Chris' Random Thoughts

Today I went out to Calero Resevoir, to the stables and trails on the back side of the park. It was a bit warm, and all the high weeds are now turning into VERY dry tinder -- which the wild turkeys have stomped down nicely, and the horses have eaten all that they can reach. I saw a pair of golden eagles (also could have been immature bald eagles) circling back in the hills, but they were too far away to get a good picture. I still took several shots to identify them when I get a chance.

Just a little ways up the trail from the parking lot and horse pens is a small pond that is used by the local animals. The pond has fish in it, and I frequently see herons or egrets in there fishing. Today the pond was a bit low, but there were a lot of dragonflies circling the pond and every few minutes you'd hear the slap of a fish jumping up to catch some of the bugs. I spent a while watching the dragonflies, trying to figure out if there was a pattern to where or when they land. Sure enough, there is. They fly for only a minute or two between landings, and they prefer to land in the same spot each time. Over a period of twenty minutes, one accomidating dragonfly would land for a few seconds, take off again, circle or chase other dragonflies, and come back to the same spot on the same piece of grass about every 2 minutes. And by standing pretty still, he didn't mind me getting relatively close to his landing spot.



As usual for Calero, ground squirrels were everywhere. I don't see how the horses don't get hurt on all the tunnels in their pastures. Now, ground squirrels are sorta like prarie dogs -- they like to live in groups, and they usually have a few of them out on watch. When something threatening appears, the watch squirrels will bark out a warning, and all the foraging squirrels run back to the tunnels as quick as they can. But most of the ground squirrel's bark is in the ultrasonic (too high pitched for humans to hear). What you do hear is a sort of chirp and echos. It's really not the sort of sound you'd expect from a squirrel. The watchmen will get on top of rocks, fence posts and tree limbs, or just stand up so they can see farther. This little guy was apparently on watch, and kept a close eye on me as I walked past.



I followed a group of wild turkeys over to the creek, but never got a good picture of them. But on the opposite side of the creek were 2 deer eating away quite happily. They kept an eye on me from time to time, but didn't really seem to mind my presence that much.



While I was watching the deer, a blurred shape flew by. It then slowed down and dove on something near the creek edge. A hawk had just scored lunch! Sadly, the hawk is much faster than my camera's focusing motors. So all I have are several blurry pictures where you can just identify the hawk and see that he is carrying something. Darn.

Not long after that, I saw a perigrine falcon hovering above the hill across the creek. Too far away for a good picture, but I got some decent identification shots. The falcon flew off toward a large tree on the hill, and I was surprised by what I saw in the tree. A great egret was sitting low in the tree (sorta normal), but at the top of the tree was something I couldn't identify. It had the shape and size of a hawk, and had some gray on it's wings - but it was almost completely white. And it wasn't a kite (the bird, not the toy). I took some pictures to try and identify it later. And when I got home, I found that the bird's eyes were solid red. This could be an albino hawk. But I need to spend some more time with bird identification books and see if it's an immature form, or a known alternate color for a bird. Whatever it is, it looked weird.

I continued down the creek to the levee at the end of the resevoir. I normally find some egrets or herons fishing there. Not today - it was occupied by a lot of geese and a few ducks. But I did find another dragonfly, and again he returned to the same spot repeatedly.



As I was heading back to the parking lot, I saw a turkey vulture drop a dead squirrel on the road after being scared by a passing car. The vulture circuled a few times, but didn't seem to like me or something else near his dropped meal. I backed off and waited, but he didn't return. After a few minutes, a crow and a bluejay decided that the squirrel carcas was fair game and moved in on it. I'll spare you the pictures.