Fly with cool eyes

Another fair weather day.

Very low tide. It was actually pretty steep walking from the 'dock' down to the floating platform.

Yellowlegs foraging along the muddy bank

Heron fly-by

No idea why this European Starling was perching like this on the railing. Young fledgling? Injured bird? It flew fine though.

The male Rufous Hummingbird taking off from a branch (at London's Landing).

Then I went over to London's Farm because there were still too many people over at the Sharing Garden.

This is an insect that I wished I took a better photo of today. It has a robust body, relatively big head, and a long antennae, but I am not certain enough if it is a Longhorn Bee (Family Apidae, Melissodes spp.) or not. Darn.

Don't know what this fly is either, but its eyes look so cool close-up.

Dorsal view of the fly.

The chickens at the farm were fenced up except for this one running around. It got onto a platform and then flew into this space made up of hanging folded chairs. Not sure if it's a comfortable space or not, although it left pretty soon.


Besides the flies and honey bees, these European Paper Wasps were foraging in the dandelion flowers too. Although they were shy when around the flowers and much more cooperative when resting on a rubber or wood surface.




Pollen-covered wasp.

I heard some unfamiliar bird song and looked around to find a wren (Marsh Wren, perhaps) singing its little heart out.

My first good wren photo of the season. Surprisingly it was not taken near the reeds or along the dyke trail.

Then I biked westward to Finn Slough and saw two crows chasing this other bird that turned out to be a hawk. Cooper's Hawk, I believe.

Then I walked a short distance along the railroad, and chatted with a known birder and photographer.

After chatting, it was about quarter to six so I slowly biked home. And that's when I saw a SUV in the ditch at the intersection of Garden City Road and Finn Road - it must have made a sharp right turn onto Garden City Road before driving into the ditch. The police and a tow truck were already on scene. No ambulance, so I guess everyone was okay. That's all for today.