Hawk Across The Road

On the way to Breakfast, heard Squirrel piping in the Backyard...wasn't sure which...Grey Squirrel or Chickaree, so went to looksee, and saw Hawk, Cedar, fly from the Bike Path Trees to an Alder right by the Rooms across the Road...same Alder I took pics of Coop and Martin in two years ago!...crossed the Road, and took manymany pics....tourists walking by, but Cedar unperturbed....took a seat on a boulder beside the Walkway, and waited and watched...Cedar looking about and listening to Piping Squirrel....thought to get a flight pic....predictably, some more tourists came by and Cedar took off.....I have to figure out how to get flight pics!!...shutter sounded quick, and shutter speed 250 is kinda quick, but not quick enough....flight pics blurry...must be a way I can preset the shutter speed...there are a lot of the new camera's features I haven't delved into...anyway, Cedar flew over the Rooms Roof and I lost sight...after Breakfast, paddled over to the Post Office, and sighted Hawk, Coop, in the Oak Grove....one farfar away blurry flight pic...(kind of a reverse of two days ago, when I had clear clip of Coop, and blurry pics and clip of Cedar!)...sighted Coop go Tree to Tree four times, but Coop just too far away...Shuttled back from the Village, and when I hopped off the Shuttle, think I sighted Cooper's Hawk, flying fast and trailing some Ravens...but not sure...looked about, but no luck...sunny hazy clouds warm...report of tinytiny Hawk on fence wire along the Road in the Foothills...reporter in car....warm day brought out the Acorn Woodpeckers and Little Birds....

Hawk on Oak Branch

Clip up is from yesterday....Paddled over to the Post Office...Shuttled back to Camp 4 stop....hopped off and out to Two Top Pine Meadow...sat awhile on the Split Fence....thought I heard Bear in the Scorched Forest...went over to looksee, but quiet....continued over to Camp 4 and along the Rocky Slope...heard Pileated Woodpecker, but couldn't locate...and back to the Cabin...reallyreally quiet everywhereabout!!!....sunny hazy blue and cool...report of Hawk at Happy Isles flying with prey in claws...Vole of Gopher maybe....and Coyotes howling in Owl Woods tonight...took only one pic today...Grey Squirrel by the crosswalk to Lower Falls...saw Chickaree scooting across the Road to the Cabin...and the Deer Mouseys escaped...tomorrow the Catch'm Alive trap gets set....

Link of the Day: (list of movies with the Valley in them)

http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?1,12266,12323

Mama Doe And Two Fawns

Slept in!....past noon when I stepped outside, and heard Hawk over by Last Chance...geared up...and dressed!..in a hurry....and got to Chance just in time to see Hawk fly low over the Roof...followed over to the North Road...sighted Hawk flying high to a perch on top a tall Pine...farfar away pic and clip for sometime...looks to be Cedar....looked down, and Hawk was gone when I looked up....after croissant, milk and coffee, paddled over to the Post Office...plastic storage boxes came...'mice cans'....Shuttled back and dropped them off at the Cabin...geared up with everything, and made the Big Loop counterclockwise...quiet....while going over Chapel Bridge, asked by friend with photog group if I'd seen Hawk...related the earlier sighting, and they'd seen Hawk too...reached the Path intersection, one way to Lower Falls, one way to Sentinel Bridge...and sighted Hawk flying through Flicker Grove to the Oak Grove...went thataway...lost sight, and was on the Oak Grove Path and sighted Hawk across the Road on an Oak by the Elm...set the digi up, and got a clip!...Coop!...for sometime...Coop flew up the Oak Row...crossed the Road and followed, and one more sighting, but no clip or pic....pursuit took me to the Village, and almost there I remembered I'd forgotten my daypack on the Path in the Oaks...hurried back, and tourists returned it to me...much thanks!...they thought it was kids school pack...which it is after a fashion!!...back to the Village: hot dog, chips and crangrape drink...sat awhile at the picnic table talkabout and heard some tall tales...one a report of Peregrines at Washington Column...picked up, and back to Bobcat Meadow and the Big Loop clockwise...quiet...finished with loop through Owl Woods...quiet too...oh!!...on trip to the Post Office, when I hopped off the Shuttle, sighted Mama Doe and Two Fawns...pic and second clip up....first clip is from last year...up loaded by accident, but it goes with today's....sunny blueblue and cool...friend at dinner related they once had friend, who with their wife, did extensive study of Peregrines all up and down California...and sadly the husband lost his life in a flying accident in one of those propeller powered parachutes.....took time during the uploads to repack the cardboard box's contents into the plastic boxes....opened one cardboard box, and the Deer Mouseys, two, were snoozing...sealed it up, took it out to the Bus....and tomorrow in daylight will relocate the Deer Mouseys!....friend at the Village related their story of his mousey roomies in Boy's Town tent...used traps to relocate his to Mouse Heaven...

