Photography

Hawk Overhead, Part 2

I'm sorry to come at this a bit backward, but yesterday's Hawk walk involved many other observations that I didn't have time to present.

Let's start at the beginning when I dropped my wife off at the Garden Club Central home so they could do Christmas decorations. The people own the house and three other adjacent lots that span quite a bit of property, and present a great view to the NE showing much of the city.

I went over to the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park which is intermingled with the campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University. I went to school here (it was a different college then) and graduated 50 years ago. Akkk!

My former dorm, right on the ocean with the Los Coronados Islands (Mexico) in the distance about 20 miles away.

There are a couple private residences grandfathered within the park boundary. Here's the most outrageous one (it was an abandoned place where derelicts [not me] partied, 50 years ago). Navy vessel offshore!

Park is popular with runners,

electrically-enhanced off-road cyclists (too steep to be much fun if you have to pedal back up)

and dog-walkers.

It is EXTREMELY hazardous if your eyes are on hawks and not on where you are stepping!

Or swinging your arms around. Thus, most people stay on the main paths, which bore me. In this instance I am NOT touching this cactus but demonstrating its needles for you.

A yellow or white flower can bee seen a hundred yards away by my old eyes. I suspect the bees and birds also have an easy time finding them in an expanse of brown, gray and dusky green.

A dangerous predator here as well.

Ugly. I was fixated on getting this image and almost stepped on a cat that was lurking in the brush. Both the cat and I were startled and we fled in opposite directions.

A short distance away this hollow log caught my eye

and nose, as the honey smell was strong and the bees were of course a giveaway to its hidden treasure.

Some of the many small birds annoyed by my poking around in the brush.

A different kind of bird. I did a bit of research on the tail number and learned it was charting the fine details of our coastline and border. Do you want to see its flight track?

Check out this cool site: HELICOPTER FLIGHT and click on the 14 December 10:09 AM flight then Replay Track to see an animation of where they went and when they flew over me!

Cactus flower in bloom on Dec 14th, when I took the picture.

The wildlife was MOST cooperative, coming out for pictures with no prompting required. Here a long-tailed lizard.

and a large grasshopper, no doubt looking for something green to eat. You can only see these when they jump as their camouflage is superb (like the lizard).