Torrey Pines Reflections

Journal Writing Assignment #2, Part 2

Christina Nowacki — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:59:51 +0000

Write sentences using the lists of nouns,adjectives, verbs & adverbs:

Tiffany is singing loudly as I try to concentrate on choosing pictures for my Spring calendar.

My teen son will never read a homework assignment carefully so his grades in school are rarely above a C.

The stimulating music inspires the group to begin dancing happily.

Crafting an Effective Writer: Journal Writing Assignment 2

Christina Nowacki — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:14:59 +0000

More parts of speech – verbs and adverbs observed as I sit at work

Verbs:

Singing
Dancing
Talk
write
read
is (surprised)
are
concentrate
listening
feels

Adverbs:

Always
slowly
loudly
happily
never
mostly
rarely
eagerly
hopefully
carefully

Crafting an Effective Writer: Journal Writing Assignment 1

Christina Nowacki — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:41:32 +0000

Pardon me while I highjack this blog for my writing course. It’s easier than setting up another whole site

Assignment #1 – A list of 5-10 nouns and adjectives observed during my lunch hour at work:

Nouns

Laptop
iPhone
Calendar
Pictures
Tiffany
Music
Author
Son
Football
Chair

Adjectives

Loud
Pink
Vibrant
Stimulating
Brave
Cold
Annoying
Teen
Spring
Creative

American Kestrel in flight

Christina Nowacki — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 03:08:45 +0000

This is a treat! I was browsing photos from my son’s spring passing league football game from the photographer who volunteers to take sideline shots. In between the various sweaty teenage boys were these two shots of my most favorite bird ever!

The American Kestrel is the bird that first caught my eye and got me studying first these little powerhouse birds of prey, but then all the other lovely feathered beauties. The Kestrel is not only an awesome hunting falcon, but it is truly one of the more gorgeous birds you will see.

Thank you Anna Scipione for spotting this beauty and pausing to take a couple of magnificent shots of him!

The slate blue on the top of the head means this is a male kestrel

So sleek and gorgeous! He’s only about a foot long from beak to tail tip.

Black Headed Grosbeak – New backyard visitor!

Christina Nowacki — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:07:18 +0000

A bit of a lucky break yesterday afternoon – while sitting for a quick snack as I waited for my son to finish homework before we went out for the evening, I happened to look up and see a brand new visitor to the backyard feeder:

Focus on the larger bird on the platform vs the white crowned sparrow on the gravel. It’s a female black headed grosbeak. You can see how much bigger she is than the resident sparrows and clearly see her yellow-orange shadings on her breast and head. Here is a better photo of one that I found on the web:

I only had my Iphone near me and I did the best I could leaning across the table and pulling the zoom as much as it will go to snap the photos. Thankfully she was there long enough for me to at least get that, but of course Amber noticed MY interest in the yard and ambled over to check it out and promptly scared it (damn cats!)

Still – a very cool new siting. And yes, the white crowned sparrows are still dominating the yard. Their song is all I hear most of the time. I feel like this is later into the Spring than we usually see them in these quantities, but I could be wrong.

Also – hey – hi – I didn’t forget this space, we just haven’t been terribly focused on hiking or bird watching for awhile. I think this will always be a rather random site for updates!

Torrey Pines Jan 2012

Christina Nowacki — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:27:05 +0000

The slideshow below is from a rather late afternoon hike at the trails of Torrey Pines with friends of min who were visiting from Wisconsin. I’ve talked and blogged about this place so much that now out of town visitors request outings here Of course I am happy to share especially since it got me out there for the first time in months AND with my new camera. The lighting variations depending on time of year and time of day up there are so wonderful. Some of these shots look more like paintings than photos. Enjoy!

Click to view slideshow.

Song sparrow

Christina Nowacki — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:08:40 +0000

Snagged from You Tube, this is what I hear through my open windows every morning recently. It is also the first bird I see very morning at the backyard feeder as I eat breakfast – the bird was named very aptly:

San Diego River run

Christina Nowacki — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:23:02 +0000

My older son has classes this summer on Thursdays from 5-7 over near the river so I decided to take advantage and go for a 4.5 mile run/walk. I had to stay focused on the running for 3 miles before allowing myself to look for birds. Right at that 3 mile mark, a Little Blue Heron showed up at the waters edge. Further down near my car was a Great Blue Heron to provide some size contrast. Photos were taken with my iPhone using it’s minimal zoom so they are fuzzy:

Little Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

You never know what you will see when watering your yard

Christina Nowacki — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 23:28:25 +0000

The title is my disclaimer up front that the two photos were not taken by me! My camera was inside the house charging in preparation for an upcoming trip. My phone was also inside. I merely stepped outside to water before heading out for a run this morning and I was greeted first my the unusual calls of both birds, and then rather brilliantly with close encounters with each. The first was the rather striking head of a Townsend’s Warbler:

He was checking out the peach tree while I was watering the plants in the other corner of the yard but I was able to get quite close to him to see all of his gorgeous markings. After he flew off, I went over to the peach tree to water it and heard a woodpecker calling fairly close by. I figured it was in the dense branches of the pine trees behind my neighbors house so I didn’t really look for it. Then I see something larger than the usual finch or sparrow bouncing around in the bottle-brush right behind the peach tree. As I stepped forward to look closer, he came right into clear view – a Nuttal’s Woodpecker with it’s distinctive all striped back and red crown on top:

Beautiful!

Next time, I’m carrying the camera around my neck just in case. Which will most likely be followed by a post titled “wet cameras don’t take good pictures!”

Who got your tail?

Christina Nowacki — Sun, 29 May 2011 16:37:11 +0000

California (Brown) Towhees are occasional visitors to my backyard. They particularly enjoy the corn. Normally, they look like this:

As a size comparison, they are slightly bigger/bulkier than a House Sparrow or House Finch and have, as you can see, a rather long tail.

Normally anyway. Then his guy showed up in my yard this week:

Something seems to be missing here

The shape reminds me of a baby chicken

He seems perfectly fine. I've seen him over several days now and he hops around and flies off as easily as the others

I do wonder though – how did he lose all of his tail feathers so completely without any further injury? Do Towhee’s have a lizard like capability to abandon their tails and then grow them back?

I guess we’ll see!

On another birding note – I went for a run last weekend on the trails. Yes, a run. Meaning no camera to slow me down. Which was unfortunate since the birds were literally posing everywhere I went! In fact, I added a new bird to my Life List (which I actually need to put together again perhaps on an added page here?). Anyhow, I *may* have seen this bird before but couldn’t specifically identify it. As I said though, birds were just flat out posing and if I’d HAD my camera, I’d have a gorgeous photo but instead I have to steal one from the web:

Rufous Crowned Sparrow - the one I saw stood on a fence post & pretty much looked at me like this

The Rufous (birding ID for Brick colored) crown was very prominent

I think I need to get back out there with my camera