Fall Farewell at Toro Park

November 2, 2011


Today is the last day of Indian Summer.
The offshore flow will cease this evening.
Fall’s first showers are expected tomorrow.

Bah! Humbug!

The pastures of Toro Park are home to new calves and their robust, grass fed mothers. The blonde calf, my favorite, is a little girl. Her larger, stockier, black playmate is a boy. They briefly venture from their mothers, awkwardly running a few feet, intermittently testing their legs, their independence and their watchful mothers’ patience.

The lone blue heron, usually found at the nearby pond, stands, out of place, amongst the cattle, sharing their cool spot in the shade of the sprawling oaks.

The Indian Summer air is so still you can hear the footsteps of the dainty quail as they rustle through dry oak leaf mulch trails.

Acorns pop and drop from the sturdy oak branches.

The red headed woodpeckers are in the midst of their annual acorn harvest and storage. The trunks of the stately centenarian sycamores are a studded mosaic of round niches stuffed with acorns. The woodpeckers have hammered acorns into nearly every square inch of the knarly tree trunks. The birds are so efficient that, try as I may, I cannot pry even one acorn out of its hole.

In the midst of blue jay and woodpecker chatter, the red tailed hawk perches alone at the very top of the sycamore, and calls out across the little valley.








This is an excerpt from Where the Red Tailed Hawk Flies: Seasons Along the Central Coast

Copyright © 2011 by Red Tailed Hawk Publishing/All rights reserved.

Visit Gabriella at www.wheretheredtailedhawkflies.com