{"id":2755,"date":"2020-10-07T17:42:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T17:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/?p=2755"},"modified":"2020-10-07T17:42:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T17:42:06","slug":"my-morning-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/?p=2755","title":{"rendered":"My Morning Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s just a 5 to 10 minute walk from my house down to the Bear Creek Greenway. I kind of consider the stretch from Suncrest north which loops around behind the rest area then reconnects to parallel the freeway my personal walking path. I have put in a lot of miles there in all seasons, worn out a few pairs of walking shoes, learned my local birds, and taken countless photographs.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I decided to take the walk again and assess the damage. It wasn’t until I got back home that I decided to do a before and after comparison. Some of the before pictures were taken during my Lensbaby project so they may appear out of focus but were intentionally that way for artistic purposes.<\/p>\n

So first up, as I turned off Suncrest onto the Greenway I would see some old barns with a patchwork of rusty tin roofing.  The barns did not survive.  If you look closely you can see the white plastic bucket hanging on a fencepost in both photos. In fairness, the blackberries in the before picture had already been removed before the Almeda fire struck. Along this stretch of the path I often saw Tree Swallows, Black Phoebes, and Acorn Woodpeckers who stored their acorns in one of the poles seen in the before picture. The pole burned but is still standing. I don’t know if they can eat roasted acorns. I did spot one woodpecker shopping for a new home in the remains of the poplar stand that lines this pasture on the Suncrest side.<\/p>\n

\"BarnsBefore\"<\/p>\n

\"BarnsAfter\"<\/p>\n

Next up is my favorite oak tree. I have photographed it many times from near and far. I have also had the property owners come after me a couple of times only to decide I was probably harmless. Sadly, their home was lost in the fire. I hope the tree survives, it doesn’t look too badly damaged<\/p>\n

\"OakBefore\"<\/p>\n

\"OakAfter\"<\/p>\n

After crossing the bridge over the irrigation canal I would enter a densely vegetated stretch lined with blackberry bushes. Here I most often saw spotted towhees and the odd Robin.<\/p>\n

\"ForestBefore\"<\/p>\n

\"ForestAfter\"<\/p>\n

At the end of the forested stretch is a broad meadow. Here I often saw lesser goldfinches and there was one tree where in spring there would always be a hummingbird surveying the area. Acorn Woodpeckers also frequented this stretch and once in awhile a Scrub Jay made an appearance.<\/p>\n

\"MeadowBefore\"<\/p>\n

\"MeadowAfter\"<\/p>\n

At then end of the meadow is mile marker 14 and here I entered another stretch of forest where I often saw more Spotted Towhees, Robins, and Scrub Jays. Once in a great while a bevy of California Quail would skitter out of the undergrowth. These next photos show the trees at the edge of the forest where there was also a large expanse of blackberries. Hawks could often be seen resting in the tall trees. And it was just between the blackberries and the trees that I always found the best California poppies to photograph.<\/p>\n

\"TreesBefore\"<\/p>\n

\"TreesAfter\"<\/p>\n

Sometimes I turned around at milepost 14 and sometimes I went on to the freeway. On the way back there was one place where you could just get a glimpse down the creek through the underbrush. Here if I was very lucky, I might spot a Great Blue Heron or a Belted Kingfisher.<\/p>\n

\"BearCreekBefore\"<\/p>\n

\"BearCreekAfter\"<\/p>\n

I suspect come spring that this area will be alive with new life. It will never be quite the same but I hope I will again be able to count up to 20 species of birds on my morning walks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s just a 5 to 10 minute walk from my house down to the Bear Creek Greenway. I kind of consider the stretch from Suncrest north which loops around behind the rest area then reconnects to parallel the freeway my personal walking path. I have put in a lot of miles there in all seasons, … Continue reading My Morning Walk<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-almeda-fire"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2760,"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeannehoadley.com\/Photo15\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}