Oat Hill Mine Trail Revisited

Saturday, I decided to hike the Oat Hill Mine Trail out of Calistoga.  Nick was working and Cassidy had an appointment, so I thought I would hike one of my old go-to trails in Napa County.  The following are cell phone snapshots.

 Poppies and lupine

 It was a fresh and glorious day with blue sky and white puffy clouds.

 Indian paintbrush and blue dicks.

 A cell phone through the binoculars shot of three turkey vultures and a raven eating on a deer carcass that was torn into two halves.

 I got hailed on for about ten minutes (note hail on ground).

My secret lunch spot on the other side of the mountain.  I was happy to see that all was pretty much the same - a very pleasant 10 mile hike.

Woodbridge Ecological Reserve

Tuesday last week, I took a trip north to see old friends and stay with Nick and Cassidy in Napa.  Gail was settling her mom into her new home, so it was a good time to do the long planned trip.  After driving all day, I stayed in a motel north of Stockton, just a few miles from the Woodbridge Ecological Reserve.  I spent time there Tuesday evening, and Wednesday morning.  The reserve is most noted as a wintering area for Sandhill Cranes.

The area is agricultural, which provides good foraging for geese and cranes.

As you near the ponds, one notices large flocks of  Snow Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, and Sandhill Cranes out in the fields.

A Sandhill Crane.

Sandhill Cranes are very obvious in flight with their long legs trailing behind, and their very loud sounds which can be heard from a couple miles away.  They make their sounds with a 5 foot long trachea!

A Great Horned Owl, one of two in this spot.

In the evening, the cranes return in large numbers to the three ponds where they will spend the night standing in water or on small islands to avoid coyotes.  This crane is doing its courtship dance, jumping in the air and flapping its wings.

I love how they come in for a landing, wheels down!

It was a beautiful evening.  Most of these cranes will be gone by the end of the month when they head north.

Below are four crane silhouettes:

Cranes near a pond Wednesday morning.

A Snowy Egret waiting for food.

A Great Egret fishing along a roadside canal.

There were large flocks of  Greater White-fronted Geese.  They will be flying to The Arctic soon.

This Red-tailed Hawk getting a "charge" out of its perch.

Of course there were many ducks - Northern Pintails and Northern Shovelers are in this picture, as well as others.

Well, it was off to Santa Rosa to spend the evening with Jim and Mary Ann.  We went to hear Slaid Cleaves perform at The Grange in Sebastopol.  We love Slaid, but unfortunately he was suffering with a hellacious cold. He was a real trooper to hang in there!  Thursday, I headed down to Napa where I would stay with Nick and Cassidy until Monday.

Smerdu Community Garden

Gail and I have been volunteering at the local Carlsbad community garden.  Every 3 or 4 weeks is our week to work in the Rot Spot making compost.  I took some phone pics of people's plots this last Saturday, which I think are pretty amazing for being in the middle of winter.  Of course this is Sun Diego County.

 Beautiful cabbage and chard.

 Every plot is fenced and has its own water faucet.

 Ripening tomatoes in February!

 There is a long waiting list to get a plot.  You can tell how much some people cherish them.

 Does anyone know what kind of plant this is with fruit growing off the trunk?

Our work station.

Hot Tub!

We ordered a hot tub from Amazon last October which arrived just before Thanksgiving.  It was advertised as "plug and play", however, it wasn't that simple.  It was sent from Texas with free shipping.  Turns out it was manufactured about 4 miles from here!

 The delivery man was kind enough to help me get the 280 pounds of tub and pallet to the back of the house.

 Next, I had to make a pad to support all the weight of tub, water, and humans.  This meant digging out  the squishy soil about 10 inches deep down to the hard pan.  Penelope and Yummy delight in anything new!

 Next, I made a frame of ground contact lumber to contain the gravel that would fill the void.  Weed/root barrier was added on the bottom.

 It took about 2 cubic yards of gravel to fill the hole.  I packed the gravel with a tamper I made from a 4x4 and scraps, ramming the gravel in place after every 3 inch layer.

 My neighbor, Bob (yes, we are everywhere), helped me roll the tub over to its new home on the pad. I then had an electrician run a dedicated line out to the fence.

Ahhh!  January 2nd, and we finally get to enjoy soaking in 104 degree water, and looking up at the stars, moon, and clouds.  My back really needed this, too, after all the work!

We had some leftover flagstones from the front yard, so I spent a couple days cutting them and making a path out to the tub and back gate.  I also covered the gravel around the edges of the tub.  We are now in the process of getting this area of the yard ready for some landscape plantings.  Rather than using toxic vegetation killer like Roundup, we are covering the area in plastic to smother the grass in this area, which will take a couple months.  The grass will be replaced with mulch and maybe tall ornamental grasses and other clean water-wise plantings.

Sunday Morning Birding

This morning I was on the beach at 7:00 A.M., hoping to see the Peregrine Falcon we saw two weeks ago, or at least an Osprey.  Gail had to attend to her immediate family today, so unfortunately couldn't come  along.  You can greatly enlarge each picture by left clicking on it, which I'm sure you'll want to do for some of the bird pictures below.

 Warm air, Santa Ana winds, and water in the 60's had the surfers out in force.

 A Common Merganser was diving for fish close to shore.

 Wouldn't you love to be a Brown Pelican for a day?

After almost two hours of stalking the cliffs, I didn't find the Peregrine or Osprey.  A jogger confirmed, however, that she sees a pair of falcons in the area most mornings, and sometimes gets buzzed by them.

I decided to drive over to San Elijo Lagoon, and hike along the shore trail.

 Immediately, I was presented a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a first for me!

 Nearby was this sweet pair of Gadwalls dabbling for aquatic plants.

 Two striking American Wigeon males looking sharp.

 Another Hooded Merganser with his hammerhead crest raised (mouth open).

 (mouth closed)

 On the left is a male Green-winged Teal.

 A lone Snowy Egret waits patiently.

 A Great Blue Heron came quite close...

 ... and waded into the water.

 Another Green-winged Teal dabbling.

 Two female American Wigeons.

 A group of Northern Pintails were off in the distance.

 From an elevated vantage point I spotted this Northern Flicker in a tree.  Had me thinking hawk until I saw its straight bill.

A White-tailed Kite waits for a small mammal to appear.

There were four deer out in a grassy part of the marsh.  I never would have seen them if not for their white butts.

 A pair of Northern Shovelers doing their thang.

 An Osprey did fly over, but right in front of the sun.

 A closer Northern Pintail.

And lastly, a Clark's Grebe.  Gail and I have handled literally hundreds of these when we did bird rehab, and we both still have our eyeballs!

Well, San Elijo Lagoon is a special sanctuary amid the hustle and bustle of San Diego County.  I'll be back!