Kayaks and Quail

More when I get photos from our housemates camera but here's the sight that greeted us one morning...about 40 quail working their way accross the yard...

Okay, well, maybe you had to be there. Those brown lumps are quail, honest.

And here's my son and I in a very interesting kayak designed and built by our friend Sebastian von Nagel:

Elk and Rhodies from June Solstice, nearly.

It has been an very hectic last 30 days and I'm just now getting around to posting pictures from June.

An acquaintance from my son's school told me his best Pt Reyes hike was in the elk perserve on the solstice. Mother elk hide away very tiny babies but when they reach a certain size they rejoin the herd and frolic near sundown. This we had to check out even though we were a week of so early.

Alas, we saw only a few baby elk. Perhaps 'rejoin' is the wrong term above: one tiny one we spotted quickly disappeared into the grass not to be seen again. Perhaps the younger ones are simply hidden away with the herd most of the time. At any rate, sundown does seem to be a good time to see elk. Repeated visits indicate that the herds pick that time to move en masse from place to place...or less traffic means they're willing to move near the road. The youngster pictured above is pretty good sized. We weren't quick enough to get a photo of the tiny one.

Here's another shot from late afternoon the day before.


Meanwhile back at the ranch:

> the Rhododendrons are in full bloom;



> and much of the rest of the garden is blooming, too, for example;



> and, finally, we have new balconies large enough now for deck chairs.

From May 26: Lupin, Rhodies, and the Red Necked Phalarope

Spring is definitely here with alternating fog and sun, nesting birds, and blooming wildflowers. Here are pictures from the property. First some native foxgloves blooming at one end of the garden as they are throughout the meadows of Point Reyes.

The roses are also in full gear. Nice as they are, they pale compared to the grove of Rhodie that wraps around the house and spills down the hillside past the pond to the treehouse. Here are a scattering of photos that capture some of them.

Here you see the house through the Rhodies. Below are more photos from taken along the path that winds through them.

We hiked the short but interesting Woodpecker Trail (off the end of the Bear Valley parking lot), and Pierce Point looking for baby elk. We didn't see any but did see a weasel scouting down the hillside a mile or so along the Pierce Point Trail. Our favorite was the Abbott's Lagoon hike due to the large number of bird species. We were welcomed to the lagoon by this little guy. The salt marsh looked particularly colorful against a semi-gray background.

Home and hike

At the homestead the daffodils and lilacs have faded but the wysteria is still going strong and the rhoddies are just really beginning. Here is one of the first plants to go into full bloom with a second pink one starting up behind.

We took a hike to Abbotts Lagoon and saw Eared Grebes looking quite spectacular. The next day we went up from the Bear Valley Trail to Mt Wittenberg. All the new green vegetation is quite gorgeous. We saw some Axis Deer right at the top and on the way down these Turkey Vultures sunning (or cooling) perched with wings spread in the pines along the meadow on the Meadow Trail which we took back down. My camera doesn't really zoom much so you'll probably have to squint a bit.



Here's a photo of the Grebe (stolen off the internet, alas) that is almost precisely what we observed.

Drake's Estero Trail to Drake's Head

Griffin and I decided to do a long hike 6 miles out to Drake's Head and back and saw lots of birds and wild flowers. Here's some highlights from the hike.


We found these guys at the far end of the estuary near where the trail begins. They're some sort of Grebe. We're inexpert birders and are just beginning to be able to identify some of the wealth of bird species we see on a regular basis. We're still working on figuring out what species of Grebe we've got here. Also seen: an osprey with a fish, ravens and turkey vultures, a Surf Scooter on a stock damn, egrets and herons, and various ducks too far away to clearly identify. The Grebe was the only one close enough for a photo with our old cheap digital.

Highlights from the walk's wild flower finds. Calla Lilies are starting to fade.

The Wild Irises are just coming into their own along with a variety of small species, eg Buttercups. Huge patches of Iris are scattered throughout the cow pasture side of Point Reyes Seashore. This wide circle had probably 30 blooms with more to come.

And the Lupin are just starting up.




Arriving at Drake's Head we had a spectacular view of the Limotaur Estuary, hundreds of ducks and shorebirds, the ocean, and up and down the coast. Needless to say this photo is not the next best thing to being there.

April Fool's Weekend: elk, sandpipers, & iris

This weekend we noted that the daffodials are hanging in there though fading while the wild irises are starting to appear in larger numbers.

At Pierce Point - the male elk now have short velvety horns and the blooming wild flower list, mostly limited to mustards a few weeks ago, is growing to include the california poppy, yellow lupin, and wild irises along with numerous smaller blossoms.

At Drake's Estero - the birders were out in force along with nesting shorebirds. We only took a short hike to the closest bit of water but saw clusters of sandpipers nested along the (high tide) shore and on a few small islands of mud and grass.

Photos to follow.

Tulip Season at Sea Ridge House

I took pictures of the tulips in full bloom yesterday. They are a sparkling red-orange color with huge heads. The vinca makes a great companion. With both tulips and daffodils in full force, it really is spring.