Saturday, October 29, 2011

Two Favorites

This post is about two of my favorite birds, and it also announces species number 90 for Dryad Ranch!  Last weekend on our walk, we saw a flock of birds that I was pretty sure were Cedar Waxwings, mostly based on their calls as they flew by.  I doubted myself for a day or two, and then Dino was able to confirm.  There is a spring he likes to visit with birding in mind, as it has had a good offering of ripe grapes.  Evidently the Waxwings found those fruits to their liking, because he spotted some and that gave us our 90.  I just love Waxwings, I think they are one of the most beautiful birds.

This image is in the public domain from the US Fish and Wildlife image library:



Today, after a neighbor dropped by, we headed out on another bird walk and saw favorite number two,  American Dipper.  This is a homegrown image:




Sunday, October 23, 2011

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Trundling Along

In between doing the usual chore-like items, we've been doing a lot of bird and Audubon related activities.  That comes as no surprise I'm sure.  (If only we'd get another couple of nice rains, we'd have some fungi other than puffballs to look at.) 

Last Saturday, Dino helped co-lead a beginner's birding field trip in Mariposa, sponsored by the Audubon Society.  I also attended that, as we were planning to take off directly from there on a jaunt south to one of those humongous theater monstrosities to see an Actual Movie.  It was bird related of course:  The Big Year.  Verdict:  it was OK, not great, but we got some good laughs and it was about birds so that gave it a few bonus points.  We both agreed that the mall and theater area were rather like a different planet;  we were almost as entranced with the people watching as with our morning bird watching.  We followed the movie with dinner at our favorite restaurant, Lucy's Lair, which serves delectable Ethiopian food. 

Alas, this weekend, it's back to the chores.  Dino is working on stocking up the wood shed and I've promised to help him tomorrow do some organizing in the storage container and shop building area.  I do love a good organization project.

Would it be fall without a good autumn colors leaf photo?

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