Various Spring Updates

Dino has been spending quite a few "vacation" days off work to attend to the spring upkeep tasks. He's put in a new gate to and expanded the front garden fence; we're still discussing what we want to put in that enclosure to replace what the grasshoppers killed off over the last couple of years. This week, he'll be spending his time fighting thistles.

On the birdwatching front - excitement plus! (When is it ever not?) We have managed to attract at least one Hooded Oriole to the new oriole feeder Dino installed a couple of weeks ago. We saw Bullock's Orioles last year in an area bordering one of the meadows and hoped that we might be able to entice them a little closer. With any luck, we'll be able to get a photo to share, Bullock's, Hooded, whoever.

Filling all the bird feeders is one of the first things we do when we get to the ranch on a Friday night. Pretty much everything has been eaten up by then and it takes a while to refill. We have 5 (I think, maybe it's 6. Or even 7 now) seed feeders and 4 hummingbird feeders in addition to the 2 new oriole feeders. Also a suet feeder. If other bird nerds, er, lovers are as willing to support the economy, the bird feeding industry has nothing to worry about.

Sunday we took off on a big hike up the hill to enjoy the huge profusion of wildflowers on offer this time of year. This picture is about halfway up the ridge we climbed - this part of the walk was uphill or sidehill - made for some interesting stops when we saw something to investigate, I.E. where do we put both feet so we don't fall off the hill? And my camera and photographic skills just weren't up to the task of really giving this shot proper exposure in the middle of the day, but since I'm not likely to be found walking up that hill pre-dawn or walking down post-sunset this will have to do. The little orange patches in this picture are California poppy and it was so heartening to see them in their natural state up on a hillside. I wished they "popped" more in this shot.