Number 93

Our 93rd species was spotted last night on my way home from town.  As I was passing a neighbor's new gate, I noticed a white bird-ish shape perched on a oak branch overlooking the road.  I hadn't noticed anything there before, and when I stopped to peer at it, discovered the lovely heart shaped face of a male Barn Owl looking back.  We figured they had to be around - they're not uncommon after all - but neither one of us had actually spotted one where we were confident in our identification.  We both agreed that it was a good omen for the nesting prospects of the several Barn Owl nestboxes that Dino has recently installed on our place. (Photo US Fish and Wildlife, in the public domain.)

On the subject of which (bird boxes that is), Dino and Audubon compadres have had several work days the last couple of weeks for building new boxes intended for the abovementioned Barn Owls, plus Wood Ducks and passerines such as Bluebirds and other cavity nesters.

I took last week off work, it was a little rough getting myself back into the office on Monday, but now look!  Four more days off, one of which will be spent eating good food!  Nifty!

This photograph was taken on a not-quite futile fungus hunting expedition over the weekend.  I found this oak bathed in pretty afternoon light near Lion Creek on our Northwest Territory.  A friend who saw this photograph states she can see a horse in it (that would have to be a spirit horse however).

Garden Planning. Fog. Number 84

The last few days, we've been treated to a ribbon of fog along the course of the Chowchilla. It sure is pretty to look at (but not drive in, evidence my trip home tonight.) It's fascinating to see this obvious delineation right at the river. This photo was taken early Sunday morning before it warmed up.

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the aforementioned 84th bird species to our ranch list. A few days after Christmas, we identified a Hairy Woodpecker. They look a lot like the Downy, but are larger. If you want to know the truth, getting us to actually place the binoculars on woodpeckers is a mini-miracle because we always think it's another Acorn, of which there is no dearth of supply. Anyway, we looked and were glad for it. If you know why they're called Hairy, that will win extra points, because I don't have a clue, they looked normally feathered to me.

Now that we have the building parts safely stored, we can work on other items on the task list. We've been figuring out an orchard, with special emphasis on yumminess. So far, we've picked out: 2 apples, 2 figs, 2 cherries, 1 quince, 1 pomegranate, 2 almonds, 2 plums, 1 mulberry and 1 walnut. Hoo boy, we're going to be busy in a few years when all these trees get going. We paced off the designated area the other day, and staked it and Dino's now busy prepping with lots of tractor work. We've scouted out a couple of local nurseries for the varieties we want, and the Honeycrisp apple bareroots are coming in sometime this week; the others next month. We lost a couple of cherries we started a few years ago to that awful grasshopper plague, and a quince this year to fire blight.

Cutting Down Manzanitas

We've got quite a number of manzanitas fairly close to the house - close enough to make us want to do a little better job of clearing and making the house defensible from fires. We both are quite fond of these trees, as they have an attractive red bark and berries that the critters eat, but unfortunately, they also burn very hot and are a fire danger. So any that we find within the 100 foot required perimeter are coming out. We got out three groups today and it looks like we'll have another two or three sessions before we're done for this go round.

Here's yours truly with a big piece ready to load into the truck.