Flight of Fancy

Paddled over to the Post Office...paddled back through the Oak Grove to Lower Falls, and over Chapel Bridge on the Big Loop...quiet...pic of Downy Woodpecker at Chapel Bridge...well, the walk was quiet except for talkabout with friend that came along for the walk...sadly, they have eyesight handicap, and cant see small things at distance, or even the Rainbows on the Falls...but they get along okay at work and are a video game fan...anyway, the Ken Burns PBS National Parks documentary movie was a subject...I missed the broadcasts, though I think they can be seen at PBS web site....and now the dvds are for sale hereabout...some people when watching sports are very calm, others very animated, and I was taken aback when the subject of Hetch Hetchy came up in the talkabout...my friend became very animated!...not having seen the documentary, I can only guess, but I'm guessing that the building of Hetch Hetchy dam was portrayed as a dastardly deed...as it often is....I'm not so sure it's dasterdly...and mull it over often...and it's become what I call a 'thoughtHobby'....my thoughtHobbies are collections of lore about one thing or another that has struck my fancy...dont know but Fauna and Flora is a thoughtHobby that has happened to find visible expression through the cameras , computer, and web!!

Another thoughtHobby of mine is ornithopters....I've collected a lot of lore about early flight inventions...ornithopters were the first guess about how to make an aircraft...and Santos Dumont is a kinda hero of mine!...anyway...in keeping with thinking about things that fly, the other day the fancy popped into my head of a rocket propelled parachute!...I've 'floated' the idea past a few friends, with the usual initial incredulous scoffing responses...which I dont take too serious if I have to explain what an ornithopter is!...but anyway, I've bounced about the web with searches the last few nights looking to 'fill' out the fancy, and see if it has 'wings'....and it may!

A misconception I've had about bird flight I think has been perpetuated by those who explain that the Wright Brothers designed their aircraft's wings after the shape of of bird's wings, and this was the breakthrough idea that made airplanes...the curved top, and flat bottom of a wing creates a pressure difference between top and bottom as air passes over -- and that makes 'lift'....

and this is true of birds when they glide and fly level...but in taking the pics and clips, I've become aware of what a marvel birds wings are for myself!...bird wings do more than just glide!...anyway, here's a link to wiki's history of flying inventions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_flying_machine

Since I was a kid, some really neat new model flying things have come along....one, called a 'stringless wonder' is a bit like my parachute notion...imagine here a rubber band propeller , which is a long stick with a stretched and wound rubber band connected to a propeller, under a parachute....if a toymodel shop were nearby, I'd get the parts to try and make one!...

here's link to the 'stringless wonder':

http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3081309

very cool

and tonight, in doing another search, on the google list was something called a 'propeller powered parachute'...so I put that in the search box, and..wala...now, I've seen these, but it didn't click what the possibilities these new flying things have...others have, and the monitoring of wildlife in difficult to get to places is one of them...and too, they are terrific platforms to take pics from...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_parachute

veryvery cool...

unfortunately, the propeller powered parachutes look to be too fragile to fly in rough weather, though in calm they are said to safer than fixed wing aircraft, but one wonders what a large scaled up version could do!!

sunny blueblue and cold...

the one hobby store in Merced that I know of, by the mall, has gone out of business, but tomorrow I may take a trip to town!

"Rockets work by 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, dont they?"

"Yes."

"And that's what powers them to space, but f one turns the rocket around, and with a parachute above it to catch the exhaust gasses and wind the gasses make, will the whole caboodle go up...or down?"

"Like lifting one with ones own bootstraps....well, it would go up....I think!"

"Ah!...if it works, that's what I'll call it...'Bootstrap'!"

quote

To which application the system is most efficient at ?....In every condition that require quality air photography from a height of several dozen meters and in a radius of till 1 km. Using the system will supply an immediate answer to: locating trapped people after natural disaster such as flood and earthquake searching for missing people in the desert and problematic locations for flight and foot search, archeological research, examining animals and birds, damage reports, supervising and guarding over agriculture fields, supervising over nature reserve and safari.

http://www.paralightaviation.com/site/detail/detail/detailDetail.asp?detail_id=1015551

unquote

veryveryvery cool

Oh!...in looking about tonight, I recalled the science fiction book 'Footfall' which has a rocket idea in it, one a bit bigger than I had in mind, but it is derived from a true life rocket design called Project Orion (I just watched again Men in Black last nite!)...this design used a feature called a 'pusher plate' to catch explosions, in much the same fashion as my fancy to use a parachute to catch the exhausts and force of a rocket downside up!....here's link, kinda scary, to youTub clip:

