Illegal Billboard on Corralitas Drive

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 7 2008. Technically this is an unpermitted billboard
at 2467 Corralitas Drive. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

If you have to resort to signs this large, perhaps it's time to drop the asking price. But then, this is one of the two new stucco boxes in a hole next to the freeway, highlighted earlier in Ugly Rooftop Watch and below.


Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 26, 2008. A view of the rooftop styling for 2467 and 2463 Corralitas Drive from the adjacent public staircase. The 2 Freeway is in the background. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Stolen Car Torched on the Red Car Property, Insurance Scam or July 3rd Ritual?

Photo: Diane Edwardson July 8, 2008. A car fire singed the Eucalyptus tree
with 20' high flames. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

July 3, 2008, around 2 A.M., a neighbor awoke to a loud explosion and fire on the Red Car Property between India and the Silver Lake Ave. staircase. A new white Mercedes was fully engulfed in flames. The neighbor immediately called 911 and the LAFD put out the fire before it could spread to other trees or homes. No homes or other private property were damaged. Thankfully, the brush clearance had been done a few months ago by Aztecs Fire Crew.

Perhaps it's just a 3rd of July ritual to torch a brand new car. The photo below from is last year.


Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 4, 2007. Brand new and stolen SUV torched on
July 3, 2007 under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud Ave.

In 18 years, I have never seen an such an incident the Red Car Property. Thieves usually torch stolen cars under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud Ave., where there are no homes nearby. Although, in the past few years, it does not happen too often. It comes in cycles. Our LAPD Senior Lead Officer, Al Polehonki suggests these are usually insurance scams. You can track reported crime in the neighborhood on crime maps on the LAPD website.

If you live adjacent to the Red Car Property and call 911 for fire or criminal activity, be aware that you may have to give directions to emergency services. While Fire Station 56 knows how to get there, they may not be the station responding to the call.

July 4th Fireworks from Corralitas

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 4, 2008

The most spectacular illegal fireworks show every year is on the LA River, best viewed from the surrounding hills. The ultimate year was 2001. Tons of illegal fireworks lasted well past midnight. The acrid stench of gunpowder in the air lasted for most of the following day. Last year, a few nights before the 4th, illegal fireworks set some Arundo donax on fire right around Newell Street in the LA River. Gentrification and the sliding economy has reduced the spectacle, but it's still a scary good show.

Be A Good Neighbor...

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 26, 2008. Red Car Canyon between Corralitas and Lake View Ave. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

...always pick up after your dogs.

Corralitas Wildlife Drama

Photo: Todd H., 2008

A few weeks ago, neighbors witnessed a red tail hawk land on a telephone pole and drop snake to the street below. Evidently, the snake got a good bite out of the hawk since it still has a mouthful of feathers in the photo above. One of the neighbors snapped this photo with his cell phone. If you look closely, there are feathers in the snake's mouth. Another neighbor and her son, who recognized it immediately as a gopher snake, rescued the snake and later released it in their yard, hoping it will take care of their gopher problem.

Gopher snakes are not poisonous and are common to California. In the neighborhood, I've seen them large as 6 feet . A gopher snake will imitate a rattlesnake by coiling up, hissing and shaking it's tail at you, often rattling dry grass with its tail to further its charade. If you encounter a snake giving you such threat behavior, you should not approach it. You may not hear the rattle on a rattlesnake, as the rattle is not very loud. There are occasional rattlesnake sightings at the south end of the Red Car Property near the slope going down to the 2 Freeway.

www.CaliforniaHerps.com has a good photo index and everything you ever wanted to know about native snakes and other reptiles.

Corralitas Coyotes: Big & Healthy

Photos: Diane Edwardson, June 6, 2008, 11:12 AM. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

This morning, while making the turn onto Rosebud Ave. from Allesandro, I was greeted by a healthy looking coyote searching for a good place to jump down from the 2 Freeway and head toward the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. Unfortunately, there was a bit too much traffic and a good 8-10 foot drop to the sidewalk below. So the coyote headed back into the brush on the freeway to search for a shorter jump.

I'm always amazed by the number of neighbors who have never seen coyotes. Our neighborhood has some of the largest and healthiest looking coyotes I've ever seen. Perhaps their more natural diet of rats and gophers is only supplemented by trash and pets since we have the open space of the Red Car Property and Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract in our neighborhood. This one appeared much larger than my 40 lb dog. He also looked friendlier than my dog. It was definitely not the fox.

