Today's walk report: 010314

Looking out the wrong window.

If I think it might be an especially good walk day for shooting a sunset I either look out a small west facing window from where I'm sitting or better yet I get off my butt and walk outside to confirm the sky. The reasons for checking are, deciding what lenses I'm going to carry and also what time I want to leave. Well, I didn't look out that window nor did I go outside. I looked out the window directly in front of me. That window faces north, northeast. I did however leave at a time to catch the sunset around the 6.5 km mark from the top of the hill. The down side of leaving late to time my location to the setting sun is it means poor light for the rest of the walk. Plus it was partly cloudy, that's what made me think it might be a nice sunset for pics.

As soon as I got a clear view looking west I realized I wasn't going to catch a beautiful sunset, in fact it appeared as though I wasn't going to get much of one at all. There was a marine layer out to the west and it only got closer and denser as the walk proceeded.

I've said before, if I'm taking a picture of a squirrel it's a sorry picture taking day.

This is a terrible picture but I wasn't going to slow down so I could focus manually. I just wanted to point out that it was feeding time for the horses, this guy obviously knew that and was perhaps thinking somebody was a little late. He'd pick up that food bucket and swing it around a bit and then throw it down, seemingly frustrated, only to do it again moments later. When I got to the gate leading into the equestrian unit a girl was pulling up to unlock it and go in. I asked her if she was feeding the horses. It turns out she was going in to feed the horses up above in the barn. Anyway, I let her know about this guy's frustration and she said he'll be like that 5 minutes after he's fed too. I commented that I've known plenty of people who have done the same. I'm going to guess it takes a fair amount of time for a horse's brain to get the message its stomach is full and even then such a message probably doesn't matter much.

Top of the hill and yes, I was right... forget about the sunset. There was this guy again and I barely got this shot off. The shadows in this image were cranked way up (lightened) in Photoshop so I could confirm the bird and so you could see too. By this time it was no-go on the sunset and pretty poor lighting for much else photo-wise. I wrote about correcting the ID on this bird just the other day and I ended up correcting that again since. This is not a merlin (Falco columbarius), it's a prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus). Merlins are smaller, not much larger than a American kestral.

Same 8.79 km, still a bit of a struggle today but I pushed myself through the midway point and I felt great coming home.

Today's walk report: 122913

Getting my birds straight.

This has been a challenge, the "birding" aspect of chronicling my walks. I have to admit to some laziness on this level but I have decided to get my act together and not jump to conclusions on identifying birds. Also, as stated at least once before, if you come across any of my photos, know these birds better than I do and would like to offer corrections I'm completely receptive to this. I already made two corrections I believe to now be accurate on yesterday's walk report.

Here's one of those again for today.

I'm sure now this "hawk" I ID'd yesterday is not a hawk at all. It's a falcon. All along I was having a problem with the dark streak offset by white coming down from the eyes but yesterday's images weren't nearly as clear as those taken today. For s second time I'm changing the ID on this. Pretty darn sure this time it's a Prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus), this after continuing to question the size reference for what I had before which was a Merlin, Falco columbarius. That's another thing I find in a lot of online bird identification sites. They reference size relative from one similar bird to another but often don't give actual dimensions.

In flight the distinction becomes much more apparent for me. A red-tailed hawk would, for example, have its tail fanned. Also I'm pretty sure I have the under-wing pattern nailed down for a red-tailed hawk.

If birds could simply label themselves like so, things would be so much easier.

That's it for today. I got out a little earlier but walked the same 8.79 km as yesterday. It was a little rougher toward the last 2 km so I decided not to take on any more distance plus it was really windy toward the end. I could feel it pushing me back on the homestretch and I'm a fairly formidable opponent as people go.

Today's walk report: 122813

From my front door and beyond.

It was another one of those walks where I felt had I left earlier I could have spent a lot more time walking. I felt GREAT! Initially my plan was to leave about 2:30 but I didn't get out until 3:13. I woke up this morning with an eyestrain headache and by 1:30 it was nagging at me so much I decided to lie down on the couch, close my eyes and listen to music. Same thing that happened on 121613 but for different reasons, as soon as the stereo lost wireless I was out. I don't know if this is a bandwidth issue or Pandora just likes to cut you off sometimes to see if you're still there. Whatever the case, once the music was gone me and the cat on top of me were both sound asleep. I figure there was 40 minutes of music and 30 of nap time. As my mom would always say, well, you must've needed it.

2/3 a cup of coffee, 1/2 a liter of water and a rare ibuprofen later, I grabbed iPod and camera and was out the door. The headache was still haunting me but it would disappear about 1 km into the walk.

I'm starting to see some activity already from some of the wildflower seed I laid down in October and why not? The seedlings probably think spring is already here, we had a high of 84º yesterday and it topped out at 76º today. Hardly what most people would call winter weather.

Outside my door...

Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima)

and I believe this is Alyssum Purple Royal Carpet (Lobularia maritima). Those seeds went down late last year and I never saw anything.

Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), it seems odd to me that this is only manifesting in one small area so far but I know little about the secret life of plants.

Onto the campus...

Merely an exercise in manually focusing.

Cooper's hawk having delusions of grandeur?

I continue to find it challenging to get a nice close-up of an American Kestral. My camera data here says I was 10.9 meters away which actually would be the closest I've gotten BUT I don't want to be looking so directly up, I'd like a nicer pose, I want better lighting and I'd like to capture the bird on something more "natural" than a lamppost.

These are the two crows I've mentioned before. These birds have known me for 3 years now. Crows in the wild can easily live into their 20s. This was where I'd almost always find them at the top of the hill close to sunset but lately there have been birds of prey hanging out in this same location. From this spot I walk a circle on the top of the hill. It's about 800 meters.

When I came back to the crow's spot look who I found. I now believe this is a Prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus) but as always I welcome corrections, anyway, the crows were nowhere to be seen. Although I will also point out crows do not seem to be especially intimidated by hawks. See one challenge I probably diverted here.