Roadrunner Run-In

Great shot of a juvenile roadrunner by Bill Hubick of http://www.billhubick.com

Hydra and I saw the strangest pair of little birds just off the fire road on our morning hike today.  Very small, but somehow they ran like roadrunners.

“What are those little birds?” I asked, “And why are they doing a roadrunner immitation?”

Then they stopped and looked around and flipped their tails around just like grown-up roadrunners do, but without the crest on the back of the head rising.  Babies!

We watched them for a little bit, but didn’t have a good camera with us. I found this shot online and the photographer, Bill Hubick, was kind enough to give me permission to use it. (Thanks, Bill!)  There are a lot of great bird photos on his site. You should check them out.

Here’s a shot I took a while ago of an adult roadrunner actually running.

And another adult on our back deck.

Ride ‘Em, Bunny Boy!

Outside our home library window this morning.  I scattered bird seed in and around this planter. You never know who will show up!

Go Outside!

First harvest of my Paul Robeson tomatoes.  I love this variety. Paul Robeson was a hero of mine from the first time I heard of him when I was in high school.  He stood up for his beliefs and his career suffered for it. The tomatoes can take the heat just like he did.

Juliet grape tomatoes.  Coy but delicious!

The mint likes its home in the old whiskey barrel.

Luckily, we were outside when the neighbor kid– he was twelve when they moved in next door, so he must be (gasp!) twenty-seven now!–found a snake in his back yard. He said they freak him out, but he doesn’t have the heart to kill anything, so Hydra went over and snagged this beauty with a rake and dropped her into our yard.  Here, she’s beating a hasty retreat into the rosemary.

Found out from Jonathan N. of the Devils Punchbowl that this is a gopher snake. They eat ground squirrels and other small rodents…always welcome in our yard.

A butterfly popped out of the rosemary, startling the guys.  It must have just emerged from its crysalis as its wings were heavy and damp seeming.  I hope she found a good place to hang to dry. We didn’t want to mess with her. I read later online that it takes up to six hours for their wings to harden and dry.

A Few Friends Dropped by for Dinner

It seems that the goldfinches have discovered our feeder!

Encounter with a Shape-Shifter

 

The other day Hydra met up with a young man sitting on one of the cairns Hydra built on “my” mountain.  The man sat very straight in lotus position. He had a cola and a beer with him at 7 a.m.  They spoke and Hydra moved on.

A few days later, Hydra approached the hill and saw the young man sitting there, looking to the east as the sun rose before him.  As Hydra approached, young man rose, spread his wings, and flew away.

Either that, or it was this Golden Eagle.

Sorry the photo is not better, but it was taken from our driveway, at quite a distance.

Hydra near the cairn, to give you some perspective.

The eagle in flight. I didn’t get a shot of it rising because I was distracted by some other pretty little birds.

This finch, for example.

And then these finches. Trying to share.

I realized that the eagle had taken flight only when the ravens took off, complaining.

Hummer in the morning light.  There’s a lot to think about.

Sunny Bunny

 

 

 

 

 

Rabbit on the slope outside my window this morning. She’s eating a sprig of millet we put out.

I didn’t know bunnies like millet. Maybe she didn’t till now, either!

Having a Quail of a Time

Baby quail on our back patio with its mom.  Dad hung out on the roof of the garage to keep a look out, and these two poked around for about twenty minutes.  Surprising to see only one young ‘un trailing along behind.  This is the smallest we’ve ever seen in our yard.

Resting for a moment in the sun.  See the little tuft on her/his forehead where the top knot will develop?   This one is learning to scratch the ground.  S/he  accidentally scooted backward a couple of times instead of scratching.

 

Mom  got a couple of feet away while s/he wasn’t looking.  “Hey, Mom!”

Hydra scattered some seeds around the back of the shed so they don’t have to be quite so exposed.  Sure love seeing these critters.

 

 

If You Build It…

Hydra built this cairn on the top of the hill that we call Sundry’s Mountain.  It’s on the opposite side of the neighborhood from us and up high and, yes, this is a telephoto shot. It was taken from our driveway.

Over the weekend a large conspiracy of ravens showed up and started playing with it.  We’ve seen the local ravens playing with yucca stalks on the hillside before. It’s fairly rare to see more than two or four ravens together, but sometimes we see big groups playing in the updrafts along the hilltops.

On a windy day, they’ll take turns trying to hold it with their beaks so they kind of hover, but they’re grounded by the stalk.  That’s what’s going on in this shot.  The bird isn’t sitting on the stalk, she’s holding onto it.

Backyard, Bunnyfied.

Yeah, I went out and sat around and took pix of the critters in the back yard again.  This is the bunny edition.

I started calling this one Scratch because she has a black line across her forehead.  She’s the only one I’ve named.

One of her bayyyybeeees!   (Oh jeez, did I just write that out loud?)

I dunno, I like this one.

Is this cute?  Is it?  Sometimes it’s like they’re posing just for me.

This is why we have chicken wire around everything.  They are not as destructive and greedy as the ground squirrels.

Cold Weather Hike in Pico Canyon

Into the woods!  Hyrda and I hiked this lovely offshoot of the basic Pico Canyon Park trail that Kitty and I discovered on a drizzly day in late 2011. (Click here for that slideshow.)  It was cold and cloudy when we started out.

We saw deer tracks in the damp trail.  Also these, which I think are probably canine, after checking the difference online.

We weren’t sure whether the trail actually ended or if it continued steeply down or up from this point, but it was far too slick for us to continue.  Looks like a nice spot for a picnic.  But how the heck did they get the table out here!

Hydra, about to recross the charming two piece bridge.

The several kinds of moss on this boulder reminded me of home in rural Northern Indiana. Lots of moss in those old woods back home.

We stumbled onto Johnson Park, which we weren’t aware of before.  Apparently, it was used by oil workers from the well that operated from 1930-1990 and was one of the longest running oil wells in the country.  It actually looks like a great place for a Songmaker picnic if we could drive up the road to the site with all our instruments.

There’s a great write up of the hiking in Pico Canyon at Nobody Hikes in L.A. which you might want to check out.

Hydra checking out the oil rig which we learned from Stan Walker’s amazing page on Johnson Park was built from authentic parts.

I’m looking forward to discovering more historic sites and hikes from Walker’s amazing site about the canyons and mining history of the greater Santa Clarita area.

[Apologies to my fabulous followers and subscribers…something very strange was happening with my WordPress account today.  I lost big chunks of this post, and when I edited it, it behaved as though I hadn’t posted it before.]