Nature and Wildlife

UPDATED: Large Tree Validates Newtonian Physics on Virginia Street

/ Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

It probably wasn’t intended as a science experiment, but a big tree fell on the 300 block of Virginia during the wee hours of this morning, taking out a fence along the way. Neighbor Blair reports:

Apparently this tree fell at around 4:00 a.m. Thursday. According to neighbor, probably from lack of care, rather than due to storm.

UPDATE: The City sent a DPW crew to eat the fallen tree, and our local broadcast media decided that a fallen tree is so newsworthy that it warrants sending two satellite trucks to the scene:

“Reporting live from Virginia Street, this is Bernalwood Action News.”

UPDATE 2: KGO-TV identifies City budget cuts, rather than Newtonian physics, as the cause of the tree’s collapse:

Owner Patricia Mahoric wasn’t injured and her house sustained only minimal damage. Nonetheless, she believes the incident could have been avoided if the city had responded to her repeated calls about the tree.

She says she noticed the tree was in bad shape and appeared to be dying back in May. Since then, she says she has been calling to get the city to come out and take care of it.

A Department of Public Works spokeswoman says Mahoric is right. She says Mahoric did everything correctly but because of severe budget cuts, the city has reduced the pruning cycle and there are now only three tree inspectors for the entire city.

PHOTOS: Neighbor Blair

Confirmed: A Spiritually Significant Owl Sighting on Gates Street

/ Todd_Lappin / 11 Comments

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Bernal Heights is famously fashionable and always avant garde, but there has been a sadness at our spiritual core ever since the wonderful Great Horned Owls of Bernal Hill passed away in 2007.

Now, however, we are pleased to reveal that we have owl(s) living among us once again. Neighbor Lonnie reports from Gates Street:

Sunday morning a friend stopped by to say hello and greeted us with the news that he’d just seen an owl fly out of the tree in front of the house and take up a perch beneath the hedge next door.

We quickly grabbed some binoculars and a copy of The Sibley Guide to Birds and determined it was most probably a Burrowing Owl — “Only small owl likely to be found perched in the open in daylight,” according to the guide.

At first it was too far under the hedge and in darkness for me to get a good photograph, but after a while we noticed that it had moved out to the edge of the concrete steps leading to the side yard. Except — and I can’t be sure because I’d gone inside and didn’t see it actually move out from under the hedge — the owl on the steps appeared to be considerably smaller than the one we’d been looking at earlier, which leads me to believe there may be a pair roosting nearby.

In any event, our new neighbor stood there on the step a while looking at me and my camera and at a few people passing by toward the Gates Street stairs, before it turned and swooped down the narrow space between the hedge and the house, up to the top of the fence at the back of the yard. In a moment it was gone into the taller trees.

I’ve been told The Dakota Hidatsa Indians saw the Burrowing Owl as a protective spirit for brave warriors, which I’d like to be true on all counts.

PHOTOS: Neighbor Lonnie

They’re Baaaaack! Seasonal Arachnid Invasion Now Under Way

/ Todd_Lappin / 16 Comments

The Bernalwood Intelligence Agency noted the invasion preparations underway back in May, and just as predicted, the Arachnid Forces have now established a beachhead in Bernal Heights.

Neighbor Brent reports from the front lines on Prentiss Street, where a platoon of Cross Orbweavers has taken up positions:

I don’t know if they ever went away, but the spiders are back, and they’ve shown up in my backyard as of a couple of days ago. These two have had their webs up for over two days.  I haven’t disturbed them — let them eat all the flies they want!

PHOTOS: Neighbor Brent

Parrots and Possum in Bernal Heights, Oh My!

/ Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

I’m pleased to report that the swarm of raccoons that recently attempted to invade my home has retreated back into the jungles of Bernal Heights. For the moment. I hope.

Yet wild animals are still active here in our Wild Kingdom, with two critter sightings this week that are worthy of note.

Yesterday Neighbor Christin captured the above photo of the Dissident Parrots of Bernal Heights while the birds were having a meeting in a tree on Prentiss Street, just below the hill. Bernalwood’s sources tell us the birds had gathered to discuss the planned downtown development at 8 Washington Street, and one parrot was overheard saying, “If Aaron Peskin is against it, then we must be in favor of it!”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Bernal…

Neighbor Catherine sent in this report from Treat Avenue:

Evidently a Bernal native, this opossum has been making daily house calls to us on the north slope.

Eeeek!

PHOTOS: Above, Neighbor Christin, below, Neighbor Catherine

Revealed! The Incredible Reason Why Bigfoot Was in Bernal Heights Last Week

/ Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

If you had asked me to describe my ultimate fantasy Bernalwood story one week ago, it would have been a celebrity Bigfoot sighting on Bernal Hill.

