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Came upon a beached Fin Whale at Fort Funston Saturday 4/24/21. It was reported the night before and scientists from the Marine Mammal Center and Cal Academy were doing their thing to determine cause of death (likely a ship strike). 5th dead whale in the Bay Area in the past 26 days. 😢

Baby hummingbird found on the ground by kids. Unfortunately, could not locate nest and too much human and animal traffic to safely leave it there. Luckily Silicon Valley Wildlife rehab was able to take it in.

This one hurts. A lot!

NOT the way I wanted to get a Cook County Barn Owl for this year, but looks like a hungry Peregrine got it first.

My sincere thanks to Greg Neise for his astute awareness that though this wouldn’t count for any birder’s Big Year, for iNaturalist, the bar is lower than “living, wild and unrestrained.” INat just requires the organism is wild, not cultivated, with proof of the organism that a peer can confidently ID.

Nice Cook County tick, sad it is such a rare bird that’s dead.

These remains were collected 12/6/2020. and are now part of the ornithology collection at The Field Museum in Chicago.