Category Archives: photography|quirky

photography, photography|quirky, running, trails, trails|smmc open space

Overcoming Obstacles on the Trail

published
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Part of the fun of running trails is the challenge of overcoming obstacles that may block your progress. These can range from fallen trees and swollen streams, to rattlesnakes and rockslides — or as was the case yesterday on Lasky Mesa in Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve, the occasional stray truck.

The truck was part of a assemblage of vehicles associated with a production company. The Ahmanson Ranch area is favored for film production, and classics such as Gone with the Wind, They Died With Their Boots On, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Thundering Herd, and Duel in the Sun were filmed here. More recently, the bridge scene in Mission Impossible III was shot here.

nature, nature|clouds, nature|trees, photography, photography|landscape, photography|quirky

Sugar Pine & Clouds

published
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Sugar pine on Kratka Ridge, in the San Gabriel Mountains, near Los Angeles

After a nostalgic hike to the bottom of Switzer Falls, drove to Islip Saddle to check out the snow conditions. Clouds ahead of Sunday’s storm prompted a short run along Kratka Ridge to photograph some of the stunted sugar pines. Here’s the unaltered version of the title image.

nature, nature|botany, nature|wildflowers, photography, photography|quirky, photography|wildflowers

Shooting Star Seed Capsules

published
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Seed capsules of shooting star (Dodecatheon clevelandii ssp. patulum)

As we’ve seen this Winter, it is the norm for Southern California’s weather to be abnormal. Cool, wet weather in December was followed by weeks of warm, dry weather in January. It is hard to predict when it will be wet and when it will be dry. Especially if you are a plant.

This photograph of a shooting star (Dodecatheon clevelandii ssp. patulum) is from early February, when the weather was dry. Droplets of moisture can be seen clinging to the interior walls of the seed capsules. These climate moderated capsules helps ensure that the plant will produce viable seeds, even if an extended period of dry weather should occur after the plant blooms.

nature, photography, photography|quirky

Water Droplets on Coffee Fern

published
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Water droplets on the leaf segments of coffee fern (Pellaea andromedifolia).

More delicate than the finest holiday crystal, the leaf segments of this coffee fern (Pellaea andromedifolia) are covered in tiny spherical water droplets. The largest of these droplets is about the size of the head of a pin, the smallest perhaps the size of a grain of salt.

Initially green, coffee fern turns various shades of red, brown, or purple with age.

From a run in the Boney Mountain Wilderness in Pt. Mugu State Park on Saturday.

Some related posts: T-storms and Trail Work, Return to Hidden Pond

nature, nature|wildlife, photography, photography|black & white, photography|quirky

Hawk, Bobcat and Rabbit

first published & last updated
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Ka-ree… Ka-ree… Ka-ree…

I heard the angry cries at least a quarter-mile away. The screams were incessant. Running along the dirt road, I emerged from a grove of oaks and turned west — running down a short hill and then up another. Cresting the rise, I paused to search the parched terrain.

The Winter rain season had been the driest on record, and Summer heat was now oppressive, abusing the animals and desiccating the chaparral. A few clouds cluttered the sky, but they would bring no rain. The cries continued.

Ka-ree… Ka-ree… Ka-ree…

The screams seemed to be coming from a group of rocks and oak trees near the campground. I left the road and slowly walked through the brush in the direction of the shrill shrieks. As I approached, the intensity and urgency of the screams increased. Intimidated, I stopped.

KA-REE… KA-REE… KA-REE…

There was not only fury in those cries, but a warning.

To my left, something stirred. Slowly I turned and looked down. For a moment I just stared. Rabbit lay face-down against a rock, twitching. Up in the oak tree, Hawk continued his irate cries.


KA-REE… KA-REE… KA-REE…

Suddenly, there was motion to my right, and Bobcat bolted from the brush. Hawk swooped in pursuit. His broad tail flared and wings twisted one direction and then another, as he followed the abrupt zigs and zags of Bobcat through the rocks, up the hill, and out of view.


KA-REE… KA-REE… Ka-ree… ka-ree…

Afterward: This encounter occurred during a run at Sage Ranch Park in July of 2002. I continued my run, and when I returned about 30-40 minutes later, the rabbit was gone. The photographs were taken during the encounter.