Cooper's hawk ~ 01/18/14 ~ Tidelands Park

Cooper's hawk

Accipiter cooperii 

I'd really like to be able to ID all the local hawks, but until I'm willing to carry around binoculars and/or a better, larger camera, my learning is slow going.  So, after much comparing of photos and finding this great Project FeederWatch page, I've concluded what I have here is a Cooper's hawk, not a sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus).  I focused on its capped (vs. hooded) head and tubular body shape.

sunrise ~ 01/17/14 ~ Monterey Harbor and Marina

Monterey Harbor & Marina
January 17, 2014

After giving Andy a ride to downtown early this morning, I did a quick stop at the Municipal Wharf.  This past week I noticed several fishing boats out on the water at night, and I was hoping to take pictures as they came in for the day.  I'm curious to know what they're catching.  They haven't used their big, bright squid lights, but by the full moon I can tell their boats are often surrounded by gulls.  I think I was too early today, as the fish market fellas were just arriving in their big trucks to prepare for loading and icing the catches.  In any case, I had the chance to watch the sunrise from a different perspective.  It was beautiful.  

As it happens in my blog reader, Shaina from Middle of Everywhere mentions the Belt of Venus.  Oho!  I never knew that pink glow that so often accompanies sunrises and sunsets has a name.  Cool!  I also want to mention that I've been seeing an awful lot of shooting stars (2-14 over the course of an hour and a half before sunrise) in the north skies since mid-December.  Has anyone else noticed this, too?

wordless Wednesday

cedar waxwing ~ 01/06/14 ~ Casa del Oro Garden

cedar waxwing

Bombycilla cedrorum

I love the look of waxwings.  They'd make a great model for an avian masked comic-book hero.  I've been keeping my eye out for them this winter and have spotted them 4 times since November.  It appears this group likes to sun themselves on a couple tall sycamore trees along the Casa del Oro Garden.  If you weren't paying attention to their chattery flock calls, they'd be easy to miss from a distance because they look a lot like dried leaves that haven't fallen off the tree.  I had to laugh when an Historic Garden League volunteer grumpily pointed out how much their seedy poop makes a mess on the sidewalk below, especially since I was just thrilled to be lucky enough to see them.  The flock is easily frightened to flight even with a horn honk.  It was somehow reassuring to read from several sources that cedar waxwings look a lot like starlings in flight, because that was my first thought when I saw them flow around in the air as a group.  I'm going to keep my eye on nearby toyon and pyracantha shrubs in the coming months.  The berries are plump and red but still untouched.  Maybe they're not ripe enough for the waxwings?