Reminiscing about NYC

Flowers at Battery Park

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Give us this day, our daily Coot.

 

Such a cute coot.  Just keep those fugly toes in the grass, please.

Lightness

Lacy light shivers
Soft whispers flutter through space
Winter doves at home

© 2012, Liza Lee Miller
All rights reserved.

Far and away the coolest bird of the weekend

So, I just want to set the stage one more time.  We’re in LA.  You know, crazy big city.  Lights as far as you can see.  Now, we’re right on the edge of a mountain with a manmade lake in front of us.  It’s a nice little lake.  I wasn’t surprised to see an Osprey.  There were several hawks flying around too.  But, I didn’t expect to see this . . .

I mean, HELLO!!!

Wow, right?

Saturday afternoon, we went to take a walk and got buzzed by this bad boy (bad girl?). I can honestly say I’ve never seen a wild eagle that close to me. It was amazing. Of course, I didn’t have my camera with me. It came back later and I got the shots above.

Sunday morning, there were some birders walking around looking. I walked over to them and told them about the Bald Eagle. They were most unhappy — they had heard about it and come to see it. They told me to look out for Harrier (was that my hawk from yesterday?) and the Cactus Wrens (never saw any, darn it). About an hour later, I saw the Eagle fly overhead again. About 10 minutes later, I ran into the birders who were gleeful. They had not only seen the eagle but they’d seen it steal a fish from the Osprey. Wow.

I was jealous but happy for them. Wheeee.

Monday, I took a walk to see if I could spot any Cactus Wrens. I couldn’t find any Cactus Wrens — drat it. As I walked back, I saw a big bird and as I was getting the camera set, I saw the big bird get hit by a smaller bird. Boom! The Osprey was getting it’s own back from the Bald Eagle. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. I’ll apologize for the photo quality. I zoomed in as much as I could and cropped as closely as I could. I think it was worth it to tell the story.

Eventually, the Bald Eagle decided to leave the Osprey to hunt in peace. And, I wasn’t jealous anymore!

Almost the coolest and most cooperative bird . . .

This gorgeous bird was so cooperative, hanging out near our campsite, posing in the trees for me, not caring that I walked right up to it.

Ooooo, did something catch your eye?

Off to investigate . . .

Meep-meep!

After such a long absence from my blog, I’m surprised to find myself compelled to write.  I’m not surprised that what compelled me was birds and photos.  For Christmas this year, my loving husband got me a telephoto lens for my Canon camera.  He was probably tired of hearing me whine about not having a telephoto lens.

This weekend, he didn’t hear any whining, in fact, he got a big, fat kiss on the lips and a great big “thank you for my telephoto lens, honey!” I’m nothing if not grateful!

We went camping in the heart of LA.  Well, it’s the heart of LA if, like me, you feel that LA starts right around the southern edge of Santa Barbara and ends at the northern edge of San Diego!  We camped in San Dimas at a little, bitty lake called Puddingstone Reservoir.  You might think I’m making that up but, I assure you, I’m not.  Puddingstone.

Anyway, despite the location in a county park with a small reservoir, I wasn’t exactly thinking about birding here.  Oh, dopey me!

We hadn’t even gotten breakfast dishes done when Greg came running to the motorhome and said, “Grab your camera . . . it’s a roadrunner!”

Meep-meep!

 

We didn’t see any wiley coyotes in hot pursuit but I kept looking . . .