cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
19346
Watership Down (West)
Some of you may have read or seen Watership Down a novel, movie, and TV series about rabbits living in the West of England. It's a real place, around Newbury in Hampshire, if I remember correctly. A client of mine took me past that hill which was riddled with rabbit warrens. But since we were primarily exercising his "old car", we didn't stop. [old car is now at the end of this post]
Anyway, today we walked in a difficult-to-access area of Tecolote Canyon
Only two runners passed us on the trail, no dogs were being walked around here, so we saw many rabbits today!
I think we saw 6-7 but I only got a few photos - those babies are quick to run,
but if they know they are spotted they tend to freeze.
The path is fairly wide, in the bottom of a large canyon.
There were a few nice homes on the east rim, at least from this perspective.
This one made a break for it but I still got a record of his big ears and cottontail.
There are lovely wildflowers scattered around in the canyon, along with huge stands of poison oak.
Many bees hard at work too.
It seemed that dangerous cactus was lurking everywhere that wasn't poison oak clad.
A bat box in a live oak tree.
Rabbit tracks
Sambuca
Trail signs every mile or so let you know where you are, and how to exit from the canyon.
The Sacred Thorn-Apple is both poison and psychoactive, as well as pretty. Do not eat these flowers.
Evening Primrose is just pretty. And not a "real" primrose, says my plant identifier.
Wooden bridge over the creek.
A murky stream of water was running in the bottom of the canyon.
There are lovely wildflowers scattered around in the canyon, along with huge stands of poison oak.
Many bees hard at work too.
It seemed that dangerous cactus was lurking everywhere that wasn't poison oak clad.
A bat box in a live oak tree.
Rabbit tracks
Sambuca
Trail signs every mile or so let you know where you are, and how to exit from the canyon.
The Sacred Thorn-Apple is both poison and psychoactive, as well as pretty. Do not eat these flowers.
Evening Primrose is just pretty. And not a "real" primrose, says my plant identifier.
Wooden bridge over the creek.
A murky stream of water was running in the bottom of the canyon.
Steel bridge (capacity 7 tons) unlikely to be strained by walkers or cyclists.
There are many large trees in certain parts of the bottom where lots of water accumulates.
Ice plant around below the house provides a fire break, just in case the worst were to happen ...
This lizard froze rather than ran.
The canyon's west side is moist and heavily wooded.
No bridge here. Rocks have to suffice.
East side is dry and hot and barren.
Wild licorice plants can be 8-10 feet tall.
Today's obligatory wrist shot of the Seiko Bell-Matic
The watch says it is time to turn around!
The tiny plants and big trees are abundant in this canyon.
Leaves of three, let it be. That's the Girl Scout reminder about poison oak. Don't even push through as the oils can get on your clothing and you will be sorry, later.
When we got back to the road a roaring Lamborghini flashed by, followed closely by a snarling Corvette. The Vette got stopped by the light so I could snap a picture.
Thanks for cruising with us today.
Cazalea
My wife preferred to have this photo down at the end so it's not distracting from Tecolote.
She didn't want to go on the Watership Down drive ... whereas we wanted to see if its RS Williams-tweaked 7 litre engine was working properly... or blow out the carbon, or something 😉
The rabbits were a bonus.
Varoom, Varoom!
Watership Down (West)
Some of you may have read or seen Watership Down a novel, movie, and TV series about rabbits living in the West of England. It's a real place, around Newbury in Hampshire, if I remember correctly. A client of mine took me past that hill which was riddled ...
So....
what's the purpose of the batbox? Don't recall seeing those before myself....?
Like an owl box or any bird box, only the bats go in via an open slot under the bottom
In theory, anyway. I can't imagine them jammed in like this! ...
Wow!
Never seen it before. I'll keep my eyes peeled for them whenever I find myself in more rural environments....
