Another night of unsatisfying sleep, my Inbox is full of
e-mail awaiting responses, my household chores are
steadily backing up. In light of all of this, I had
decided that I would stay inside today and just post some
remaining photos from yesterday’s walk. But…
this morning I looked outside and it was cloudy. I cracked
the front door and the weather was cool and breezy. Birds
were singing… squirrels were zipping around…
and, well, you know how it goes. I got dressed and put my
shoes on. [insert sheepish grin] I figured I should at
least grab a cup of juice before leaving and while gulping
it down, I peered out the kitchen window. As if on cue, my
favorite spotted-little-one showed up with its mom and
gave me a glimpse or two as it snuck through the sage and
olive trees.
There was a fair bit of blue sky showing, but the clouds
that covered the rest of the sky more than made up for it.
Wispy and whimsical. Puffs and arcs. Stretching, shifting
and moving. Aaaah… action in the sky… just
what I crave!
As if issuing some sort of homage to the little spotted
fawn from earlier, the sky shifted yet again and produced
this most wonderful pattern:
**Be sure to click on the image for a beautiful
panoramic.**
A Cooper’s Hawk (quite likely
the same one from yesterday!) soared effortlessly above me. Sharing the sky with the
hawk were a few swallows swooping and diving at unseen
insects. I heard the raucous croaking of the boisterous
raven family long before I spotted them high over the
hills. The juveniles are as big as the adults now and the
family (6 birds total, I think) loudly travels together in
search of food and perhaps a bit of mayhem.
There were small arthropod joys to be had as well. Several
bumble bees were working a patch of California Poppies. If
yesterday’s photos
were a matter of good luck and perfect timing,
today’s images proved to be more a matter of supreme
patience and diligence. For some reason, my camera
repeatedly refused to achieve focus when I wanted it to,
and countless opportunities for beautiful shots of the
bees ended up as little more than blurry blobs of orange,
yellow and black. But, it was a beautiful day to be out
and I smiled despite my frustration, and stuck with it
until I managed to come away with at least a few nifty
shots.
I was kind of amazed at how long bumble bees’
back legs are when they let them dangle.
I knew I had been gone too long, and reluctantly I turned
and headed for home. As I rounded the corner of the small
work shed near our cabin, I slowed down to carefully watch
my step and scan the ground… Why? Well, because
there’s always the chance I’ll see
this poking out of the abandoned ground squirrel
burrow:
If you’ve got a heebie-jeebie-thing about
rattlers, I wouldn’t click on this one for the
bonus shot… (*grin*)
Hope everyone has had a truly wonderful day!
Turtle lounge deck extraordinaire!
It’s surprising to me how amicable some turtles
were about being climbed on and used as a sunning spot
by other smaller turtles.
