Today during my morning run/hike/walk I saw a baby Cottontail Rabbit - I don't recall the last time I have seen a baby rabbit - been a long time! And I also saw a Nighthawk - I haven't seen one of these birds in years and I didn't even know they were at Dreamy Draw - as many times as I've been out there, I've never seen one before. It apparently had a nest near one of the more obscure trails in the park, as I approached it the bird flew off and landed nearby and then tried to draw my attention to it and away from its nest. I didn't look for the nest as I was afraid to disturb it to the point that the bird might abandon the nest. When I returned on the trail about 30 minutes later, the bird did the same thing again - pretty cool! I regularly see Doves and Cactus Wrens nesting out there, but this is the first time I've ever seen a Nighthawk there, let alone one nesting, and I've been going out to Dreamy Draw since 2003, and going out there weekly since 2007...
And last Sunday I saw a small (possibly juvenile) rattlesnake - very dark brown colored. It was in the brush near the main concrete cycling path as I was walking along. I had to move away from the side of the cycling path to avoid it, and it still turned back to face me with rattle going! It was warning me...I like some species of snakes like California King Snake or grass snakes, but I'm not a fan of rattlesnakes - just too aggressive and dangerous! This is only the 3rd rattlesnake sighting I've had in what I estimate to be about 300 trips to this park - so pretty rare sighting, only about 1% of the time. And I've seen one species of grass snake before, a few weeks ago, near the picnic area.
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