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New hiking review on my website!
Madrona Marsh Preserve
★★★★★
One of my favorite places to walk in the South Bay: the last remnant of seasonal marshes that once covered the western part of the LA basin.
https://hyperborea.org/reviews/places/madrona-marsh/
#nature #hiking #woods #southBay #torrance #wetlands #losAngelesBasin #review
A winter visit to #MadronaMarsh preserve, after some rain finally filled the low-lying areas of the seasonal #wetlands.
#photo #photos #nature #winter #trees #marsh #wigeons #ducks
Also on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kelsonv/albums/72177720305100984
A walk through a seasonal marsh that’s out of season. (We’ll see how much rain we get this winter.) And a virtual hiking buddy.
#nature #hiking #butterflies #flowers #bridge #path #PokemonGo #MadronaMarsh
#Birds of #MadronaMarsh. There were a zillion red-winged blackbirds, at least one group of goldfinches, some starlings, and of course the usual geese and ducks.
#nature #Blackbird #RedWingedBlackbird #Goldfinch #Starling #Goose #CanadaCoose #Sparrow
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).
Yeah, I realize my explanation for why I’m out here is a bit Farfetch’d, but it’s the truth. You wanna make something of it?
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
Some parts of the marsh are colorful this time of year. Grass has grown, wildflowers are starting to peek out. Others…not so much. But at least the wooded parts look less bleak than the open ponds.
Another shot of #wildflowers from the same hike, closer to the parts of the marsh with water. The purple/white flowers are wild radish.
This one works better when viewed at a larger size. I think I like the yellow fiddlenecks shot better because it works at a smaller size too.
When I parked for a hike at the marsh preserve, I discovered that I hadn’t actually put my camera in my backpack as I’d intended. So I decided to see what I could do with my phone camera, which mostly meant landscapes and plants.
I think it's been about a year since a small fire burned in this corner of the marsh preserve. It's less obvious on the ground where new grass has grown, but it's clear to see on this tree where the fire burned and where it stopped.
I went hiking at a marsh preserve over the weekend and saw a ton of birds, including five different species of duck. But the coolest sighting was this red-shouldered hawk, which stood perched in a tree, looking around until it decided to fly to another tree for a different vantage point.