I've seen more coyotes after 9 AM, when the commute traffic calms down, than at night. I've often seen and followed coyotes across Allesandro from the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract, cross under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud, where they either turn right from Rosebud to the Red Car Property, or go up the stairs on Corralitas, then down the hidden stairs on the other side of Corralitas, travel north on the Red Car Property, cross Fletcher at the Red Car Viaduct Footings and head toward Griffith Park via the Menlo Property on Riverside north of Fletcher. Our neighborhood has quite an urban wildlife corridor.

Learn more about coyotes on the City of Los Angeles Animal Services website. For a photos of a really healthy looking coyote in Wyoming, see The Daily Coyote.

Corralitas Wildlife Update

Since the dry brush was cleared a few weeks ago, the Corralitas fox has gone into hiding. Although it appears she is still coming and going from the same area where she used to nap at the edge of the green brush. There have been fox sightings late at night by three different neighbors on the street near the top of the hill and near the first hairpin turn on the way up Corralitas.

The hummingbird who raised a chick successfully off our driveway in April is back in the same nest with three eggs this time around.

There have been no sightings this year of the albino skunk who used to frequent the area around the first hairpin turn. He was a big skunk; very pale grey with white stripes.

For the past few weeks, a young red tail hawk has been hanging out near the decks of the log cabins, learning to fly and waiting for the parents to bring him rats. On windy afternoons you can see the hawk will flying between the eucalyptus trees on Corralitas to the 2 Freeway and Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. Crows and mockingbirds have been harassing the young hawk.

Corralitas Fox Update

Photos, left: Diane Edwardson, right: Gary Vlahakis, both taken May 1, 2008.
(Click on photos to enlarge)

The Corralitas fox is a creature of habit. We've watched the fox napping daily in the early morning and late afternoon into evening at the mouth of what appears to be a den on the lot below 2636 Corralitas Drive. When I shot the photo above left, I thought the fox might be dead. However, through binoculars I observed the fox having running dreams just like a dog - with all 4 feet running. A few minutes later the fox shifted positions and Gary caught the photo above right.

According to the Los Angeles Animal Services website, grey foxes are common to the foothills of Los Angeles. Considering our proximity to Griffith and Elysian Parks as well as the Los Angeles River, it's not too surprising that fox still survive in an older urban hillside neighborhood.

What is surprising is how often the fox is lounging around in the open. Perhaps the fox feels safe living out in the open because the neighbor with 4 big dogs and Mojo the cat, sold her house more than a year ago. Mojo hunted the hillside daily for mice, rats and gophers. The fox just moved into Mojo's niche in the food chain. We're hoping for a litter of little foxes soon.

BREAKING NEWS: Fox Sighted on Corralitas

Photo: April 25, 2008, Gary Vlahakis

While walking the dog around 5PM today, I noticed a strange looking cat walking through the lot below 2636 Corralitas. But it wasn't a cat, it's a grey fox. Its body is about a 10 to 12 inches long, with a long puffy tail, grey with red markings on its chest, small head and pointy ears: NOT a coyote. It may have a den in the brush in the middle of the hill. There's a trail that's been worn along the edge of the green bushes, which I saw her walking along, leading to what appears to be a den. I've heard scattered reports of foxes in the Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Neighborhood, but this is the first photo a neighbor snapped. A number of neighbors witnessed it this afternoon.

Update.

Feeding Time

Photos: April 25, 2008, George W. Jones
(Click on photos to enlarge.)


George got incredibly lucky today. While he was shooting photos of the hummingbird baby, the mother flew into frame to feed the baby.

Earlier photos:
April 21, 2008
April 18, 2008
April 17, 2008
April 7, 2008 - Hatchling
March 20, 2008 - Eggs

Adult Feathers at 20 Days

Photo: April 21, 2008, George W. Jones

Now twenty days old, the hummingbird baby is showing quite a few iridescent green feathers and exercising its wings regularly. Compare the photo above with the one taken on April 18.

Many thanks to my neighbor George for for taking such great close-up photos of the hummingbird!

