Today's walk report: 101021

 I did what I should've done yesterday, besides the decision was sort of forced upon me. This morning the film crews (see yesterday's post) had taken over most of the parking lot I walk from to get to the botanical garden, in fact it may have been off-limits to outsiders. I wasn't going to bother finding out. Instead, I drove up the hill and parked in a lot containing only two other cars. Come to think of it, those two cars are always up there, every weekend. It's the main parking lot for the music department and theater arts. Aside from some campus crew people down along the hillside trimming trees, there was no one around. Onsite classes are beginning October 25th and it appears the campus is in full-on preparation mode in order to catch up for being essentially a closed campus for over a year and a half. Baseline COVID tests are required for all students and employees attending school on campus. So there.

Meanwhile, I saw two raptors before I even finished parking my car. Years ago I had mapped out "laps" on this parking lot for extending a workout on my bicycle, so I knew laps around the lot were right about a 1/4 mile. I modified this slightly, considering I was on foot. I did several laps which turned out to be .38 miles a lap (although there were a couple modest detours, extending those laps) while I spent most of my picture taking time monitoring two hawks, a Cooper's hawk and a young red-tailed hawk. This went on for 61 minutes. 

Here's the basic outline of those laps from Google Earth. The covered parking are solar photovoltaic carports. They are, in fact, the first solar panels I ever saw. It was a long time ago.

 Here are the pictures. The two hawks were along the left hand (western) edge of the walk.

The first bird I saw perched was this red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). I didn't realize how young this hawk was until I got home and saw the pictures. It never left this position during my stay. For the closest shots this young beauty was 44.8 meters (49.1 yards) away.

While the lighting changed a little, there wasn't much of any variety in the pose. I actually saw the Cooper's hawk first as I was parking but it was moving from one spot to the next and it was awhile before it settled in for pictures. During the exercise portion of my journey I happened upon a few other photo ops. There were several crows scoping things out.

My first thought on this bird was, I'm going to have to look this one up. I went to my Cornell Labs bird ID app to find out this is a Cassin's kingbird (Tyrannus vociferans).

 Once again, Canada geese (Branta canadensis) flew overhead.

I had to fudge with the shadows on this one a little to make sure it was a Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos).

On the last two laps around the hilltop the Cooper's hawk decided to sit a spell and cooperate on some photos.

 Here's how far apart the Cooper's and the red-tailed were from each other at that point.

I walked two laps hoping the rising sun would provide better lighting for the Cooper's hawk but the bird gave me something better by moving south a tree or two.

Just as I was about to drive back down the hill I saw this large mourning dove and I'm pretty sure it's the same one I took pictures of on August 1st.

It was a nice round of picture taking and it turned out to be a pretty decent walk despite the repetition. Hopefully COVID protocols won't affect me as a visitor on the weekends. I'm fully vaccinated and carry digital proof of vaccination on my phone. If you haven't done so yourself, I highly recommend it. It's safe, it's fun and it might even save your life.