The beautiful colors of autumn along the trail this morning. The air was crisp, and cool as I started my hike in darkness and perfect solitude, but now and then there would be a “crack!”, and rustling in the branches as another leaf fell to the ground to line the trail with a carpet of fallen leaves. For over an hour these were the only sounds I heard.
Fall is at peak in the mountains where I hike. Already many trees are bare. Winter is fast on Autumn’s heels.
I had the pleasure of hiking with the “Wednesday Hiking Group” today. I haven’t hiked with them in a really long time due to work. Today I didn’t have work scheduled so I met them.
The group split into two groups at 3.25miles. The Rabbits took a shorter route that would loop them back and give them a 6.5mile hike, and the Big Dogs continued on to complete a 10.85mile hike.
There were 5 Big Dogs, and I’m happy to say I was one of them. On the way back we took the Bayview Trail for a bit and there beside it was some wild Foxglove. I’ve never seen it in the wild before. It was a lovely surprise.
Foxglove Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac
Foxglove’
Foxglove Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac
A little later we saw some pretty Pacific Pea.
Pacific Pea Photography by Deborah M. Zajac
The fog hung thick in the Santa Cruz Mountain Range today, and several times we got rained on. It was definitely the place to hike on hot sunny day in the valley.
It was great seeing some old friends, and meeting new people today. I hope it’s not long before I can hike with the group again. There was another neat surprise during this hike I’ll share soon!
I’ve made my Hike Stats public if you’d like to see them, and the route map go here.
The Bistro 4 gallery has been updated with more great photographs by members of The Bistro. A Nikon users group in the flickr community.
Like this marvelous photograph titled “Eyes of a Predator” by Jesse Cox
Photograph by Jesse Cox. ( Used with Permission)
To view all the 2011 Bistro Galleries go here: At the front page just scroll down the page to see the Galleries. I’m curating through July 10th. Come back again!
Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved. Fawn
Descending Vista Point one morning I rounded a bend in the trail and stopped dead in my tracks. There 25ft away was this little fawn (see photo above). It’s mother was on the other side of the trail in the trees waiting for the fawn to cross the trail. Startled by hikers coming up the trail it had stopped then I happened along. It looked at me and headed in the opposite direction of its mother. Then timidly it crept up to this tree and watched me and its mother. It’s mother was not happy; she pranced and paced back and forth with worry. I wasn’t sure what I should do…wait and hope the mother crossed, or the fawn crossed, or just move on. I took a few quick photos. We hikers looked at each other wondering what would happen next then the Mother bounded up the hill the wrong way! Then the fawn sped down the hill into the bushes the wrong way! I continued down the mountain all the while hoping they’d reunite.
An anxious Doe!
Photography By Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I hiked a lot of miles in June. My elevation gained totals are incredible. The total floored me again when I added it up. I took a lot of neat wildlife and flower photographs while hiking in this park during the month of June, but these two photos are my favorites.
Just seven more weeks until the big hike to Yosemite’s Cloud’s Rest. I still am on track for successfully completing that hike.
*6/2/2011- 8.15 miles, 2,170ft, 3h10m PG&E trail out & back
6/7/2011- 10 miles, 2,549 ft, 4h 33m Rhus Ridge to Black Mt Trail out & Back
6/10-12/2011- about 11 miles, at various parks and site around Sonoma Coastal area. Many parks were closed due to budget cuts so we had to drive to other locations to do any hiking.
6/16/2011- 8.15miles, 1,962ft, 3h 5m, PG&E out & back to Vista Point
These birds make me smile! They have such a friendly face, but their walk is awkward…. and….stilted. Probably because they’re trying not to disturb the water as they hunt for food.
“The Black-necked Stilt forages by probing and gleaning primarily in mudflats and lakeshores, but also in very shallow waters near shores; it seeks out a range of aquatic invertebrates – mainly crustaceans and other arthropods, and mollusks – and small fish, tadpoles and very rarely plant seeds. Its mainstay food varies according to availability; inland birds usually feed mainly on aquatic insects and their larvae, while coastal populations mostly eat other aquatic invertebrates. For feeding areas they prefer coastal estuaries, salt ponds, lakeshores, alkali flats and even flooded fields. For roosting and resting needs, this bird selects alkali flats (even flooded ones), lake shores, and islands surrounded by shallow water.” ~ Wikipedia
For this shoot I met photographer, and friend Marianne Bush out at Radio Road which is part of Redwood Shores Reserves. After we shot around the lagoon for a while we walked over to a channel that feeds the lagoon where Marianne had spied a Bufflehead while we were driving in. An aquatic bird in the Sea Duck family that has been on my list for sometime. The Bufflehead was no longer there, but we did see this little duck below. Both Marianne and I were very excited because neither one of us had seen this bird before. Marianne being the much more experienced birder had an idea of what breed it might be. When we left we were both anxious to get into our bird books to see if we could identify it.
Marianne was able to ID it faster than I did. She wrote to tell me we had seen a Blue Winged Teal! Very uncommon on the West Coast. You can image how thrilled we both were. A month later looking at this photo I can still feel that thrill of excitement one gets when seeing a new species for the first time.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f4 @ f5.6| 1/800 sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| On a Tripod
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