Tag: wildlife
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The Under-Appreciated Black-tailed Jackrabbit
[Featured image: A Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) attempts to hide on a cold day during the Owyhee Roads Fuelbreak Project in northern Nevada, October 2017.] We are walking our fifteenth mile of the day. The accumulated sun and wind exposure while walking around sagebrush and over unstable volcanic rock has taken its toll. Attentiveness is…
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Islip Ridge, Little Jimmy, and Windy Gap
I decided yesterday was a good day to traverse some trails I hadn’t done before, so I grabbed my Angeles High Country map and drove up Highway 39. I sought out a trail the map labeled as the “Islip-Wiwona Trail”. There were no signs where the trailhead should be. The area was overgrown with a…
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Raptors in Flight
In response to a question about hawk identification on nextdoor.com (a neighborhood-based social media site), I posted a long discussion about the status of various raptors in our neighborhood. Someone posted a follow-up question about how to tell hawks from falcons in flight. I thought the easiest way to do that would be to post…
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Hawaii: History, Honeycreepers, and the HURT 100 – Part 2
For part 1 of this trip and race report, see here. Two days before the race, we took a trip to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona Memorial. While Google Maps did a good job of getting us temporarily lost on Honolulu’s confusing roads, we still arrived early and only had to wait a…
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Hawaii: History, Honeycreepers, and the HURT 100 – Part 1
We look out over the vast Pacific that forms our temporary backyard and watch the sun set as large waves break on the volcanic rock in front of us and Brown Boobies fly northward just offshore. This is our first of ten nights on the island of Oahu. It’s my first time in the state…
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Land Use Changes in the Antelope Valley
[Featured image: A Northern Harrier flies over a solar farm outside of Bakersfield, California in May 2016] Google Earth’s time feature allows you to easily take a look at how land use changes over time. I produced this video, without commentary, showing land use changes in the western Antelope Valley from 1985 – 2016.
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Sometimes Rare Birds are Easy
[Featured image: Grasshopper Sparrow at Viña Vieja Park, Pasadena, 10 November 2016] I decided to do a “chase” today for a rare species: a Grasshopper Sparrow that was reported at Viña Vieja Park in Pasadena, approximately 10 miles from my house. While that species is certainly not a life bird for me (as they aren’t all…
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Lewis’s Woodpecker and Other Things
[Featured image: Lewis’s Woodpecker at Bette Davis Picnic Area, Burbank, Los Angeles County on October 26, 2016] As today was not a running day, I decided to make it a birding day. There was a report on the LaCoBirds listserv yesterday of a Lewis’s Woodpecker at Bette Davis Picnic Area near Griffith Park. As that…
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After the Rain
[Featured image: a Yellow-rumped Warbler feeds on laurel sumac berries] I had outdoor plans for early this morning, but upon awaking to the first rain of the fall, I decided I’d rather get some work done on the computer and enjoy my coffee. At around 9am or so, the clouds cleared over Mt. Washington and…
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Morning at Hahamongna
[Featured image: Subadult Cooper’s Hawk] I had a little time this morning, so I decided to head over to Hahamongna Watershed Park by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and do a little birding. I parked on the west side of the park, an area that was formerly called “Oak Grove Park”, proceeded southward over…