Photo diary today. A bicycle ride about an hour’s worth, on Quincy Junction Road, about five miles round trip.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow.
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Tuesday, November 28
12:48 p.m. Red-tailed Hawk #1. I haven’t even pedaled hardly a half mile from the house; just around past the high school on Quincy Junction Road, heading down what I have nicknamed “Hawk Alley” . This photo is slightly cropped from original, so you can see what I saw. I spotted the little white speck (the hawk’s breast feathers) up in this tree top, but that’s because I was very deliberately watching out for a hawk perching way up high like this. Original is at 24mm in 35mm film equivalent.
This photo not cropped; zoom at 275mm in 35mm film equivalent
Now zoomed not quite all the way to my camera’s max (3000mm) but to 2400mm, and only very slightly cropped from original.
12:53 p.m. RTH#2, less than ½ mile on from RTH#1. Yes, it’s out there. Look close on top of tall pole at center. American Valley in the background.
Note dark morph; there is great variability in coloration and markings of the Red-tailed Hawks here.
And banded! Look at leg sticking out.
12:54 p.m. RTH #3, in Cottonwood tree near a ranch house on Quincy Junction Road.
12:59 p.m. RTH#4, in the top of a tree by another ranch house on Quincy Junction Road.
1:05 p.m. American Kestrel, up on telephone cable wire running right alongside the road. Another focus challenge for the camera.
1:10 p.m. Ferruginous Hawk, on the ground out in the cattle field.
1:10 p.m. RTH#5, on a fence post out in the cattle field, about thirty yards away from the Ferruginous, above.
1:13 p.m. RTH #6; up on top of a telephone cable pole.
Hee hee. 1:43 p.m. Back at the house, putting my bicycle away in my downstairs storage closet, and this Western Fence Lizard puts in a most unseasonable appearance. About three inches long, nose tip to tail tip.
Now it's Your Turn.
What have you noted happening in your area or travels? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.
Thank you.