Ruddy Duck

After Breakfast, Shuttled over to the Village, and back to Lower Falls...paddled out to Bobcat Meadow...while nearing the Hummock Ponds, heard Redwing Blackbird over by the Elms...diverted, and tried for pics...Western Bluebirds about too...Mallards on the Ponds...not sure how many, reviewing pics (couldn't get close), I count from Nine to Eleven Mallards...and sounded like Mallards calling further out in the Meadow too, so maybe more Mallards...light rain, clouds moving along the Rims, warm....pics up from Bolsa Chica, Monday afternoon before last Monday--two Mondays ago!....I've got a backlog...anyway, I wasn't at Bolsa Chica long, but it was a welcome relief after the long roll...walked about a short while...saw where Terns nest...have some pics of other new birds...Ruddy Duck is new bird, for me!...I was once on an Audubon Walk a longlong time ago to the Bolsa Chica Bluffs...remember Monarch Butterflies, and Concrete Pillboxes....and that Birders were kinda cliquish, and that was the one Audubon walk!....it isn't like I didn't take an interest in wildlife when I lived in Orange County, but most of my pursuits were under water....but it is curious to me that I didn't pursue Hawks...used to hear Hawks overhead everyday at the MK....guess it was I just never saw Hawk up close, like hereabout...anyway...report from Twenty Hill Hollow: Bald Eagle, Burrowing Owls, and ten percent of the Hollow has been nibbled away by Almond Orchards....Hollow is on private property, and a puzzle how to visit now....oh...another puzzle is why, as a kid, I didn't explore Bolsa Chica....the Beach there isn't a popular surf spot, shore break waves, and the Sand has tar....and the tidal area was probably off limits because of oil drilling--I can remember rows of wooden derricks thereabout!