Yes, I admit I was having fun at Buffalo’s expense. I was very briefly in California with perfect (lucky!) timing to avoid the March snow
Heading south into the Santa Monica Mountains R.A., on the Pacific Coast Highway
storm in WNY, and having finished my work at 2:30pm I hurried back to my hotel, swapped my suit for jeans and a T-shirt and headed south from Ventura down the Pacific Coast Highway, also known simply as “Route 1”.
Looking southwards on the PCH, near Mugu Peak
Retrospective of the previous photograph
I was on my way to the beautiful hill roads in the Santa Monica mountains — an area I have been lucky enough to get to know quite well over the past few years — but it would take a better man than me to simply drive down “the PCH” without stopping to admire the views!
Two California Ground Squirrels. (The eye of the well-camouflaged and shaded, second animal is up and to the left from the eye of the front one.)
At one of my stops, I found and photographed a couple of California Ground Squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi), an interesting but skittish creature that lives in a communal burrow, but each of which allegedly has its own private entrance tunnel.
Name that bird! It doesn’t seem to be a female towhee and it’s bill is to slender for it to be other species I can think of. Does anyone know what it is, please?
Nearby, I saw and photographed a small bird, in scrub, but for the life of me I can’t find anything quite like it in Sibley or my other bird books. The nearest thing I can think of is a female towhee, but that doesn’t fit, either. Can anyone help me out with the I/D, please?
Around 5:40pm, I reached Decker Canyon Road and headed off up one of my favourite hill roads in that area. (All of them are enjoyable but they are narrow so great care has to be taken on the many blind curves, in case someone is coming the other way.) By that time of evening, the temperature was still in the mid-70s….. a little different to ‘back home’ in Buffalo!
The first proper ‘hairpin’ up Decker Canyon Road from the PCH. Further up the hill, the road follows the line of utility poles that are visible higher on the right-hand side of the photo.