Tiny

(ahem, mushroom identification makes me crazy. I'm not entirely fond of our guidebook)

Alder Point

On Saturday we went to southern Humboldt for most of the day. It's about an hour and 45 minute drive, on some crazy pot-holed curvy roads (yikes!), but it was worth it. There's an old railroad track that you can walk on for a good stretch, so that's what we did. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and 72 or so (it never gets that warm where we are in the north part of the county) and the tracks go along the river. Really pretty spot, and a lot different than northern Humboldt too. Nice change of pace.

Tons of wildflowers were blooming, including lupines, sweet peas, and a bunch of stuff I don't know. There were a LOT of irises also, feral flowers?

The fennel was starting to come out too, man that stuff smells soooo good- definitely one of my favorites.

Not much bird-wise other than a huge amount of orange-crowned warblers establishing territories so they were singing their little hearts out. Couldn't manage to get a good picture though, they were all blocked by vegetation.

The tracks were looking pretty rough and there were a couple spots we had to work to maneuver around. I should have taken a picture of some of these areas, totally sketchy looking. The tracks hit an old bridge about two miles in. We would have liked to keep going but it was getting late and the bridge didn't seem completely trustworthy. I'm sure it was fine, but I got about half way across and there was a loud creak and the part i was stepping on sank an inch so I decided I'd turn around. I don't mind heights one bit if I'm roped in, but otherwise I get a little wimpy.

I took a bunch of bridge photos that I'll put in another post, but here's a couple for now. The sun was so bright and a little too harsh for great photos but I'm just happy it was sunny and warm all day! Outdoor Wednesday

Kingbirds

The biggest family of birds is flycatchers, and within that is the kingbird (Tyrannus) genus. So, here's some of those birds, why not eh? Top to bottom: Tropical Kingbird (taken in Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica), Gray Kingbird (Tobago), Eastern Kingbird (Coastal Texas), and the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (Hill Country, Texas) Abc Wed (K), Nature Notes

Camera Critters

Field Work, Finally

So, we're not headed to Mongolia this summer. This is a bummer and would have been a pretty awesome opportunity, but well, it didn't quite pan out. Long story but maybe we'll get the chance to go again at some point (ideally). Skywatch

So instead of Mongolia, we'll be spending the end of May, June, July and August in Truckee, CA in the Sierras. I worked there in 2007 and am pretty happy to be going back to the Willow Flycatchers. Lots of stuff to look forward to (like the field sites in the first two pictures, awesome sunrises, and baby WIFLS, below)

I haven't been in the field since July and have been craving field work for a while now, so I'm counting down the days until we head to the mountains. And Truckee is a pretty ideal spot fo spend the summer.

All these pictures are from 2007 with my point and shoot. The place is beautiful and there is excellent backpacking all over the place. This year we can bring our kayaks and paddle a bunch too, good stuff. And the work is pretty fun too :) So, that's the plan. (woohoo, a plan!). We'll know about if we're going to Mississippi in a couple weeks after Zac gets back from checking out the PhD gig and the area.

(set of many bear tracks)

Watery Wednesday

The Insanity Has Arrived

We are currently going crazy. It's true. We need answers. GAHHHHH!

Okay, okay. The question is: Are we going to Mongolia? We don't know. It is raising our stress level (really, thank god for the inflatable punching bag). If we go, awesome. excellent. freaking rad. If not, fine too, cause then we do field work in the Sierra Nevada for a few months. This is also excellent and awesome and rad. But, we need to know. Like, now. Also, we might be moving to Mississippi (hold me)this fall or winter. Whew boy. Cha-cha-cha-changes...

Face of the Week

Hmm..this just in: No Mongolia (maybe another year?). Boo! Hiss! But, our backup plan is pretty sweet, too...more later.

Savannah

Not a lot of bird happenings this week; everywhere I went was pretty boring bird-wise. This Savannah sparrow at Salmon Creek was the only one who smiled for the camera. He does look rather handsome. It was crazy windy when I took this picture, I'm surprised it came out so sharp. I was happy with how it came out. It was low, low tide when I was at the refuge and while there are obviously always bird tracks in the mudflats, it was like a freaking highway for footprints that day, check it out!

Bird Photography Weekly, Mellow Yellow

Lots of 'em

Hmm...again, not so sure what the purple flower is but the cute little blues are forget-me-nots . It's late and I'm not feeling up to par, so I don't feel like flipping through the giant flower manuel to identify the unidentified. The forget-me-nots are from the Azalea Preserve earlier this week and the unknowns are from Patrick's Point a few days ago. Flowers blooming everywhere- I got a stockpile of flower photos from the past week! (Ew, I also got the first tick of the season, on my head....yuck yuck yuck, I can handle anything except ticks..more or less. gross) Today's Flower, Macro Monday, Blue Monday

Sea Foam Shadow

Shadow Shot, SOCC

Monolith-y

Monochrome Weekend, Scenic Sunday

Tide Pool Fun

Yesterday we went to Patrick's Point SP. The tide was low, so we got to check out the tide pools. As many times as we've been to PP, for some weird reason we haven't been to this beach before. I have no idea why. But yesterday we did and the tide pools were full of good stuff, like porcelain crabs (not true crabs), giant green anemones, tons of ochre seastars, feather boa kelp and lots of other seaweed, and two gumboot chiton. There were also a couple handfuls of harbor seals basking on the rocks, some black oystercatchers, and lots of gulls. Color Carnival, My World Tuesday ( Blogger seems to be having issues, bummer cause I had a better post for my world, ah well!) Ruby Tuesday

(the two photos below are the bizarre gumboot chiton, the biggest chiton in the world)

(below is feather boa kelp)

(porcelain crab above; giant green anemone closed up for low tide below)

(mussels below - the oystercatchers, scoters, and scaups love these)

(not sure what the pink seaweed stuff below is)

Into the Ocean

(Part of Redwoods NP) This is from this weekend, but the last time we tried to go to this beach, Redwood creek and the slough had merged because of a really high tide, so we weren't able to actually get out on the beach. It's a pretty cool spot and I don't think it usually gets a big crowd, which is always a plus! Skywatch Friday