Home  Article List Wildlife sighting
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Written by Shirley
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The day before yesterday (Saturday, June 27, 2009) when I was in Whiting park, I saw a dead bird of the raptor variety. The body and head were missing, leaving the wings, lower legs and feet intact. I ran into Bryant (docent?) and showed it to him. It is just along the edge of the trailed named "Line Shack' in Whiting Ranch Park. I just spent an hour on websites trying to see good enough photos to be able to let you know which species it was. I don't think it was an owl - no feathers on the feet. The lower legs were covered in very tiny white 'feathers' (I'm not knowledgeable about terminology) The undersides of the wings were snowy white with an occasional black spot. The backsides of the wings were mostly golden brown, but with some darker, round patterns in a darker brown. Bryant thought that judging from the wings that it was a very large bird - each wing was about 15" straightened out. Sorry I can't be more specific about the species but perhaps it is still there and you can check it out.
On a more happy note, I saw many 'whiptail' lizards along the trail (Glen Ranch Road between El Toro Road and Saddleback Road.) They weren't this year's babies....could be a year old. I probably saw twenty of them within two minutes on that trail (on my horse). They're one of my favorites because unlike the 'swifts' that just run directly away from danger, the whiptails are more curious and only run far enough to get out from under foot. They even have sometimes run parallel to me, looking at me while I'm enjoying looking at them.
Happy Trails,
Shirley, Kadin and Jesus
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