Today I had enough time after checking out the Manet and Morisot exhibit at the Legion of Honor to spend a little bit of quality time in my backyard to look for my owls.

It’s been so long. And it’s so infrequent that I’m in GGPark East that the place is starting to feel like a childhood home I visit every now and again.

I hate that.

But I was so happy to see some winter blooms in the area, like California Manroot and Santa Catalina Island Currant and Red-flowering Currant dainty flowers. I also bothered to try using Seek for a Pine tree that had new growth on it, and Seek believes it’s Canary Island Pine.

Now, Seek thought this back when I first observed this Pine in GGPark back in 2021. Since its database for matching has only gotten better, I’m feeling pretty confident it’s likely right at this point?

And Seek also believes the small cluster of small white flowers currently blooming near the Owl Nursery (that I don’t recall ever IDing before) are Reeve’s Spirea! Exciting, if true!

Yeah, the toughies are not native species, but I really do want to know what EVERY SINGLE DANG FLOWER is that’s in my backyard. I truly do.

Since I got there a bit before I’d likely hear any Owls, I wandered the Secret Gardens. And noted that some Slime Mold specimens were still on the giant logs still lining a bit of the Slime Mold Lab Trail. And some fun Stereum (perhaps, Stereum ochraceoflavum? Would love to hear Alan from iNat pronounce that!) at the very ends of some smaller logs there.

Can’t remember where I saw it, but I recently noted in a photo of winter blooms that Coast Silk Tassel had a purplish hue to its new flowers. This is something I don’t recall seeing in real life before. So when I spotted some, I took a closer look. And, INDEED! There is a purplish hue to them! How the heck have I never noticed before?

I was curious if that Dally Pine might be blooming near the Rhododendron Garden. And, nope. It sadly also had very little needles on it. Not sure what will happen with that tree there.

After trying (and failing) to get a decent photo of what I think was a female Yellow-rumped Warbler, I made my way through the increasing fog to really start looking for the Great Horned Owls of the East.

I was starting up the path that would soon take me to the Slime Mold Lab Trail again, when I looked up and caught sight of That Silhouette I know alltoowell. Perched at the end of a cut off branch from the good ole fakenesttree. There was one of my owls!

The heavy fog made it way easier to spot. Its back was facing me, and I hurried to get closer and get better looks. But the fog was SO THICK that it was tough to see through it in my binocs. And my poor digital camera could barely handle the Auto White Balance (even when the Owl turned around entirely) that it failed to focus on the GHO or even the branch it was on most of the time. So annoying!

At one point while I was looking through my binocs, it looked at me. And I thought maybe one of its eyes was different from the other. Which, of course, made me think it might’ve been Ma Owl I was seeing. Unfortunately, none of my photos that ended up somewhat in focus showed this. So, I can’t be sure.

At some point, it flew East and landed in a Coast Live Oak along the Slime Mold Lab Trail. I followed and watched. Its back to me again. It wasn’t there long before it looked to the West for a second. Then it flew almost right over me (!!) to land in a tree over on Lila’s Hill.

Almost RIGHT OVER ME!!! That’s only ever happened a couple times to me. And it’s indescribable what it feels like to watch them coming your way.

So. One GHO. Didn’t hear or see another. Could be Ma Owl, but that wouldn’t be a good sign as it would mean she’s not on a nest. Could be Pa Owl. Which would mean the nest is somewhere near the Owl Nursery. And lastly, could be another GHO entirely. I still have to assess the situation this year.

I’ll be helping out with Raptor Nest Monitoring by volunteering to monitor five nests (all GHOs) in The Presidio starting this coming week. Yeah. So I’ll have EVEN LESS time in GGPark… BUT, I’ll get to see what nest monitoring is all about! And I’ll be contributing to wildlife data. And I’ll really know what’s going on with all the GHOs in the Barnard Ave. area. So there’s that.

After pondering on who that Owl could be, and with the GHO starting its hunting, it was time to go home. But. Being back in my backyard and noting the blooms in bloom and spending time with a GHO made me feel like I was home.