Birds, Birds, Birds

A late December walk at Point Lobos left us with some bright images to take home in our mind's eye. While gazing at China Cove we noticed something soaring over, and when we got the binocs on it, found it was a peregrine falcon. We just had time to admire its distinctive markings and its powerful flight before it headed off north and out of sight. Then, on the South Plateau Trail, a sharp call swivelled our heads around, and there it was, on a Monterey pine: a hairy woodpecker, hammering a promising branch with its large bill. And later, on the Pine Ridge Trail, in the quiet of a still winter afternoon, we spied a...

hermit thrush fifty feet ahead, from time to time turning its lovely speckled breast, lit by the slanting sunlight, in our direction.