Praire falcon プレリー隼

With no job yet and school only on Tuesdays and Thursdays we took advantage of some free time on Wednesday and went down to a National Park called "Garden of the Gods" near Colorado Springs.

仕事はまだなくって，学校は火，木だけなので暇を使って近くの国立公園“神の庭”に出かけました。

The above picture is at the visitors center near the entrance of the park. The red rock ridge sticking up in the back ground is called "Kissing Camels". If you look closely you can see why:

上の写真入れ口だけど後ろの岩は“キシングラクダ”と言います。なぜかというと良く見たらなんとなく分かると思う。

Anyway, we headed over toward these 'kissing camels' to take a short hike through the heart of the park. As we got to the trail head I noticed this sign:

とにかくその近くにハイキングの道があったからそこに向かいました。ハイキングの所に着いたらこの知らせがありました：

I don't know if you can read the letters in red that I've highlighted but it says that the formation is closed to rock climbing from February to August due to nesting Praire falcons. "Cool!" I thought and I started looking closer at the cliffs hoping to spot one even though it is September...Just then I hear "kyaaa kya kya kya", the distict voice of a praire falcon!! Now I was really excited. I remembered I had binoculars in the car so I ran back and grabbed them. As soon as I got back to the the sign I could hear the falcon again. I'm guessing it was a juvenile, recently fledged and still trying to beg food off it's parents. And then, there it was, gliding near the cliff edge screaming away!

赤で書いてる字では，“２月から８月までプレリー隼の巣のために岩登りは禁止”と書いていました。“プレリーだ！”と思って９月だけどがきに目を傾いた。その時“キャーキャキャキャ”というプレリーの声が聞こえてきました。車に望遠鏡があったので車に走り戻って取って来ました。

My wife thought it was hilarious because I was pointing and yelling, "Look there she is, do you see her? Do you see her?!" What can I say, I was excited. And then she landed on the cliffs and I got a really good view of her with the binoculars. Unfortunately our camera isn't as good as the binoculars. As you can see, she was a ways away:

戻ったら飛んでいる姿が見えました。そしてがきに降りてくれました！あんまりいいカメラではないので良く見えないけど写真を撮りました。やっぱり遠い！

Here he is using digital zoom AND photoshop to sharpen the image...still not the greatest pic:

ディジカメのズームを使ってここまで見えるけどまだまだ綺麗ではない。

I could've spent the rest of the day watching her but the wife said there was hiking to be done so I finally had to put the binoculars away and go hiking. When we came back an hour later though she took off from the ledge she had been on and circled the kissing camels once before settling back on the cliff. I really wish I had a better camera!

私ならずーと見たかったけど奥さんはハイキングしたいと言ったので望遠鏡を固唾けってハイキングに行きました。しかし一時間後戻ってきたらまだ飛んでくれて別のところに降りました。まだまだ遠い！いいカメラを持っていたらいいな！

And again with the digital zoom and photoshop:

またディジカメのズーム：

The pics don't do her justice. She was a pretty bird!

このカメラでは良く見えないけどすごく綺麗でした！