Building Material Detail

Photo: April 17, 2008, George W. Jones. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

My neighbor George got an even better shot of the hummingbird in the nest. It seems the mother is reinforcing the nest with hair and bits of Kleenex. It also looks like the mother has taken nest material from the old nest on an adjacent branch as that nest has been getting smaller as the weeks go by. I've also seen her taking fluffy seeds from one of our succulents for padding. Compare the above photo with the original nest on March 20, 2008.

Feed Me!

Photos: April 17, 2008, Edwardson. 11-day old hummingbird.

Note on photo quality: The close-ups on the hummingbird nest are not so sharp since they were shot with a digital point & shoot camera, while I'm hanging off the side of my neighbor's driveway about 12 feet away from the nest, which is swaying in the wind. No flash was used. See original below.



Earlier photos:
April 2, 2008
March 20, 2008
March 10, 2008

April 1950: Snow in Silver Lake

Photo: April 1950, Smith. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

In 1950, a freak April snowstorm officially covered Los Angels with less than a half inch of snow. The photo above, shot from the backyard of 2647 Corralitas Drive in Silver Lake, suggests something closer to two inches. The local topography and weather patterns routinely double or triple the official precipitation measurement.

If you look closely, Riverside Place is closest row of homes to the backyard. The Red Car trolley tracks run through the middle of the photo, just above Riverside Place. Lake View Ave. is mostly undeveloped, except near the India St. Red Car stop (the clump of homes to the right, just above the tracks). The large power line tower atop the hill (on the left) is on Silver Ridge Ave.

Corralitas Dr. Ugly Rooftop Watch Part 3

Photo: Edwardson, 3-28-08. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

There is no excuse for architects to design new construction without giving thought to where the air conditioner will go. In urban hillside development, someone is almost always looking down on your rooftop. The photo above is shot from the front porch of the house across the street. While owners of older hillside homes may have no other choice of where to put their HVAC, there is no excuse for unscreened rooftop equipment on new construction.

Hummingbird Hatchling

Photo: Edwardson 4-2-08

Previous: Easter Eggs, Not Quite Hawks

Corralitas Easter Eggs

Photo: George W. Jones, 2008

Corralitas is swarming with hummingbirds this year. The nest hanging off our driveway, near the dryer vent, appears to be constructed of dryer lint and spiderweb filament. The female is even tinier than the one with the earlier nest. I've seen at least 4 different species of males in my neighbor's yard this year. He's got lots of hummingbird-friendly flowers to attract them.

Corralitas Dr. Ugly Rooftop Watch Part 2

Photo: Edwardson, March 10, 2008. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Perhaps the architect of these two newly constructed homes on Corralitas Drive just had a fetish for the 1985 Terry Gilliam movie, Brazil.

A close-up view

Ugly Rooftop Watch Part 1

Part 3

Riverside Drive - No Overnight Parking District

Riverside Drive at Fruitdale 3-12-08. Photo: Edwardson

Starting this Friday, 3-14-08, The City will implement a "No Overnight Parking Zone" from 2AM to 6AM daily on Riverside Drive between Los Feliz and Oros St., as well as Allesandro Ave. between Riverside Drive and Glendale Blvd. Residents can obtain permits for "District 527" and more information by calling the Dept of Transportation (213)473-7890.

For decades people have lived in motor homes and other vehicles on Riverside Drive. In response to the increased number of vehicles and neighborhood complaints, the City crafted this solution after years of discussion within City Council District 13.

Parking District 527 will be expandable if motor homes start parking on adjacent residential streets. The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council and CD13 identified the most likely streets last fall.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If motor homes begin parking on your residential street, report the activity immediately to 1-877-ASK-LAPD and your Senior Lead Officer. Additionally, contact CD13 (if you are south of Fletcher) and report the motor homes to Billie Jean Londono (323)957-4500 or Sallie Martinez (323)478-9002. CD13 will create a file to establish justification for expanding the district. However, the downside is neighbors would have to purchase parking permits. So calling the LAPD is important to reinforce that our residential streets are not appropriate for motor homeless living.

Not Quite Hawks...

Photo: Edwardson, 2008

The red tail hawks did not nest on our side of Corralitas this year. The hawks still hunt in the neighborhood but the hummingbirds feel safe enough to nest on our deck.