New Year's Hike

Many years ago in the Northeast, Alex Jermyn graciously shared with us his tradition of starting the New Year with a hike in a mountain. Since then, we make an attempt to carry on his tradition especially if we are in the vicinity of any altitude. This year, we decided to hike in Winters. Unlike the balmy and dry weather from the same hike a few days prior, it was cold and foggy.

These two pictures were taken from a similar vantage point (top was New Year's Day, bottom was several days before):
Rainbow and our shadow as we look down into the fog below us . . .
We saw many of these specimens . . . ...yup, fungal-covered doodoo.
yum.



Hoping for a healthy, happy, and peaceful 2009. . .

Some photos of the past week...

Chanukah night 2:
Eric (Frishfrere), Brian (soon-to-be Frishfrere-in-law), and Kay (Frishmom) are visiting for the week:
Collecting oranges from the neighborhood park:
Cedar Waxwings on UCD's campus:
Cows at UCD:
Cattlemens Restaurant:
A vineyard in Napa Valley:
A nice walk near Fairfax, CA - Cataract Falls:

Sausalito flowers:
Golden Gate Bridge and SF:
Sunset at Yolo Causeway:

American Kestrel at the Causeway (taken by AF):
Andrew, Leigh, Brian, Eric, Kay, Cliff, and Marika in SF:
Sandhill Crane:

all hail the return of science to washington

109th Christmas Bird Count

Yesterday, Andrew and I took part in our first Christmas Bird Count. This is the 109th year of a tradition that is the longest running wildlife census in the world. The local Yolo County Audubon Society put together ten teams of people who spread out across the county to perform bird counts. We chose to join a group going to a closed-to-the-public area of the Coastal Range near Winters, CA. Andrew and I joined three other people - Ian, Estella, and Dave - all far more experienced than us. Because we realized quickly that we had no auditory birding skills to contribute, we chose to be the scribes, recording the species and numbers of birds we heard, and sometimes saw. In all, we counted around 40 species of birds, saw a huge variety of mammal scat, mammalian bones, a few newts, and went for a great hike. Andrew and I learned that if we are going to be even adequate birders, we need to learn to rely on our ears, rather than our eyes for bird identification - not an easy task.

A little after the rain began, we watched several of these beautiful Coast Range Newts emerge in the dry stream basin.
Some of the species we recorded were: acorn woodpecker, flicker, ruby-crowned kinglet, juncos, raven, scrub jay, western bluebird, spotted towhee, california towhee, oak titmouse, anna's hummingbird...

Davis and San Francisco

On Tuesday, I (Leigh) took a day off work to meet Jeremy in San Francisco. . . The Valley has been enshrouded in fog for almost a week now. I took the opportunity to shoot images of the fog while on the train West.

Davis train station:
Cows and powerlines:
Boats of a duck-hunting club:
Amazingly, once the train descended the Coastal Range, the fog lifted and so did the temperature. I took the ferry from Oakland to the Ferry Building in SF.

the Oakland Container-Ship Port:

Jeremy and I wandered around the Embarcadero and saw some good mammals and birds (Really, did you think there would be a bird-less post?!)

Sea lions at Pier 39:
A Western Grebe:

A Black-crowned Night Heron: