Hanging Out With Nick

 After Andria departed Napa on Sunday, I had a day to hang out with Nick before flying home on Tuesday.  Monday, we spent most of the day hiking in Skyline Park.  I have hiked there since the 70's, having many enjoyable times in nature there with Andria and Nick.  I was eager to experience it once again.  

I nearly lost Nick to a very serpentine California Buckeye tree.  It was great to be in oak woodlands for a change of pace.

Nick's house is in a small pocket of county surrounded by city suburbs.  It is a refuge for deer and other animals.  Sometimes he has up to 12 deer at once!

This opossum waddled by at 4:00 in the afternoon.

Nick exercises his monitor lizard, Kronos.

Andria's Author Presentation

 I flew down to Napa on the 9th to hear Andria speak about her new novel.  The presentation was at Napa Valley College. There were over 200 people in attendance.  The event was a fundraiser to provide scholarships for girls and young women.

It was a thrill to hear Andria speak about her new novel, "The Waiting World", and read from it.  

Andria and the other 3 authors signed books during intermission and at the end of the program.  That's Eddie, Nick's housemate and longtime friend.  He is an aspiring writer and middle school special needs teacher.

Eddie, Andria, Elaine, Nick, Paul, and me.  Paul was a fellow teacher's aide way back in the 70's at the Napa State Hospital Adolescent Treatment Program.  He went on to become a child psychiatrist after completing medical school at Yale.  He has remained a supportive friend to Andria her whole life.

Me, Eddie's mother, Mark (Elaine's partner), Elaine, Nick, Eddie, and Lauren (Nick's girlfriend).  Lauren has created an amazing business, "Wooden Spoon Herbs", and recently added Whole Foods as one of her sellers.  It was a pleasure to meet her!

Lauren made this delicious lemon curd pie.

Rainfall for January

 This January had the most rain in a single month since I've been recording over the past 5 years.  December and January added together equalled 62.55" of rain! That is an average of 1.01" per day over the past two months.  Below is my data sheet showing January's daily rain amounts.

Bobcat In The Rain

 We were relieved to see a bobcat on our trail cam near the river yesterday.  It has been a few weeks since we've seen one and feared that some human caused action was impacting them.  

Leucism In Birds

I recently had an experience where I learned about leucism in birds.  About a month ago, Catherine Lucido down at the forks showed me and Wally some very blurry cell phone pictures of a small bird at her feeder that she had never seen before. It had a lot of white, and was at her feeder with a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos.  After scouring Sibley’s and other resources, I had no good ID guesses.  I sent copies of the photos to Marty Bray, biologist and expert birder.  He and his wife Jeannie both thought the bird was a Dark-eyed Junco with leucism.  Incidentally, they were in Columbia birding at the time.

A few days ago Catherine called to say the mystery bird returned and was at her feeder.  I rushed down with my camera and took pictures.  It's safe to say this bird is a leucistic Dark-eyed Junco.

I found out that Leucism is a genetic condition that causes some or all feathers to be white.  It is not the same as albinism in which the eyes would be pink.  Reptiles can also be leucistic.  Here is a link that shows various birds with leucism, including a Dark-eyed Junco.   

 https://www.birdnote.org/explore/field-notes/2018/04/why-bird-part-white-leucism

A normal Dark-eyed Junco has a little white on the outside edges of the tail feathers. This junco with leucism has one all brown tail feather and an all white one on the other side.

The Dark-eyed Junco with leucism.  Notice that the eye is not pink, meaning that it is not albino.

On the left is a normal Dark-eyed Junco for comparison.  In the middle is the leucistic junco.  The bird on the right is a Spotted Tohee.

Windy Day at the Coast

 After we lost power for 30 hours Saturday and Sunday due to ice storms in the region, the sun came out yesterday.  I took Daisy to the coast to let her romp on the beach.  When we got there, however, the tide was too high, and the wind was blowing offshore with almost gale force. It was also 37 degrees.  Daisy was never so eager to get back into the car!

More Holiday Celebrations

New Year's Day

 We were invited to a New Year's Day dinner at our friends Josh and Susan's home.  They bought the old grange meeting hall down the road which had been abandoned and very run-down.  They have turned it into a modern, comfortable home which looks out over a large pasture where elk often graze.  

Susan, front left, was a sailmaker in the Bay Area who even made sails for some America's Cup racing yachts.  She still uses her industrial sewing equipment at the house for various customers.  Back left is author Andrea Scharf who also started the Portland farmer's market and Yachats View the Future.  On the right is Jim Adler, blacksmith, who with his wife Ursula, ceramicist, purple sweater, were the first two locals that befriended us when we moved here.

Colorado Trip

On January 3rd, I flew back to Colorado to celebrate the holidays with Andria's family. Nick and Elaine came back, also.  We shared an Airbnb which worked out nicely.  Traveling after the Christmas rush was also more relaxed and cheaper, too.  

Left to right: Elaine, Soren, Susanna, Jeremy, Andria, and Nick.  Dave joined us for dinner a couple following nights.  Our Airbnb host left us an Italian pasta dinner to pop into the oven for our late arrival - very thoughtful!

We had a fun evening of gift sharing.

Jeremy is working as a full time electrician intern, taking night classes offered by his company, and working to becoming a journeyman electrician.  He is pleased with his new work belt. 

Jeremy and Nick

Andria and I with a book she gave me, There There by Tommy Orange.  I'm really liking the book so far!

The snow came down on our faux Christmas celebration eve.  Nice timing!  Our host Timothy was out there at 11:00 at night shoveling the driveway for us!

Nick, Jeremy, and I took an afternoon hike on our last day despite the cold.