City Birds

I love to spend time in a place, just sitting and observing life going on around me.  There is beauty to behold everywhere, when you look for it.  A few years ago, I went over to the City (that would be San Francisco) and spent several hours at the Palace of Fine Arts, in the Marina District.  My intention was to spend time photographing the building and environs from all sorts of angles and attitudes, but I ended up getting sidetracked by the many birds that live there.  I ended up with about as many bird photos as building photos, so I created this blog post to showcase them and perhaps inspire you to take time to observe the creatures around you next time you’re in a city.  What you find might surprise and delight you!

The location: Palace of Fine Arts

Female Mallard

I have a definite thing for ducks. I don’t know if it is the quacking, the waddling, the way they cock their heads to look at you, or just what, but I really enjoy watching ducks doing their thing.

I really like adult ducks, but oh, baby ducks! Well, they melt me as much as kittens do. Seriously, these little fluffies are so darn cute!

Sigh… Okay, moving on from the ducks… Turtles are kind of cute, too.

And more water fowl – or is it the Kracken?!

Nope, not a Kracken…

A bathing gull of some species or other…

Well, really…no wonder these sculptured ladies are known as The Weeping Women… (interesting article on them here)… I’d weep, too, if I had that much bird poop on me!

Oddly, though, the ladies are not pooped on equally, as the next image shows…

Moving on from poop and sculpured ladies, we have a third type of waterfowl… This swan’s feathers took on the appearance of a fan dancer when the wind kicked up. Are all swans this bowlegged?

They are rather ungainly on land, but once they are on the water, they glide with grace…

Nibbling cygnets (young swans, for those in the know)

Here we have Homo sapiens sp. touristii, doing their thing. A rare sighting!

Then there are strictly land birds – meet this proud pigeon with purpley plumage.

High in the…would you call them rafters in such a building as the palace? I think not. Perhaps I can just say that this contemporary city pigeon is practicing his or her warrior III yoga pose high in his or her scrollwork studio…

Not 100% sure, but I think this is a female Brewer’s Blackbird. I love the soft, clear brown of her eye, and the definition of her tiny feather edges.

Okay, I’ve held your attention long enough on birds – SQUIRREL!