Birds in the Aloe Vera Cactus at SF Botanical Garden

I just love walking around the SF Botanical Garden and seeing the beautiful flowers, plants and animals that are there. What a treasure for a city to have, and I highly recommend visiting. These were taken in January 2018.

Watching the Blue Jays at SF Botanical Garden

I've become a crazy bird watcher/photographer. Here are some blue bird photos I took yesterday. It was pretty cool- the birds were building their nest and let me get within only a few feet of them, they seemed very curious of this crazy person with my camera and big zoom lens. Let me know if you like them! 📸

Watching the hummingbirds get fibers to build their nests. Stanford Cactus Garden 01/15/18

For the past few years, I've been able to visit the Stanford Cactus Garden at Stanford University, a real gem that is tucked away near the Stanford family mausoleum on campus, to observe a very interesting occurrence with the hummingbirds. The hummingbirds chitter and chatter away, and zoom around (often right by your ears!) and they go within the cacti of the garden and collect the fiber that these cacti produce. It's the most fascinating thing to watch these little tiny hummingbirds zoom in and land amongst the thorns! I've tried to capture this occurrence with my photos today- hope that you enjoy it! -MS