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| Red-tailed Hawk on the Lookout |
Hawks, gulls, ravens, and pigeons are a common sight on light poles along the Great Highway next to Ocean Beach. Hawks use them as hunting perches, while the other birds usually use them for resting. This hawk was being harassed by a raven when I stopped my bike to check him out. I'd hoped to get a shot of the raven dive-bombing the hawk, but the raven flew away as soon as I got my camera out.
Before I left on my walk to the beach this morning I noticed it was hardly windy at all outside my windows, so I double-checked Windy.com to see if the coast was calm where I've been wanting to go tidepooling. The web site showed pretty strong winds, so I left home not quite convinced -- until I got my first look at the ocean. There were whitecaps out to the horizon, but they did not start until a mile or so off the coast. It was kind of interesting to see the wind coming in at such an angle that it missed the immediate coast here while pummeling the coast farther south.
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| I wondered if this hawk was one of the pair that I often see perching high on the blades of the nearby Murphy Windmill. |
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| The wind had picked up quite a bit by the time I was near the beach on my bike, but the hawk had no trouble keeping its footing. When he took off, the wind carried him away so fast I didn't even see which way he went. That is, by the time I took my eye away from the camera's viewfinder he was gone. A nearby raven squawked, but only once. |
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| Earlier on my walk down Ortega Street I saw this battered, but still alive, red admiral butterfly on the sidewalk and wondered if a bird had taken a swipe at it. That's a lot of wing to lose. (Closer to home I saw a lot of pipevine swallowtails but couldn't get a shot with my phone.) |
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| Rock Purslane near the beach. |
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| Wind-blown sand had closed the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard. |
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| The great blue heron crossed MLK Jr. Drive to see if the grass was greener on the other side. It patiently endured passing joggers, dog-walkers, bike riders, a lady trying to get close enough for a phone-snap, and even a thundering garbage truck (which seemed to frighten it the most). The cross street is Chain of Lakes Drive, which also had a lot of motor vehicle traffic on it. |
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| He'd just made a stab at what I assume was a gopher, but missed. |
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| He had to take cover in the tall grass a couple of times when the humanity became too much. |
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| He was determined to catch some lunch though. When he folded up a leg to settle in for perhaps a long wait for something to poke its head out of a hole, I decided it was time to get home to feed the cat and get some lunch of my own. |
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