Today promised to be beautiful. They've had a string of clear days, with large numbers of raptors (more than 100 per hour on a couple of days) and species (as many as 13 different species recorded). As we approached, Hawk Hill was above a sea of fog that we assumed would burn off.
We got to HQ excited, and headed up to the Hill. We could see Mt. Diable and other far landmarks clearly. The tippy-tops of the north and south towers of the Golden Gate looked so close you could touch 'em. To the north, hill 88, the Vortec hill, and the FM station hill poked out of the fluffy fog, Mt. Tam behind.
It was probably just a matter of waiting - and it was. Hope springs eternal. So does fog. Much like my life, there were a few all-too-brief moments of clarity punctuating an endless impenetrable wall-to-wall fog. We got a pretty good look at a sharpie. Saw a speck that somebody told us was an osprey.
To make the glass half-ful, I can say we saw more hawks than turkey viultures. And it wasn't a bad place to hang out on a day that was 90+ hot just about everywhere else. It had started out looking like we'd have a great many-bird multi-species day. Just goes to show ya, don't count your hawks...
We packed it up around 1:00, and headed home around 2:00, by which time the valley had almost entirely cleared.
As we made the left from McCullough onto Conzelman to make our way down to 101, I glanced back at Hawk Hill -- it was covered by a single puff of fog, almost literally the ONLY fogged-in place in sight!
We got to HQ excited, and headed up to the Hill. We could see Mt. Diable and other far landmarks clearly. The tippy-tops of the north and south towers of the Golden Gate looked so close you could touch 'em. To the north, hill 88, the Vortec hill, and the FM station hill poked out of the fluffy fog, Mt. Tam behind.
It was probably just a matter of waiting - and it was. Hope springs eternal. So does fog. Much like my life, there were a few all-too-brief moments of clarity punctuating an endless impenetrable wall-to-wall fog. We got a pretty good look at a sharpie. Saw a speck that somebody told us was an osprey.
To make the glass half-ful, I can say we saw more hawks than turkey viultures. And it wasn't a bad place to hang out on a day that was 90+ hot just about everywhere else. It had started out looking like we'd have a great many-bird multi-species day. Just goes to show ya, don't count your hawks...
We packed it up around 1:00, and headed home around 2:00, by which time the valley had almost entirely cleared.
As we made the left from McCullough onto Conzelman to make our way down to 101, I glanced back at Hawk Hill -- it was covered by a single puff of fog, almost literally the ONLY fogged-in place in sight!
