It’s another beautiful day in paradise. It’s seventy degrees and sunny; I am sitting outside at the desk in our yard, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, watching the dogs run around like little monsters.

So far, no more plumbing leaks. We have yet to fix the hole in our wall and are living in a partial construction zone. Still, I can’t complain. This morning for work I covered an event called “Hawk Watch,” which is held every weekend in January and February. I figure if I keep pitching wildlife-related stories that they’ll start to get the hint that wildlife is what I want to write about! So far, so good.

Not much new has happened since our plumbing issues but I wanted to share some photos I took from today’s event. It was pretty neat.

The location of the event overlooks the grasslands area, which is one place we have regularly gone hiking with the dogs.

Things are getting nice and green around here with all the rain we’ve been having — and it looks beautiful.

There were a couple of speakers from the Wildlife Research Institute who gave presentations about raptors. I learned some very interesting stuff.

They also had three licensed falconers who brought in a variety of birds for us to see up close.

I have always wanted to see an American Kestrel in person. I think they are beautiful. I was really excited about this one! They are the smallest species of falcon.

The birds below are Harris’s Hawks, which are the only social hawks in the world.

The last bird is a peregrine falcon, which I learned can fly up to 240mph.

It has been a pretty cool day so far. I met some very interesting people and ran into a few people who recognized me from other events. I just wanted to share some photos from today and wish everyone a happy Saturday!