Wednesday, November 19, 2014

The Biology of the San Francisco Bay (The Secret of the Sea , Pt.IV, Chap.2)





 THE
 B  I  O  L  O  G  Y
 OF THE
 




THE CUTTING EDGE OF WHAT WE KNOW 
ABOUT THE SCIENCE OF BIOLOGY 
AND THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY




Notably
A broad shallow shelf past Alameda
Deeper water off of San Francisco





 1.
 Fish


In 1968 a chemist on a houseboat in Sausalito
dumped a vat of Purple Haze into the Bay
These crustaceans remain psycho-active to this day,
When acid rock is played near their tank
They dance and have sex






I'm going to grow fins,
And go back into the water again






Fish arrive daily on extra-planetary ships,
Sadly, some are not even edible





Sorry flounder,
We eat you





The mysterious ways of seafood
Take place mostly unobserved,
Right under our nose-plugs






This fish buries its tail in the gravel
In order to better attack the tender bits
of the other fish swimming past







When he does of course,
All hell breaks loose






As a general rule it is fair to say,
Fish are very rude in their behavior





 2.
Flora

 

 Prehistoric plant-life abounds in the Bay Area








  A walkway into the Bay in Alameda
Submerged at high tide,






When the tide goes out again
A nutrient-rich film coats the walk





In winter months seeds germinate in it
Surviving the wan sunlight seaweed grows
The entire walk gleams green









 Berkeley Marina
The Flaneur has spent hours,
At rest beneath this whispering pine









Scotch thistle tough enough to grow anywhere,
A cliff over the Pacific







 Hardy flowerettes
Stand-up to the cold fog








Time out of mind
Land's End






3.
Insecta
 

An industrious bumble bee works the clover,
A lawn in the Marina right on the Bay




 4. 
Avifauna


Quail a lovely gentle bird
I have encountered them in the wild
Only due to my quiet, contemplative gait







Vast flocks follow along the shoreline,
They come in waves
Passing this point at a mad velocity







In November
Coots are a dime a dozen






Seagulls you always have with you






 Exquisite snowy egrets fish,
Zen-like in the Oakland estuary






 Cormorants take turns bathing
A seagull looks on suspiciously







 Pelicans, cormorants, and others
Nest on this strange storybook isle







Great blue heron brooding






Almost absurd at times







Perfectly adapted to life
on the San Francisco bay






5.
 Fauna



Elks in great numbers
Once rose up out of the Bay







Apparently at one time 
there were a great many of these  animals around
-- California smilodons






California Sea Lions
Were land-loving dog-bears
long ago





Whales inhabited the wide waters of the Bay,
Today they appear only  when
their geo-location instinct goes awry





Spaniards are said to have brought the first horses






Sometimes non-native animals
fare better than the local critters,
In cypress trees by the sea









6. 
Human Beings



Unlimited consciousness,
emotion and sensitivity,
Swims in the sunset,















Crab Cove, Crown Beach in Alameda
Lake Merritt, Oakland
Cordonices park, Berkeley Marina, UC Berkeley
Pier 39, Maritime park, Land's End, and Zoo
in San Francisco













2011-2014

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