I got to the front side of the same young Coopers Hawk on Fiesta Island.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jXteF1

On Fiesta Island.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jX8Gfk

Mission Bay Sunset this evening. There was a weird fog that came and went and came again.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jVUL4h

Mission bay, to downtown San Diego, from Fiesta Island. Today is game I don’t know of the ALCS and the San Diego Padres are in the playoffs, so that small cigar shaped flying thing in the middle is a blimp. I love my drone. I have always wanted a four hundred foot tripod. 😉

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jViX8S

My little buddy on Fiesta Island. What a cutie-pie. I shot this on our way back to the car just moments before sunset. I had been practicing with my Drone.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jV6t5M

Fiesta Island. I have always wanted a giant tripod so that I could see over a few things. I do not have to go very high. Here, we are only 30 feet above ground level, but it is high enough to see over the grasses and brush and see Mission Bay and the Mission Bay bridge. I am going to love my drone.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jSKs6k

I have now had my drone for two days. This late evening I flew it for the first time. I flew it for, maybe 10 minutes? And I shot a picture of Calliope and I on Fiesta Island. … I als shot a 2 minute video. That I am not going to share, just because it really shows nothing.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jSEa63

USS Midway (CVB/CVA/CV-41) is an aircraft carrier, formerly of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class. Commissioned a week after the end of World War II, Midway was the largest ship in the world until 1955, as well as the first U.S. aircraft carrier too big to transit the Panama Canal. She operated for 47 years, during which time she saw action in the Vietnam War and served as the Persian Gulf flagship in 1991’s Operation Desert Storm. Decommissioned in 1992, she is now a museum ship at the USS Midway Museum, in San Diego, California, and is the only remaining inactive U.S. aircraft carrier that is not an Essex-class aircraft carrier.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jRfwkL

USS Midway (CVB/CVA/CV-41) is an aircraft carrier, formerly of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class. Commissioned a week after the end of World War II, Midway was the largest ship in the world until 1955, as well as the first U.S. aircraft carrier too big to transit the Panama Canal. She operated for 47 years, during which time she saw action in the Vietnam War and served as the Persian Gulf flagship in 1991’s Operation Desert Storm. Decommissioned in 1992, she is now a museum ship at the USS Midway Museum, in San Diego, California, and is the only remaining inactive U.S. aircraft carrier that is not an Essex-class aircraft carrier.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jRaQJm

I was watching the sunset that brought me mixed feelings. Currently, the trumplandia was dark with virus, bigotry, fascism. And yet, high in the sky, the soon to set sun glowed with the promise of another day a rewritten future, a better day, and a better world.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jR5Qn9

I found this little old lady dangeling from old spider webs along a wall. In her death, she is still beautiful. And I enjoy the detritus that has collected on her body.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jR8dks

This cute little rascal caused Calliope to yank me off my feet just like I was in a cartoon. … No squirrels were damaged, nor humans, nor dogs.

A friend said that she might have enjoyed seeing that. … So, I have come back and expanded on that event. Here is what I told her.

I think you might have enjoyed it quite a bit. And, there was an additional witness.

I was at the reflecting pool of the Botanical building in Balboa Park dressed in my black photographic uniform, with one of my cameras strapped to my body, with its strap looped through my arm and over my neck. The second camera was strapped tightly around the wrist of my right hand. Standing there, talking with a young man that had just sat on a bench next to where I was shooting. We were talking about photography.

Calliopes leash is a set of two leashes joined end to end to give her a little freedom to move around a little when we walk. The slack of most of the leash was wrapped around in my left hand to shorten her range and give me a little more control. But, my attention was not on Calliope and I had zero idea that the squirrel was even there.

She was sitting in front of me, at my feet, but things changed quickly. She moved very fast after that squirrel in a giant lunge at full speed. Snap! I felt the initial movement and instinctually tightened my arm to pull her back. But she is fast, and big, and the next thing I knew I was flying, suspended in the air like Superman. I was flying on my left side with my left arm outstretched, and my right arm cocked with its camera at my right side. While I was stretched out in the air, I consciously protected both cameras, also myself as I hit the ground fully across my entire body, twisting my hips a tiny amount to land on a little of my butt cushion instead of a bone. No damage was done to anything at all.

As I got up, the guy I was talking with said, “Wow! Did you ever play football? That was the most amazing fall I have ever seen.”

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jQksuF

Fell in love in Balboa Park.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jQmkxP

Tonight the sky is was super hazy from days old smoke that has floated in and out, making it seem like a filter in the sky.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jPXU6m

The wheels on the bus go round and round. … Fiesta Island, just before sunset.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jPXTRi

On Fiesta Island this evening. … Well, since it is now morning, this was yesterday evening.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jQ3kRF

A medium sized fly catcher on Fiesta Island, in the evening, hunting his late day snacks.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jQ3kxQ

Ocassionally, Calliope looks into the canyon and contemplates her place in the universe. Contemplation of ones place in the universe is something we should all do once in a while.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jPUGsS

23:32:29 PM PST Daylight Saving Time, 2020-10-02
The last few days, Mars has been very bright, and very red. It always amazes me at how bright Mars can be when we are on the same side of the sun.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jNKh37

I know it does not look like I am very close when I captured this image, but I am at 24mm on my full frame camera. I would say that I was withing 15 feet of the Red Tailed Hawk. If I had had my long lens on my camera, this woud be a head shot. 😉
I believe the crow, and his buddies had been harassing the hawk until I came by. Right after I shot this image, I tried to take another step forward to get a closer image, in my step and shoot process, but I was as close as I could get and spooked them. They all flew off in seperate directions.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jNL55t

The end of the season has come, and the fruits of a spring and summer of pollination and growth are behind. Now it is time to cast the seeds upon the wind.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jNFFCt

The season is upon us that the circle of life is visible in children. Here we are at a place where we can see a mother and some of her babies.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jMAWcN

The Starlight Bowl is an open air amphitheater located in Balboa Park. It was constructed for the 1935–1936 California Pacific International Exposition and seats 4,300. It was originally named the Ford Bowl because the automobile manufacturer sponsored outdoor concerts at the venue during the exposition by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the San Francisco Symphony, and other performers.[1]

Until 2011 Starlight Bowl was the outdoor home of the San Diego Civic Light Opera, also called Starlight Musical Theatre, which presented several Broadway musicals each summer. The Civic Light Opera company was founded in 1945. It was one of the oldest musical theatre companies in the United States.

The amphitheater sits almost directly under the landing path for San Diego International Airport. During musical performances the conductor had a set of lights that indicated the noise level from passing planes. When the noise reached a certain level the conductor signaled everyone to pause, and the musicians and performers froze in place until the plane passed.

The San Diego Civic Light Opera struggled financially in recent years and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 2012 there were no productions, and the company’s website was still live but was only advertising shows at other venues. As of 2016 the company’s email no longer works and its Facebook page has been removed. The unused Starlight Bowl theater is falling into disrepair and has been described as an "attractive nuisance".

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jLyxPJ

Sunset at the top of Mount Woodsen. It was a shortish 2.2 miles from my car to this peak, but it is also an elevation gain of 1184 feet. It took me a while to get up there. 😉

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jKTdoT

There are three peaks on the far horizon just to the right of center. The tallest peak, with the little higher peak, in Mount Laguna. The haze in the sky is the remnants of smoke from the recent fires.

See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2jKWMZx