A380

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A380 Over the Golden Gate

In 2025, the largest passenger jet turns 20.

This is the Airbus A380. The A380 is truly an impressive aircraft which I had the pleasure of flying on from SFO to Frankfurt on Lufthansa (the airline currently operates eight A380s but they no longer use them to fly out of SFO).

The A380 is a full double decker with a flight range of 9,200 miles and a capacity of 850 passengers. It is larger than Boeing’s 747 and is designed for long range international flights.

On my afterwork walks I noticed a northbound British Airways A380 at around 5 PM each day. This is flight BA 284. The flight path parallels Ocean Beach and then turns northeast heading toward the Polar route over Greenland to its final destination of Heathrow Airport. I often watch it until it disappears with distance.

After work I wanted to get a sketching perch perspective facing north with the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, and Mt. Tamalpais at the base of the panoramic spread and the A380 flying above. Sunset Reservoir fits the bill.

I headed to the northwest corner of the reservoir to Sunset Reservoir Park with a brand new Delta Stillman & Birn sketchbook.

While I was sketching a man and a woman were walking up the path speaking French. I assumed they were from the Lycee Francais de San Francisco school just up Ortega. They had come to take in the amazing views. The woman walked over and asked if I was part of the urban sketchers. I replied that I was not and she told me that she liked to sketch too.

Then she and the man did something that boggled my sketcher’s mind which can be summed up in the following photo:

Yes, unbelievably they commented on my sketching and then turned around to stand between myself and my subject!

My plan was to do a loose sketch of the A380 as it headed northeast. Luckily the French couple moved on to take some more selfies with the distant Golden Gate Bridge in the background, before I had to ask them politely, to get out of my way!

Flight 284 is scheduled to depart SFO at 16:20. It seems it was running a bit late as the A380 passed by at 5:03.

A Heathrow bound British Airways A380 flies past the Sunset Reservoir.

SFO Runway 28R

I had sketched and photographed BA Flight 284 as it passed over western San Francisco and now I wanted to witness an A380 take off, head on!

One of the best ways to look down Runway 28R (SFO’s longest) is to cross Highway 101 on San Bruno Avenue. Here you can look down the runway towards aircraft taxiing into position for take off.

As a side note, runways are named after their magnetic heading to the nearest ten degrees so 28 degrees and the R stands for “right” to differentiate the runway from the parallel runway to the left: 28L.

Flight 284 was late getting out of the gate and I spotted the giant, shark like tail fin, sporting the Union Jack, as it crept towards the runway.

The A380 pulling onto Runway 28R. With the distance, the plane looks like a mirage.
Flight 284 climbs off Runway 28R at 150 knots heading right toward me!
Gear up, the A380 flying overhead.
Next stop (10 hours 35 minutes later) Heathrow Airport.
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Harlequin and Rails

On a clear and calm Sunday morning, I picked up Grasshopper Sparrow to make our fourth and hopefully last attempt, to see the over wintering male harlequin duck at the Coyote Point Marina. We had perfect conditions with calms waters and the sun at our backs, now all we needed was a little luck and a lot of patience.

We walked out to the end of the path and started to scope the bay waters, picking through the hundreds of scoters and goldeneyes to find the one bird that really should stand out. A duck with bold white markings and a reddish side. I checked the waters to the south while I let Grasshopper’s young eyes scope the waters to the east, just beyond the breakwater.

“I got the harlequin!”, he announced shortly afterwards. Of course he did. I looked though the scope and the bird had disappeared under the waters, which is no surprise because it is a diving duck. I asked him what the duck looked like.

“A harlequin duck!”, I told him that description wouldn’t cut it in the birding world and pressed him to recount details. He described the white facial patterns and colored sides. And just the confirm himself, the harlequin returned to the surface and I was able to get great views in amazing light.

IMG_9509The Bay Area rarity was finally ours. Male harlequin duck just beyond the breakwater at Coyote Point Marina.

The duck briefly perched on the breakwater and preened and I was able to get a few photos off to use for a painting study.

Harlequin

Our next stop was to Bayfront Park in eastern Millbrae. Our target bird here was an iconic species of the bay marshes, a bird that has been declining in the bay because of development of the bay’s shoreline (meaning the destruction of it’s favored habitat) and is now near-threatened. This is Ridgway’s rail (formally the clapper rail). It’s estimated population around the San Francisco Bay is about 1,100 individuals. So seeing a Ridgway’s is always special.

Bayfront Park is a small marsh, preserved near the Bay Trail. It sits just across the waters from the runways of SFO. So here I can really indulge two of my passions: birds and airplanes! I guess the two are really related. But perhaps not the Rigway’s rail, which seldom flies.

IMG_9558Touchdown for a massive A380 at SFO. A raft of ducks are in the foreground, apparently not disturbed by all the air traffic.

The tide was high, meaning that all the bird activity was very concentrated, which could be good for finding rails. Rails are very skulking birds that can be notoriously hard to see. Most of my rail sightings had been brief and unspectacular. But that was just about to change.

We scanned the shoreline and the pickleweed for rails but we found none. The somewhat reclusive birds could be right under our noses and we might never see them. We put in a good 45 minutes of searching and we did not hear or see any. We started to head back to the car when I decided to check one last time. That’s when the loud call of the Ridgway’s rail sounded from some tall reeds about ten yards from the Bay Trail.

We fanned out on either side of the reeds, willing a rail to appear. Again, Grasshopper found one, it’s head raised above the reeds. The rail stayed visible, in perfect light for a good five minutes, allowing me to take some photos and just as quickly as the rail had appeared, it disappeared. As if on cue, Grasshopper found a second rail, just to the north of the reeds, in pickleweed. The bird also gave us astounding looks!

Lifer for Grasshopper and a San Mateo County lifer for me.

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