Photos: Lake Lagunita Hare (6-22-2011)

Photos: Jack Rabbit Returns
to Stanford's Lake Lagunita

Photographs at Lake Lagunita
Stanford University, June 22, 2011

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Preface: On Wednesday, June 22, 2011, a friend and I went to Lake Lagunita on the Stanford campus (8:40-9:04 pm). On our last visit here (May 27, 2011), we were treated by our fifth straight sighting of a snowy egret since April 1, 2011. When it took off in flight, I was lucky to photograph its lofty lightness six times. Because of hot weather the last three days (94^o temperature in Palo Alto), the few spots of water in the lake were gone. No sight of the egret anywhere as well as ducks and ducklings. We decided to walk to the area where two bush bunnies appeared ( 4-29-2011). Turning the bend by the Lake, my friend whispered "Look up there on the hill." Standing tall with long ears was the jack rabbit we had seen on August 20, 2010. On that day, the hare sat still for three minutes while I took photos of him. When proliferation of weeds in Lake Lagunita was cleaned up by tractors and bulldozers, the noise probably scared the hare away, so we have not seen him for ten months. So it was pure delight spotting him again. Unfortunately my camera was short on batteries, and before I clicked, he had ran away. After reloading fresh batteries, I caught him reappearing and dashing to a nearby parking lot. Then he stopped by a bush to rest. This allowed me to take a dozen more photos of him. Without water in Lake Lagunita, the snowy egret will not be back. But the return of the jack rabbit will make visits to the Lake worthwhile.