders cannot stand still with that infectious beat and music so they join in from the sidelines. 

There was an entire line dance team of women and men who looked like something out of Flash Dance. Torn t-shirts and fishnet stockings for attire, and all doing the hustle or electric slide -- on skates.  

Then there is the clothing, piercings, hair color and tattoos. Such a parade of life. Wonderful. 

While you will probably not find me wearing t-shirts with logos or sayings, it doesn't mean I don't enjoy the good ones. This  one gave me a big laugh. It was worn by a young girl who sported dyed black hair with pink tips, quite a few facial piercings and tattoos. 

 I think my favorite was a t-shirt on a little boy who might have been three years old. It proclaimed "I'm all that and din sum."

The art is wonderful. There is so much public art that it makes other cities look look woefully underfunded and sad. 

There is a set of steps called the 16th Avenue Stairs. The stairs end at a viewpoint that defies description. 

Many photographers hang out up there to photograph sunsets over the ocean. The community came together and tiled the stairs. All 163 of them. 

It is hard to get the full effect to the top, but you can see there is a cohesive plan to the design. The gardens on either side of the stairs are also a work of art. 

The local Safeway has mosaic murals on an entire side of the building that faces the parking lot. Here are two of the four panels.  What a fabulous way to add color and beauty to what could have been a drab brick wall.

You would be hard put to find a single block that didn't have at least several displays of art. 
It could be a love letter on a building:

or personal art on the outside of a car

I am a particular fan of murals. Every time I visit I find more. 
This mural is in a lobby and is three stories high.  The photo on the left is just a piece of it, but more true to the vibrant color. Each little vignette is a piece of SF history.

From Chinatown.

 and on the other side of the same building

My current favorite is a mural covering up a construction site barricade. I am not the only one who still remembers Shmoos. This is serious fun!

Another favorite is this Japanese garden mural. The owners' back yard butts up against a big blank wall of the next house. Why not make it beautiful? I would love to see over the fence into that garden!

And you can't go wrong with this local icon!

Or what about a combination of sculpture with murals?

One of the things I love is that art seems to be a way of life. So many individuals have art in their yards, on their homes, attached to fences. 

Art is the gate to a house.

It's the bracket that holds up a sign. Note the mushroom design in the corner of the bracket.
 

 It is the way a construction safety fence can be made to surprise and delight as well as be functional. 

There are so many ways to incorporate art into the fabric of a city and San Francisco does it better than anyone else. 


 Sometimes, even the people themselves provide the art, just by being who they are. 

 In San Francisco art is a way of life, and something to be discovered on a daily basis. Much of it is temporal. Driftwood sculptures left on a beach. Chalk paintings on a sidewalk. It is very satisfying. My advice? Get out and look!


P.S. I could put thousands of examples of art on this post. But I will end with one of my very favorites. This sculpture was originally created for the Burning Man Festival. Where it now has lights, flames shot out. Must have been magnificent. It still is, just in a different way. I like it at night when the lights are on and you can enjoy the moment by watching it run through all the color changes. 

And as a little lagniappe, in the background you can see another work of art--the Bay Bridge light show. The lights on the upright supports are programmed to create patterns that never repeat. Yet another wonderful thing to see. 

You want to see more? Visit previous post on SF art from November 1, 2014.  

 

1 March 2015 - Not Peking Duck

Hands down, Peking Duck has got to be my all-time favorite meal. Granted I like duck just about anyway it can be cooked, but Peking Duck is pretty darned tasty. 

Today I saw a Mandarin Duck. The only thing it has in common with Peking Duck is that they are both from China. This Mandarin showed up in a small pond at a park not too far from me. What a treat to see this magnificent little bird. 

He has been hanging out with a bunch of mallards. He has even gone so far as to pick out a female whom he is guarding assiduously. He chases off any mallard that gets close. He is a very feisty little guy, considering he is about half the size of the mallards. 

Here's his girl. You can see she is quite a bit larger. And afterwards, you can see him in comparison to a male Mallard. 

Each time he chased off another male, he would do a little ritual where he stands up in the water and flaps. Who knew birds did victory dances?

I was enthralled with all the colors on this duck. Turquoise crest, purple neck, plus all the orange and gold.  

 
The two sails that stand up near his tail are each a single, very large feather.   

Here's a good look at his crest and purple neck.

 
 I know, way too many pictures, but oh my, this is one handsome duck. 

Just another day watching birds. Doesn't get much better than this.