Hacked

This is not about computer problems, but of things I've seen in my neighborhood park recently. A year ago, we went in to lockdown and this park was pretty much my world for a couple of months. The last photo I took before lockdown was on March 11th and the next photo I took while out on a walk was March 22nd. It was shortly after that date that I started noticing the birds and butterflies in my neighborhood and got out my big camera and started documenting them. This particular park was where a goodly amount of my shots were taken.

In the past week or so, "gardeners" came through and pruned the trees in the park. Please not I put gardeners in quotes, because in my opinion, they did a hack job and I believe the city is just paying them one and done for this job. It's rather obvious that the trees in this park don't get pruned on a regular basis, based upon how they were pruned this time. If you look closely, you can actually see the rubber band that was used when this tree was younger to hold it to the stake. No one was watching and maintaining this tree during the early years and the branch grew around the rubber band. Now that's a week spot on the tree and it's probably a good thing that the branch was cut because it probably would have broken later on. I get it with the trees as the city's tax dollars only stretch so far and this is probably a cheaper fix than to high a full time gardener for each park. So let's just pay someone to trim back the trees every five years or so. What worries me about this is how much is this going to affect the bird habitat that has been established over the past couple of years? 

On my walks recently, I've been able to pick out the calls of the spotted towhees, a bird that I got several good shots of last year, so they're still around. The scrub jays are here as you can always recognize their calls as well. What I haven't noticed yet is the return of the Western bluebird or the Northern Mockingjay. Of course, if my first photo after lockdown was taken until March 22nd, then there's still time for them to come back. This particular shot of a Western bluebird was taken on May 11th. I just hope the habitat they were enjoying this past year wasn't so totally disrupted that they don't come back. I guess time will tell on that one.

Trust me when I write that I will continue to document the birds in the neighborhood as they make their returns from parts unknown.

I Spy with my Eye

I got a grace period on writing this blog entry since P.J. posted his photo challenge for the month of February a little bit late this month. I'd checked it out and I had taken enough photos last month to get something together, so here goes. Last month's challenge was, I Spy with my Eye, a pretty broad theme, so just about anything goes.

1. Sunset

While I can't control what the power companies hang in the back yard easement, I can enjoy a beautiful sunset. I was standing in the kitchen looking to the east thinking, what the heck is that glow outside? I decided to check out the view to the west and was greeted with this. I called to everyone in the house to get out and check this out and then took a couple of shots. Should have taken the shot first, then called to everyone, but it still turned out nice even though it was already fading by the time I took the shot.

2. Covid Hair

Most of my friends are well aware that I've been growing my hair out since the pandemic started, not because I thought I'd start a different look, but more that I didn't feel like walking into a place with lots of other people while a disease was possibly about. More than likely, I'll get my hair cut once I've received my vaccinations, but until then, my hair continues to grow. This shot was taken on my birthday last month, 4 days after I'd passed one year without getting my haircut. Once I'd started embracing a short hair look, I figured my "long hair" days were gone and never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the longest my hair would ever be would be after I turned 63.

3. You Make Me Happy

For those of you following along, one of the pleasures I've gotten this past year is viewing some of the artwork of talented people and the randomness of finding painted rocks out and about. I spotted this rock along a loop trail in the wilderness park north of my house while I was out cleaning up the trail. In reality, I probably should have picked this one up, but decided to leave it for others to enjoy. I also knew that eventually, it would disappear and I was correct. The next time I hiked that particular section of trail, the rock was gone, either picked up by rangers who would have considered it trash, or by another collector of painted rocks. 

4. Strengthening mind and body

This shot was taken on one of the many trails in the foothills north of my house. I love to hike on these trails just to clear my thoughts, get in shape and think about possible spots where I could hide a new geocache. Right down that fire road to the right about 200 feet or so is an old geocache, hidden by another person, that I found many moons ago, so I can't hide anything here, but that's not the point. I got out, got some good exercise and had a great view. And for those of you who are curious, the mountain on the right is the taller of the two peaks. Cucamonga Peak tops out at slightly over 8,800 feet above sea level.

5. It's too early

This photo was taken on February 23rd. It's the middle of winter, for crying out loud, and snakes should not be out and about at this time. But as climate change happens, we can expect to see this more and more unless we wake up and realize that there are things we can do to mitigate what could be a global crisis. I guess this is also a public service announcement, especially for people who live in Southern California, that you should always be careful when you're out on a hike or looking for geocaches, since we know these creatures could be active at any time. This gopher snake is pretty harmless, but I've seen rattlesnakes out and about this winter too.

And there you have it, my take on the theme I Spy with my Eye for P.J.'s photo challenge for this month. Click on the link to see his and other people's interpretation of this month's theme.