Random Sunday Scenes

I had today off; a Sunday off for me is a rarity. It was our first seriously chilly day - when I first set out around 8:30 it was about 28 degrees, and in the course of the day it never got out of the 40s. There was also a stiff breeze. All in all it wasn't the best day for catching too many birds oiut doing things (except for gulls).

And no surf to speak of, so no surfers. LOL!!! But I did run into a friend of mine and his son, both of whom are surfers. They were part of a group consisting of a bunch of their surfing friends, all out cleaning up litter along the shore by the Cliff Walk. So the surfers were out, they just weren't surfing.

Nothing much was going on in Ballard Park or on Gooseneck Cove, so I headed east on Ocean Drive toward the Cliff Walk. I found this Downy Woodpecker flitting around on a tree opposite Gooseberry Beach.

After hitting the Cliff Walk from the Bailey's Beach end, there still wasn't much that caught my photographic eye until I got to the mansion at the end of Ledge road (privately owned and divided into condos), where I saw these Starlings gathered on one of the chimneys. I thought they were pigeons when I took the picture; it wasn't until I got home and saw the shot on the computer that I realized what they really were!

Farther along the Cliff Walk we come to Mansion Row and the Chinese Tea House on the grounds of Marble House. The Cliff Walk passes under the Tea House via a tunnel. I often take pictures of the whole building, but today for some reason I focused on the roof ornaments.

 After this was when I bumped into my buddy Marty picking up litter along the shore, and then a little farther along I came across his son Justin. As you can probably tell from the pictures, it was a great day to be out, although we were all bundled up a bit!

After talking to Marty and Justin I noticed that the Cliff Walk was just a little too busy for my liking, so I headed off at Marine Ave. As usual, my eye was drawn to Carey Mansion, a Neo-Gothic beauty now owned by Salve Regina University. Today I noticed that the university really needs to do some serious maintenance on this gorgeous building. I took these shots of the turret and one of the gables, and a close-up of the big window on the turret. Isn't the plaster work around the window fantastic? But you can see how badly this place needs some TLC.

And that's what I saw on my hike today.