Round Valley Regional Park

A few weeks ago I took in Round Valley Regional Park in an attempt to see some golden eagles. Following my mis-identification of a nesting pair of red-tailed hawks as golden eagles, I decided to see if I could find some real eagles to photograph. Low Vasqueros reservoir has some trail closings, so those eagles would probably be  inaccessible. Round Valley State Park has had historic eagle sightings, and no current trail closures.

To spoil the plot early, I did not see any eagles. Lots of eagle food:


ground squirrels and rabbits, for instance.



But the trip wasn't a total wash. I managed to get some great photos for my Panoramio account. Have you checked that out yet, by the way? I have, right now, about 800 photos active in Google Earth. Here's a link to all my photos on the Panoramio map. It's a fun website, by the by.

Anyway, in the park I found an old stone building along Marsh Creek. I don't know anything about it yet, but when I have more details I'll go back and take more photos for another blog entry. In the interim, here are some photos of the stone house.


It was kind of warm that day, so I stopped to take this photo under a tree.


Some interesting deadwood by the house.


I could have done a better job of not blowing out the highlights on this shot. The stonework turned out nicely, though.


More really blown-out highlights.


It's worth noting that none of the shots on this page are high-dynamic-range images. It's possible to expose an image in a DSLR for a wide dynamic range without using multiple images and having software slap them all together. In fact, one of the reasons I chose my Pentax (an earlier model than but similar to this one) was because of the camera's range.



Lest you think, though, that all Round Valley has to offer is the stone house, here are a few other photos from the hike:




A California Aligator Lizard (Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata)


An old tractor with caterpillar treads


What I'm pretty sure is an American Goldfinch


I know there's a squirrel earlier, but this one wanted to play hide and seek with you.



This photo is just heartbreaking to me. It's a good angle, nice framing, and a good atmosphere, but the problems from the camera metering the images different make it a severely flawed finished product. I'll have to re-take it.