Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
Some birds spotted on a hike yesterday morning: a California Towhee (the mature one perched on top of a bush) and a bushtit (looking very birb-like). A whole lot of the latter were flying back and forth between the trees on either side of the path, barely stopping long enough for me to point the camera in the right direction.
Pelican Cove, just past the point with the lighthouse. Unlike other parts of the preserve, there’s a trail here that lets you hike down to the (rocky) beach. Of course then you have to hike back up again.
I don’t know what kind of rock this is or why it looks like layers of thin pastry (or maybe a sponge), but it certainly looked interesting!
#cove #ocean #nature #california #rocks #photo #gloomy
Coastal hike at Vicente Bluffs Reserve, on the peninsula southwest of Los Angeles.
#nature #ocean #california #hiking #flowers #cove #coast #florespondence #photo
Scenes from a seasonal marsh. Low areas collect water and form ponds during winter and spring, then it dries out over the summer. All the ground in these photos except on the near side of the logs in the last picture usually spends part of the year underwater.
The lowest part of the preseve is also where the most trees are (presumably because water has more time to soak into the ground there).
Two birds spotted while hiking the trails on top of the coastal bluffs southwest of Los Angeles. First a lesser goldfinch, which took me forever to actually catch on camera (there were 3 or 4 of them flitting around and not stopping for very long anywhere!) and a black phoebe that was perched a few yards from the trail.
#birds #photo #nature #finch #phoebe
A #swallowtail #butterfly, photographed using the classic technique of desperately following it with the camera and clicking the shutter when I hope it’s pointing vaguely in the right direction to at least catch it in frame and it probably won’t be in focus anyway but with luck it’ll at least be identifiable and…hey, not bad!
(Otherwise I’ve basically given up trying to actually aim at butterflies when they’re flying.)
Western Tiger Swallowtail
Sign at a local bar/club/lounge on a partly cloudy day.
This is the same place that proclaimed “We missed some of you!” when they reopened after the winter pandemic surge shutdown.
I think they’ve mostly been doing “patio” dining in the parking lot, but inside gathering spots have been slowly reopening over the last month or so as case rates plummet in California and vaccination rates climb.
I saw several monarch butterflies at the botanic gardens up in the hills yesterday, but no more than about three at a time. Numbers have dropped drastically over the last few years.
#photo #butterfly #MonarchButterfly #nature
Not a claw, though it looks remarkably like one. It’s a chunk of iceplant partly buried in the sand.
#photo #blackandwhite #sand #plants
Evening primrose and some kind of brome in the open space near a bike path.
#flowers #plants #EveningPrimrose #nature #photo
Probably a Cooper’s Hawk, spotted on a walk this afternoon. It flew up to a telephone pole, alighted there for a few seconds, and as I was trying to line up a shot with the camera, it took off again, then flew a few houses down the street to perch in this tree.
I also posted a closer crop on my *ahem* @AddHawk account
This #bluebird was perched near this tree, possibly even on the same post, but the moment I snapped the shutter, it flew up to a nearby roof. So I tried to get a decent angle on it, and was about to walk away when it flew back to the tree, landing on this post, grooming itself for a few moments, and then stopping to look around.
Who knew a hawk could be a #birb?
Spotted in a park. Probably a Cooper’s Hawk.
I heard a lot of chirping from this tree, and saw a cluster that looks like it could be a nest near where this hawk was standing guard. It just kind of looked around the whole time even as I walked past the tree. If it was standing guard, it must have been able to tell I wasn’t a threat.
Statue of Ramona Quimby, one of several inspired by Beverly Cleary characters in Grant Park in Portland, Oregon. Photo from a trip in 2013.
TBH, though, Atlas Obscura got better photos than I did
#statue #BeverlyCleary #Portland #photo
I heard the squirrel chattering, then turned to look for it and spotted it up in a magnolia tree. Surprisingly, it held still while I walked around the tree to get a better angle. Then after I took a few more pictures, it jumped off the branch onto a nearby house-turned-museum.
One of these days, after it’s opened again, I’m going to have to actually visit the museum and not just the park.
#nature #animals #squirrel
First time I’ve noticed one of these birds, but they’re apparently all over North America: A Northern Flicker, a type of #woodpecker.
(I was kind of annoyed that it was on the shaded side of the tree, but I can’t really blame it. The late afternoon sun was really bright.)
