There's No Place Like Home

Although I've alerted the media, evidently this latest news has not been deemed worthy. My missing hat has been found. While out on a thistle-scouting foray, the Dinosaur encountered it. The theory that it had been left on the porch while boots were being taken off and then taken away by some great gust of wind seems to be nearly proven. Given that, the hat has been named Dorothy, who also was taken by a maelstrom and yet happily made it home.

Dino has been a veritable storm of activity and accomplishment himself over the last couple of weeks. He was able to spend ten days at Dryad Ranch (yours truly couldn't get away that long from work) and finished all of the work for the water tank, which now holds 2500 gallons or so and is available for use if the worst happens and a fire needs to be fought. In addition, he spent many hard hours with the Transline tank discouraging any thistles in his path.

This weekend we've been gardening - I've spent some hours weeding (we can see a path now) and Dino is currently tractoring and filling in over a culvert in the front driveway.

Snakes Coming Out of Hibernation

As usual, the time to leave the ranch came up sooner than we would have preferred on Sunday,and we got out a bit late. Of course, it was imperative before we left that we went to smell the Cecille Brunner rose that is amazingly fragrant right now and blooming near the back gate on the path to the compost barrel.

And we also had to spend some time identifying a little snake the Dinosaur found hiding in an overturned bucket. This process was a bit amusing because we were each looking at different guidebooks and one book called this snake a California Whipsnake and the other called it a Striped Racer. We went back and forth for a minute, pointing out markings until Dino finally asked what the Latin name in my book was. Oh. Same Latin name. Same species. Since whipsnakes seem to be a subset of racers, we'll go with Striped Racer. Supposedly, these snakes are very quick and aggressive, but this particular individual must have been very sleepy from having just woke up from his or her winter nap and stayed in the bucket very pleasantly posing.

Western Pond Turtles

Contrary to popular opinion, turtles can move quite quickly when they want to. When this couple got tired of me, they took a mere nanosecond to plop back into the water.


Other highlights this weekend:

We spotted a pair of golden eagles flying high, one of the things they do best.

Weeds can grow a lot in just a week, especially in the springtime.

Water Tank Nearing Completion

The Dinosaur has spent considerable hours recently getting the water tank project close to fruition. Last week, he rented a trencher and dug from the water tank location at the top of Ant Hill down to the pump house. Into the trench went the necessary conduit and pipe. He'll be back next week to complete this phase of the project. He also trenched close to the house for the fire hydrants which are the main point of doing the project, i.e. getting water to firefighters if the house is threatened.

Our front porch has been chosen by a house wren couple as an acceptable nesting spot. The Wrens join three house finch pairs under the eaves, making for quite the avian nursery. The male wren does a lot of singing. According to Sibley's Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, "All wrens are territorial, defending nesting territories through the breeding season, and non-migratory species defend all-purpose territories year-round. Vocalization is the wren's primary defense strategy." And here I thought he was singing because he was so happy it was another lovely spring morning. Well, I think they're cute anyway and I can't wait for the babies to show up.

Since I've taken a photo of this spider, I suppose now I'm going to have to attempt to figure out what kind it is. I took this picture looking at the spider from the rear, personally I think that the markings on it kind of look like a face. Dino claims that it says something about me, and not in a flattering way, that I see faces in spider butts.

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.

American Robin

My favorite hat has gone missing. I can't imagine what I've done with it - as a general rule I just put it on the appropriate peg in the mudroom and that's that. But Saturday, it wasn't there. I looked everywhere in the house and around the house but no luck. It's a real mystery. I hope to find it - a) because I like that hat b) I want to understand what the heck was on my mind when I put it wherever I did. Yes, I looked in the refrigerator too.

A real bird picture. This guy was hopping and hunting by the river. And look at all the wildflowers around, it's really getting to look like spring.

I Sure Hope This Fellow is Still Around This Weekend

Last weekend I had family obligations and couldn't get to Dryad Ranch and look what Dino saw on his solitary walk! I really hope that some of his luck will rub off this weekend. He also saw - evidently almost stepped on- a Great Horned Owl and was lucky enough to observe a water ouzel.