Urban Wildlife

I realize that we live in basically an urban environment here in Long Beach, and I've posted before about our "Lonely Harvest" and the wasps that live in a tiny nest in the rafters of our balcony.

But, in addition to the wasps, I've been noticing our critter neighbors who struggle making a life in the immediate vicinity around our place.

There is a squirrel that teases Tuxedo and some of the other neighborhood cats. It'll stay up high in the trees and squawk down at them, taunting and screeching. It's amusing, but hard to photograph.

Another thing that's hard to photograph is the bee-hive that's on top of our apartment, but here's an attempt:

You can almost see them buzzing around the opening of the drainpipe. I think that's pretty close to their hive's opening.

There's also a murder of crows that have laid claim to this section of downtown Long Beach. They roll through on what I suppose are their rounds every few days and make a racket while silencing all the other birds. Sometimes in the mornings one will perch right on the top of the post centered in the picture below. That post is pretty close to our bedroom window, and the crow that perches there will make all sorts of noise.

That's when I stick my head through the blinds and squawk back at it, getting its attention. Eventually I scare it away, but it hesitates like the proper upper echelon predatory bird that it is around here.

Earlier today something had the crows worked up. That something? A hawk chilling on the sidewalk, paying them no mind. It took off before a picture could be had, but the crows didn't seem to take too kindly to that incursion.

Hawks, crows, bees, wasps, squirrels and cats...it's a regular nature show around here if you know where to look.

Exhaust Trail Shadows?

Seriously, check it out, the view from out balcony the other day, which was also the day of the Super Bowl:

The jet's exhaust or vapor trail is casting a shadow on the high cumulus clouds, making it look like a ceiling. Um...how exactly...is it me? Does this look cheesy fake to anybody else? How is that line of sight created? That vapor must be in front of some kind of screen made of clouds or the shadow cast at this angle appears flat against cloud surface that's irregularly distant.

It was closer to dusk than noon, and this is facing west, perpendicular to our beach, which faces south.

That picture can be disorienting. Here's the angle that it looked when you first see it with your own eyes:

Here's a super close up, just a tiny bit grainy, but the shadow looks good:

Weird sometimes.

Like, okay, look at the above picture. What do we see? Four wires, hazy clouds over a blueish sky, jet exhaust and shadow, and palm fronds.

Palm trees sneak up all the time in photos down here.