Palace Birds

After Muir Woods (see previous post) we visited the grounds of San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina district. In all my years living in the Bay Area I'd never previously visited the Palace of Fine Arts, so this was a welcome delight for me.

As one can read here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Fine_Arts, the Palace was originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition. While I've endeavored to include a few photos of my own of the lagoon and structures of this beautiful site, to see a truly professional rendering of the rotunda and column structure I recommend the image shown here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Fine_Arts#/media/File:Palace_of_Fine_Arts_(16794p).jpg, which is an 18-frame panorama stitched together in Lightroom. By sheer coincidence, this happens to be one of the finest pictures in all of Wikipedia, and, in fact, this image was selected as picture of the day on the English Wikipedia for March 26, 2022.

Despite all the above, we didn't go there to see the Palace, but rather to see the birds in the lagoon. We found many gulls and herons enjoying the lagoon environment, as well as sparrows on some of the surrounding trees and shrubbery.

Please enjoy multiple views of some of these fine birds below.

Great Blue Heron #1

Here are a few photos of the Palace and lagoon. Most of the birds I photographed were in the right, most distant section of the lagoon.

Palace of Fine Arts #1

Palace of Fine Arts #2

Great Blue Heron #2

Hiding Heron

Heron on Grass

Sparrow on a Branch

These next four are photos of a song sparrow.

Song Sparrow #1

Song Sparrow #2

Song Sparrow Wings Out

Song Sparrow #3

Black-crowned Night-Heron

This next photo was taken at Crissy Field Marsh, also known for birding. It is very near the Palace of Fine Arts, located just slightly closer to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Great Blue Heron at Crissy Field Marsh

All photos © 2022, all rights reserved.  Contact phil@philslens.com for licensing or to order prints.

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