Today's walk report: Orienteering

 Yeah, I never heard of it before either. According to Wikipedia, Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points. Call me a curmudgeon but for me it was a bunch of people running around, cramping my style.

I was puzzled when I found one of these in the garden...

I had already seen an unusual amount of people running around in a fashion that seemed to indicate a certain level of confusion. I finally asked two young women, "can you tell me, briefly, what's going on?" One of them responded they were "Orienteering." That wasn't very helpful, then she said it was for their school. Equally, not helpful. Apparently you stick some sort of device attached to your finger in that little hole and it sends DNA information or something to China. 

Basically I was doing what I could to avoid them and it was difficult. I'm guessing there were at least a few hundred participants. Kids were bused in.

Before and after...

Male Calypte anna hummingbird Dusty was hanging out.

Male Allen's hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin).

 Up to the hilltop was my great escape...

This pair of red-tailed hawks have appeared on this blog at least a few times. The female is the one with the damaged left wing, second shot. She's the larger of the two but that's hard to tell here. Actually both birds are looking a little battle-scarred.

A common raven.

 This turkey vulture was flying so close overhead I found it challenging to get it fully inside the frame. This first image is probably the best shot I've gotten of a turkey vulture in flight.

The blurry spots are birds of a more normal size, sparrow-sized.

After circling over my head a few times the turkey vulture headed for a field below where three other turkey vultures had already found some carrion. They weren't too happy about the interruption either.

I didn't watch the whole affair but I believe the intruder was chased off.

That's all I've got. My thanks to Docken for hanging on the phone with me and for tolerating my bitching about the Orienteering. She said, it sounds "military." Sure enough according to Wikipedia...

The history of orienteering begins in the late 19th century in Sweden. The actual term "orientering" (the original Swedish name for orienteering, lit. "orientation") was first used in 1886 at the Swedish Military Academy Karlberg and meant the crossing of unknown land with the aid of a map and a compass. In Sweden, orienteering grew from military training in land navigation into a competitive sport for military officers, then for civilians. The name is derived from a word root meaning to find the direction or location. The first civilian orienteering competition open to the public was held in Norway in 1897, when Norway was still a part of the Swedish union.

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King Crimson - Sailors Tale