Walking in Byxbee Park on Sunday
As I mentioned already this past weekend was a mostly stay-at-home weekend. I hate just being a homebody, though, so we mixed it up with having a friend over on Sunday- and going on an easy hike together. "Easy" was the speed because Hawk is still recovering from foot surgery a few weeks ago.
We picked Byxbee Park in Palo Alto for an easy hike. Byxbee is local spot we've visited at least a few times a year recently. The views it offers across the southern end of the San Francisco Bay aren't super awesome, particularly as the park is built atop covered landfill, though they are still bay views. And it's interesting how wilderness-y feeling it gets here on the edge of high tech-y Palo Alto. Plus, the park has a network of trails that make it easy to stitch together a shorter or longer trek. We chose a meandering route over the top of the hill and back around the sloughs that added up to almost 3 miles. Along the way we saw a few white pelicans and a red-tail hawk.
Here's a slough view with a white pelican in the foreground. Yes, the pelican is the big bird. You can see how it towers over the ducks in the water. White pelicans have a 9' wingspan. Yes, they're huge. And I was fascinated to see not just one but 3 or 4 on our walk as I don't think I've seen white pelicans before in this area. Brown pelicans, yes, but not white. From a distance I thought the first one I saw was a great heron. Then I saw the pelican's scoop-like beak.
Another interesting bird appeared as we rounded the last corner to the home stretch of our hike. We spotted a red-tail hawk perching atop a wood post.
As we approached the bird from behind we weren't sure what type of hawk it was. Once even partway around the bend we could see its features and colors, and it was obvious it's a red-tail hawk. Some other hikers who'd stopped to look were wondering if maybe it's a Cooper's hawk or a sharp-shin falcon.
I explained that size alone could rule out either of those species. The hawk was perched only about 10' above the ground, so we could make out its size fairly well. The brown and white checkered pattern across the bird's underside is typical of a red-tail, as are the darker brown color across its back and on its head. It's probably a juvenile as it doesn't yet have the characteristic red tail; the tail feathers come in red at about age 2 years. The shape and color of the beak (gray) also indicate for this being a red-tail.
It was cool that the bird was patient with a bunch of us hairless apes gawking at it from 25' away. Wild animals all have a threat radius at which they'll flee potential danger. Predators like hawks may have a smaller threat radius. Plus, this hawk is a flyer and was already perched 10' off the ground, so it was probably less afraid for that reason, too.
BTW, I made this close-up picture with my new iPhone. The iPhone 16 Pro has a 3 lens/camera system. One of them is a 5x telephoto (120mm equivalent) with a 12MP imager. That's what I used for this photo.
I'm pleased with how this photo turned out. It's vastly better than I was able to capture with the single lens on my iPhone SE 3rd gen. It's the kind of result I was looking for as I reconsider how often to carry around my dedicated interchangeable lens camera. Would I have gotten a better picture with my dedicated camera and my "bird shooter" telephoto lens? Yes. Was the iPhone in my pocket way easier to carry than that dedicate camera with my "bird shooter" telephone lens? Also Yes.
We picked Byxbee Park in Palo Alto for an easy hike. Byxbee is local spot we've visited at least a few times a year recently. The views it offers across the southern end of the San Francisco Bay aren't super awesome, particularly as the park is built atop covered landfill, though they are still bay views. And it's interesting how wilderness-y feeling it gets here on the edge of high tech-y Palo Alto. Plus, the park has a network of trails that make it easy to stitch together a shorter or longer trek. We chose a meandering route over the top of the hill and back around the sloughs that added up to almost 3 miles. Along the way we saw a few white pelicans and a red-tail hawk.
Here's a slough view with a white pelican in the foreground. Yes, the pelican is the big bird. You can see how it towers over the ducks in the water. White pelicans have a 9' wingspan. Yes, they're huge. And I was fascinated to see not just one but 3 or 4 on our walk as I don't think I've seen white pelicans before in this area. Brown pelicans, yes, but not white. From a distance I thought the first one I saw was a great heron. Then I saw the pelican's scoop-like beak.
Another interesting bird appeared as we rounded the last corner to the home stretch of our hike. We spotted a red-tail hawk perching atop a wood post.
As we approached the bird from behind we weren't sure what type of hawk it was. Once even partway around the bend we could see its features and colors, and it was obvious it's a red-tail hawk. Some other hikers who'd stopped to look were wondering if maybe it's a Cooper's hawk or a sharp-shin falcon.
I explained that size alone could rule out either of those species. The hawk was perched only about 10' above the ground, so we could make out its size fairly well. The brown and white checkered pattern across the bird's underside is typical of a red-tail, as are the darker brown color across its back and on its head. It's probably a juvenile as it doesn't yet have the characteristic red tail; the tail feathers come in red at about age 2 years. The shape and color of the beak (gray) also indicate for this being a red-tail.
It was cool that the bird was patient with a bunch of us hairless apes gawking at it from 25' away. Wild animals all have a threat radius at which they'll flee potential danger. Predators like hawks may have a smaller threat radius. Plus, this hawk is a flyer and was already perched 10' off the ground, so it was probably less afraid for that reason, too.
BTW, I made this close-up picture with my new iPhone. The iPhone 16 Pro has a 3 lens/camera system. One of them is a 5x telephoto (120mm equivalent) with a 12MP imager. That's what I used for this photo.
I'm pleased with how this photo turned out. It's vastly better than I was able to capture with the single lens on my iPhone SE 3rd gen. It's the kind of result I was looking for as I reconsider how often to carry around my dedicated interchangeable lens camera. Would I have gotten a better picture with my dedicated camera and my "bird shooter" telephoto lens? Yes. Was the iPhone in my pocket way easier to carry than that dedicate camera with my "bird shooter" telephone lens? Also Yes.