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I'm not sure, Emma, but I really think that it has to do with precise environmental conditions. For instance: Where we live, it's on a hill where the landlord's house is about 150 ft. lower down the driveway than our house and I have seen the little cedar waxwings many times in the curly willow and toyon at his house but have never seen them around our house. At the bottom of the driveway (which is in the Alexander Valley), you can see blackbirds just about everywhere but they never come up as far as either his house or our house. Where we used to live in Sebastopol (about 50 miles away), I saw chickadees and white-crowned sparrows all the time but you won't find them anywhere around Cloverdale. The most plentiful raptor in Sebastopol is the red-shouldered hawk but, around here, it's the red-tailed hawk and you won't find any red-shouldered hawks at all. I think, like plants, the fauna restrict themselves to environments where the food they've come to rely upon is most plentiful and there's quite a bit of difference in what kinds of seeds, fruits, etc. one finds in abundance in the foggy, damp, colder lowlands closer to the coast than what one finds in the dryer, hotter, inland environments.
Reminds me so of my "Maury, Jr." (who brings me PRESENTS!) ;^D
Looks very much like "Chinese quince" (at least the bark does): Pseudo-cydonia.
There used to be so many of these in Santa Rosa when I was a kid. I hardly ever see them anymore, though...
LOL, Emma! I don't know... What WOULD they do with all the leftovers if they started preying on humans? They'd run out of ways to serve it. (Kinda like what happens with that 25 lb. turkey after Thanksgiving! LOL!)
What else can one say but "WOW!" ? Stupendous shot!
The horseshoes are so prehistoric looking... Sad that the oil spill ruined the habitat of so many unique and interesting creatures... So sad...
As a lover and constant observer of cats, I recognized the stance and the facial expression. (Maybe my love of felines has something to do with being born during the Native American zodiac sign of the "Cougar"? LOL!)
An amazing shot, Debbie, of a wonderfully unique creature! Bravo!