Symmetry

Pics of Woodpeckers and Blue Heron from Hart Park in Bakersfield...I was there visiting my sister and her children and grandchildren....she saw the Woodpeckers first...and much thanks...I took a half dozen pics of the Woodpeckers...and in review, this one really stands out!...there's a Lake of sorts in the Park...which straddles the Kern River...and lots of birds...I've seen post ups on the web of all the different species found in the Park....in the heat, we were only there for an hour or so...before going off to an ac movie!... pulling into the movie's parking lot, I spied big wings on the out side of the chain fence along the top of the sloped embankment covered with the typical landscaping above the freeway...ground cover and bushy trees....I was like my dog going after a rabbit...walking along the fence with the new camera at the ready...twice Hawk moved among the Trees...then off into the sky over the parking lot...and the lamps...very cool...earlier at the Park I'd seen Hawk carrying off a frog...and several other times...but couldn't get a good pic...well, the one up is cool in its way!....Duckling clip from the Park....this morning I shuttled over to the Post Office....Sandy's very nice pic of the little Blond Bear sleeping on a Pine branch came...with arms full, I hopped off the Shuttle at Lower Falls...and out to the Two Ponderosas to check for the Owls...no luck...and the mosquitoes cut short a short walk!...several Bear reports....Mama with three cubs!...and a report of Cardinal and Woodchuck...but that from a vacationer to New Jersey!...from my family, I often get reports of the Wildlife along the Kern River going through Bakersfield...there were like six big Blue Heron nests...with Herons...in a Eucalyptus out on an island in the Lake...and a flock of Canada Geese eager for bread handed out....so it's much different from the Valley, where the critters are much harder to find...but when found have their jewel like setting...I cant be in two, or three!, places at once, but if I could, I would do Fauna Flora blogs of urban Rivers like the Kern, or the Santa Ana, or San Gabriel...or the one by Oceanside with the Mission..that I cant recall at moment...it was my intention a long time ago, to do an everyday for a year study of the Santa Ana...the Cement River...but it became a 'sometime' project...talking of this at work I heard tell that they are thinking of restoring the San Gabriel...brb...well..this search brings up a lot: san gabriel river restoration....brb...San Luis Rey...the River I couldn't remember...brb...here's one about the LA River...http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/contest-audubon-guide-to-animals-of-the-la-river/

And this from an intrepid blogger who bike rode the section of the Santa Ana I often did...and yes it does stink...but so does the Creek...and for much the same reason!...us!...anyway...the Santa Ana would be a challenge to study, but at some ancient time it may have been the loveliest off all California Rivers for wildlife...brb...oh..link to above..http://walknrollnoc.blogspot.com/2009/02/santa-ana-river-trail.html..
now..go look for Portola...brb...
quote
The expedition followed practically the route which afterwards became the Camino Real. Its fourth jornada (day's journey) brought it to thepretty valley where later was established the mission of San Luis Rey.They called it San Juan Capistrano, but that name was afterwards transferred to a mission forty miles north of this place. The command rested here, July 19th. Resuming the march on the 20th, the sierra (San Onofre), whose base they were skirting, drew so near the sea that it seemed to threaten their advance, but by keeping close to the shore,they held their way, and on the 24th they encamped on a fine stream of water running through a mesa at the foot of a sierra, whence looking across the sea, they could descry Santa Catalina Island. This was San Juan Capistrano, and here they rested on the 25th. On the 28th they reached the Santa Ana river, near the present town of that name; a violent shock of earthquake which they experienced caused them to name the river Jesus de los Temblores[19].
http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/etext04/7marc10.htm
The March of Portola...
unquote
and more...about the Earthquake..which gives one pause!...
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/4113

brb...well...it's late...what I was trying to find was the several volume diary of Portola's journey that I found once on the shelves of my hometown library...the books I dont think had ever been opened, and the shelves were in the sunlight coming through tall windows, and the books going to heck...but it's fine story, how they travel from San Diego north to San Francisco....and there was a passage about the Santa Ana River...maybe it was the earthquake that lodged in my head!

sunny blue this morning in the Valley...with an afternoon thunderstorm...not so big as the one yesterday evening when I was out on the Central Valley highway!!

wiki's take on the Santa Ana..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana_River

oh!..and here there is a guide to the Santa Ana:
http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Ana-River-Guide-Californias/dp/0899974112
and Flora
http://www.amazon.com/Flora-Santa-Ana-River-Environs/dp/1597140503/ref=pd_sim_b_1

enough..going to town made me homesick....