Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk, originally uploaded by ☼ zampi ☼.

I stumbled on this guy just before Christmas. In fact, Dickie saw him first. He was more interested in locating his lunch than bothering with us. He flew from pole to pole around us and back again which gave me numerous opportunities to photograph him. A neighbor came by and told us that he and his mate were often perched on those poles and, in fact, even on the fence posts where he had been able to approach him within ten feet or less. Suffice it to say, we'll be back there!☼ zampi ☼

CHRISTMAS 2009

I caught Santa coming out of the local grade school parking lot this morning. I guess he had been visiting with the kindergarten and first graders. I hope he still has time to get his work done. He looked pretty happy, so he must still be on schedule.

Dickie and I decided not to put up a Christmas tree this year. We’ll just go with this wreath in front of the house and a few decorations inside. I guess I’m getting lazier in my old age (if that’s possible). We do wish everyone a happy holiday season!

We enjoyed a great Christmas concert presented by the Chanticleer chorus from the San Francisco area the other night at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Petaluma. Chanticleer is an amazing all-male group that sings a capella. They’re a definite delight to the ear and the acoustics in St. Vincent's are divine (Isn’t that appropriate?). You can find out more about them if you follow this URL: http://chanticleer.org/sing/ . Some years ago we heard them when they visited Freehold, NJ, and we were vacationing in South Jersey. We also heard them this past summer when they gave a benefit concert in Armstrong (redwood) State Park . You might draw the conclusion that we like them a lot – and we do. I think you will, too, if you ever get the chance to hear them.

The weather hasn’t been all that great for my photography efforts lately, although today wasn’t bad. I managed to get this shot of a mockingbird perched on a chain-link fence.

Dickie collected some pear tree leaves and held them on the top of a fence post for me to take this shot earlier today. I photo-shopped her hand out of the picture which turned out decently, I think. Most trees have lost their leaves at this point, so the pear trees are the prettiest trees around just now, their leaves having turned beautiful shades of red and yellow:

We still have roses blooming in the neighborhood. Here are a couple of our own yellow roses blooming on a Julia Child rose bush at our front door:

We’re still stalking hawks whenever possible. Here’s a recent shot I got of a red-tail that was quite high and far away, but the auto-focus was right on:

The starlings had their usual convention this fall, I guess. We caught some of them resting temporarily in this tree as they made their way south. They’re quite a sight when they fly by, wheeling and whirling in great clouds at this time of year:

That’s about it for the first decade of the 21st century, not the best decade we’ve ever been through as a nation. Let’s hope the new decade is a better one!