Project Orion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Lxx2VAYi8

Rainbow Morning

Out and about early after early Breakfast...made the Big Loop counterclockwise...after crossing

Swinging Bridge, heard Coyote barking, I think, (kindof a low bark for Coyote), somewhere back at the Scorched Forest...thought to go back, but continued on...at the 25 Speed Limit sign, started to see the Rainbows on Upper Falls...this time of year, there are good views from the Chapel...oh...back at Ozone Beach saw the Mallards, and followed them along the Merced...paddled over Chapel Bridge...at Bobcat Meadow on the Boardwalk, at the Lilypads again, sighted Hawk, Coop, in the Cottonwoods, again....had only the 20x with and binocs...distant pic...and just when I set foot on the Snow, crunch!, on Lilypad Bridge, Hawk took off to Sentinel Bridge, and from there out the Road to the Village...I followed...but no luck...but sighted another Rainbow pic, and thanks to Coop!....caught the Shuttle in the Village and went over to Siberia...thought to buy new boots...but couldn't find ones I wanted...but did buy mittens...Shuttled back to the Post Office...and paddled back through the Oak Grove to the Cabin...walkabout quietquiet for the most part...just Coop and Mallards for major sightings....sunny blueblue and 32 degrees cold....curled up for nap, and still cold when I woke up...not just the weather..me too!...report of Red Tail Hawk sighting at the Deer House from the Shuttle yesterday...Rainbow time around nine...lots of photogs about, sorta strung out all along the walk....seeing them, I felt a bit like Grey Squirrel watching other Grey Squirrels trying to find hidden acorns!

no pics today

Paddled back to Creek's End..just a little time...sat awhile at Owl Log....Ouzel about...and Mallard, female, came flying low from the Creek and around and down the Merced to Half Stump and beyond...quiet otherwise...picked up and made the little loop through the Woods...quiet too...overcast sunshiny, coolwarm...did hear Blue Jays here and there....Blue Jays talking a lot...pic from Winter, 2007...or 2006..

New Year's Day Hawk

Late Breakfast...cheerios, milk, croissant...and coffee...at the Cabin, geared up with everything, even though not much time for a walk, and made a circuit of Bobcat Meadow... just sat a long while at the Long Fallen Ponderosa in the Artist's Grove...and it was quietquiet...lots of tourists about...Mama Golden Retriever with Two Almost Grown Pups romping by Chapel Bridge...Snowball fight over by the Road...flights of the Snowballs kept snagging my peripheral vision...thought they were Birds...took note to my hiking friend while talking yesterday on the Bike Path, that I find myself scanning Trees and Forest and Meadow all the time, so habituated I've become to close observing, even when talking to folk...peripheral vision sensitivity is some ancient skill we all have that just doesn't get used much...'cept maybe on the basketball court...anyway...picked up, and with just a little time, crossed over Chapel Bridge...saw Big Wings flying low over the Path almost at the Road...hurried along, but without much hope, as several tourists were in the lead..no matter...Hawk flew all the way across Chapel Meadow to the Two Ponderosas....thought it was Cedar, but in review, see it was Coop...backtracked, and took farfar away pic with the new camera....went out the Use Path...but before I could get close, Coop went Cottonwood to Cottonwood, and then a long flight over the Merced to the Deer House...should have had the 20x at the ready..would have some nice flight clips...crossed back over the Bridge...and to the Deer House Oaks...no luck,...paddled out to the Road,...and just passed the Muir Redwood, saw Coop posed beautifully on a low Snag of a large Ponderosa....I really missed this pic...I had the digi bracket on the tripod, and I wanted to use the 20x...haven't got a clip lately, and wanted one...but in the time to remove the bracket, Coop flew Tree to Tree from Flicker Grove to the Oak Grove...was able to relocate Coop high atop a Black Oak...with leaves gone from the Trees, this is pretty easy this time of year.... took a handheld clip and pic right away....and had time to set up the digi...and got a clip...though marred by vignette...I've lost again the tightening bolts...presently using pipe cleaners and rubber bands...and the waterproof wouldn't nestle up to the eyepiece because the scope was tilted far back...Coop was almost overhead...and tourists walking and cars all beside!...but always fun to see Hawk....overcast...coolwarm...nights are cold enough to keep the remaining Snow crunchy...but lots of big bare spots now..yesterday, report of Owl in the morning hoo hooing....cant remember where...Granite Landing...or Siberia...somewhere over thereabout, where I haven't been much of late!