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Showing posts from July, 2011

Three Rivers Rocks

http://www.threeriversrocks.com/2011/07/slicky.html

Nature Impinges: Surprise ©2011

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In Memory of Mr. Richard Burns, Extraordinary Mentor I grab the new digital camera and head off on the walk. Mr. Burns, retired Forest Service Ranger,  usually walks with me to the Catfish Farm, a private estate, to share the varied bird life and his knowledge of plants and other critters that live around Three Rivers. This day, though, I start out alone, to play with my new toy. I follow a Domesticated Duck as it waddles toward a pond, taking pictures as we move along. Digital is so forgiving. If you do not like a shot the delete gets rid of it and you move on to the next one. It is great fun to experiment and since Mr. DD is so cooperative and used to having people close, I am able to learn about the camera. I feel movement cross over my head and to the left. Since I have the camera up to my eye I turn and follow the sound. A Great Blue Heron lands into the pond. Click. Click. Click. No thought. I record the Heron’s movements as it hunts the fish in the pond. Mr. Burns appear...

Nature Impinges: Predator Preys ©2011

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Noise outside the studio attracts my attention. I grab the camera. On the back hillside, behind the buildings, are seven deer grazing on the slips of new grasses. Males, just 1 year old, lock their new horns with spring fuzz on them. The two tussle back and forth, play and practice for the serious future when it is time to fight over the females. The three eat, and enjoy the sunny day . Something is caught in my peripheral vision. A Great Blue Heron lands on the hillside, not ten yards from the deer. It is not concerned that I am below, clicking away with camera. Heron is stalking across the hillside, away from the deer, moving in slow motion. Suddenly, it stops, head bent low, waiting. Pounce. Up, the head lifts. Dangling from the beak, a gopher. The Heron throws the critter up into the air and it falls into the open beak below. One swallow and it is gone. The stalking begins again, this time the bird returns across the hill toward the deer, who by now settle at the edge of m...

Nature Impinges: Egret Flying ©2011

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We park the vehicle at the entrance to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the end of Skyline Drive, Three Rivers. 8 year-old Drake, and 6 year-old Annie, run through the gate, taking only a minute to figure out the tricky latch system. “Whoa,” says Mother. “If you find a gate closed, what are you supposed to do?” “Close it,” says Annie. “But Mama, you and Dad and Granny have to come through,” says Drake. True. And we do. We used to take the main trail, more like a road a jeep might use. The BLM folks maintain it and display signs that we are really walking through private property on our way to BLM land. This is an access road and we are warned to stay on it. But as you walk along you see side trails, made by cattle, then warn by dirt bicycles, deer, horses, other wild critters and hikers, with and without dogs. The main road takes 30 or more minutes to wind up and over, around and down, to the ponds. A metal plank, balanced between granite, secure enough for bikes, crosses ...