Well, as we all know, my wish came true last Tuesday, when Neighbor Frank did indeed photograph a genuine Bigfoot sighting on Bernal Hill.

That was cool. Yet it turns out that the only thing cooler than a Bigfoot sighting on Bernal Hill is the follow-up email I received the next day explaining what exactly Bigfoot was doing on Bernal Hill in the first place:

Neighbor Paul here (aka Paul da Plumber, on Alabama St at Precita). I love Bernalwood and I was delighted to see that Bigfoot’s escapades made the news!

The truth is out there. Bigfoot the Musical is in production. Bigfoot the Musical is a five act eco-love story musical about entropy. Scene 4 is a video segment in a live action musical play. Jesse Roadkill and Kelly Gallamore were filming scene 4 (“Bigfoot in the City”) when your photographs were taken.

Bigfoot the Musical is scheduled to appear on a traveling flotilla starting in Pittsburgh and continuing down the Ohio River. In San Francisco we plan to debut Bigfoot The Musical at Flora Grubb Gardens in mid October.

The short term goal is to get Bigfoot the Musical to Pittsburgh. In order to do that, we need to get the Kickstarter account for The Ohio River Project funded. The Kickstarter account closes Monday so any attention we could get it would be helpful.

Bigfoot would like to thank Neighbor Frank for the photograph. He`s been trying to get a sighting on Bernal for months, but until Tuesday he had not overcome his elusive nature.

Yes! You read that right. Bigfoot: The Musical. (!!!!) And even better, Bigfoot: The Musical is being produced in Bernal Heights! How glamorous! And even better still, Neighbor Paul sent us the promotional video.

So it is with great pride that Bernalwood is honored to debut the video segment from Scene 4 of Bigfoot: The Musical, in which we learn that Bigfoot spends a lot of time in Bernal Heights, and also shops locally. Bigfoot: He’s just like us!

Remember, that Kickstarter fund-drive ends today, so act now if you’d like to support the project.

Lastly, although the Bigfoot puzzle has now been solved, other local creatures remain shrouded in mystery. We now know what Bigfoot was doing in Bernal Heights. But what about the Bikini Jogger?

Like they say: The truth is out there.

FINALLY!! BIGFOOT SIGHTING ON BERNAL HILL!!

/ Todd_Lappin / 11 Comments

Friends and neighbors, that is a headline I’ve wanted to write for almost two years.

But, really, it’s true! Bigfoot WAS spotted today on Bernal Hill, and Neighbor Frank was there with a camera to capture an image of the wild beast. Let’s zoom and enhance for a closer look:

Neighbor Frank writes:

My wife and I were walking around the top of the hill just before noon today and spotted Bigfoot, or something like that, running up the hill near the top of Rosenkranz Street.

We thought that maybe Bernalwood was Bigfoot’s new habitat, but in the heat, Bigfoot removed his head and looked more like a person in a costume, surrounded by two photographers.

Phone pictures are all I have as evidence.  No footprints or DNA samples.

PHOTOS: Neighbor Frank

What Is Buried Under the Big Shrub/Tree Thing on Bernal Hill?

/ Todd_Lappin / 7 Comments

Bernal Hill

Bernal Hill

The big shrub/tree thingy on the eastern slope of Bernal Heights Park is one of the most impressive — if underrated —  features on the hill. The consensus among our local plantspotters is that it’s a California Buckeye (Aesculus californica).

The Buckeye cuts a dramatic profile from almost any angle, but if you look at it closely you might notice two small grave markers tucked away under the branches on the downtown-facing side. How creepy! How gothic!

So who’s buried under there? The answer becomes clear if you dare approach for a closer look: The grave markers belong to departed subcultural pets.

One of the tombstones remembers a punk rock rabbit named Vikktor who died earlier this year:

Buckeye Grave

The other is a snake named Spike that began its eternal rest in 2010:

Buckeye Grave

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Collage Shows Creepy-Crawly Creatures Found on Bernal Hill

/ Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

Neighbor Mike shared this tastefully executed collage of creepy-crawly creatures he photographed on Bernal Hill.

In it, we see several members of Bernalwood’s recurring cast of natural horrors, including the California slender salamander Western fence lizard, the Jerusalem Cricket, the gopher snake, and the slimy snail.

Apart from it’s innate taxonomical interest, this collection of local fauna provides an important reminder that Nature, while generally wholesome and wonderful, can also be rather icky and disgusting.

PHOTO: Neighbor Mike