Just When You Thought There Could Be No More Turkey Photos

The other afternoon, , I decided to head down to the river and the second bridge where I went last week. I wanted to see if I could get a better picture of one of my subjects, which I still didn't but I had a lot of fun birdwatching through my big lens as there were birds going in and out of my subject area (Bullocks' oriole, yellow-rumped warbler, finches galore). Anyway, while I was fiddling around with one composition, I noticed this wild turkey walking alone upstream. Did you know that turkeys will wade? I didn't.

One of the finch couples - the ones in the higher status lantern nest - have had their babies hatch. There are at least three; I'm going to try to get some pictures which should be interesting given the height of the lantern. The other couple - the two who were so recently blatant in their passion for each other - have five pretty blue eggs in their nest.

What Else? Birdwatching

Even with the rain currently pouring down, it's a fine time to watch some birds. There are still a swarm of hummingbirds at the feeders stoking up for the night. A few moments ago, I watched a pair of lark sparrows plucking bits and pieces from the greenery in the front yard, for their nest I suppose.

And this morning, I inadvertently got a display of house finch porn. While I was doing the breakfast dishes, I looked out the window at the planter where the Birdbrain finch family have their nest, and there they were - in flagrante delicto. It only lasted a second or less - a couple of wiggles, some wing flapping. Then the male gave the female a seed or some other delicacy to eat, as if to apologize: "I know the earth didn't exactly move for you honey - here, eat a little something, you'll feel better." I guess it worked because the female then settled happily into the nest.

Note: they are referred to as the Birdbrains because this pair built their nest in one of the succulent plants hanging from the eaves. That makes it difficult to water. Competition for nest sites must be fierce this year.

I digress. We are the happy hosts of a rufous hummingbird, who spent the day guarding the hummingbird feeder on the back of the house, just outside the office window. Well, maybe it's a rufous. Maybe it's an Allen's - they are very similar, and the difference has something to do with the tail feathers, but of course this one refuses to let me examine his.

Getting Back to Normal (Whatever That Is)

After a week and a few days of recovery from some medical issues, including a couple of overnights at Fresno Community Hospital, Dino is feeling much improved. I am ever so grateful that things weren't worse and appreciate my wonderful husband even more than before.

Yesterday, we finally got out and about for a lovely spring walk. The wildflowers are still profuse and as usual we're stumped by some of them. The bird watching was pretty good, though no eagles of any sort this time. Saw some Canada geese, which aren't usual around here, and a male merganser. We're hoping his mate is sitting on eggs. Plus the usual wood ducks and mallards. We also saw a flock of lark sparrows, which seemed unusual - we typically see them only in pairs or as singletons. Closer to home, the house finches have been extremely busy building nests underneath the front porch eaves again, and one dumb pair built in one of our planters on top of a succulent. Sigh, it's going to be hard to water that one now.

Cool! Two Morbid Photos in a Row!

Before lunch last Sunday, Dino took me to a spot on the Northwest Territory where he'd seen a deer carcass in one of the dry creekbeds there. Our uphill neighbor blogged a few days ago they'd seen mountain lion tracks so the timing is just about right for this particular deer to have been cat food. It was already well picked over, but there was a certain je ne sais quoi when it came to odor. 'Course what with all of the carrion trees (or whatever those are called) in full bloom all over the place, it was hard to tell the difference. The insect life in the vicinity was vigorous as well.

It Wasn't This One

We returned from our journey to Oregon to attend the funeral and found a number of pig tracks around the house. I had left a pair of hiking boots on the porch to dry off and had forgotten to take them back in - one of them had been picked up off its perch and carried several feet and (luckily) dropped. I would have been highly put out if that pair had been ruined, they are my favorite. I stand warned. Dino also found that the dragonfly fountain had been molested as well. That will be moved tomorrow behind the fence.

At any rate, since this picture was taken from the truck looking down off the paved road, we are certain it wasn't this pig that did the deed(s). There were seven of these vultures lurking about.

This is a photo from Sunday morning's early walk. Down on a neighbor's property, just off the road are the Abandoned Houses. These are two very small houses, both not much more than glorified cabins, along with an outhouse/shed - that are in the process of slowly collapsing. Every year they fall more into themselves, and one is nearly down.

We are both heavy-hearted this week, as Dino learned that his best friend, who he's known since childhood, passed away last weekend. I know that I am grateful for the solace of living in a beautiful place and for the daily routine that has kept us going.

Western Pond Turtle Redux

After doing a few necessary chores - like finally putting away the laundry I washed Thursday night - we started off on our walk, only to have it grind to a halt right away by the sight of the foals right above the circle driveway. That required some minutes for scratching and cooing. At first, the palomino colt was unhappy with the sound of Dino's slicker but eventually figured out that it wasn't a horse-eating monster.

We also spent some time watching a group of twenty or so Western Meadowlarks in one of the open areas on our neighbor's place, right next to the road. Several of them would sing together and what a lovely chorus that was.

When we got to the river, we spotted this Western Pond Turtle sunning him or herself on a rock. They seem to like this area - I took a picture last year of a pair of them, but I wanted to see if I could get a little closer and work with the big lens and what I could get. I started out pretty far back from the bank and worked my way closer. By working, I mean crawling on threes - the fourth was holding the tripod/camera. Crawl a little, stop, take a few shots, crawl a little more. The turtle let me get all the way down to the edge of the riverbank and for once, didn't leap into the water in alarm right away. I was so oblivious to everything else during this process I didn't even notice that someone had driven up on the other side of the river until he asked us what we were looking at. (Turned out he was working on a portion of the fence on that side.)