Not the Dark Frish (but rather a bit more old school)

The return of Fall

Fall has finally returned to Davis. We can tell because temperatures are cooler than the 95 degree weather we were experiencing last week. But more obviously, because the birds are our feeders are Winter birds. The goldfinches, house finches, and juncos returned yesterday and today. Yay Fall!

Another weird CA thing

Something that has baffled us since moving to CA is the size of the sticks of butter. They don't fit into a regular butter dish and, frankly, this drives us (Andrew in particular) batty. . . I finally thought to look it up online; the different sizes confuse other people too. Wikipedia discusses it in their entry on butter:

There you have it. A reason to never move West.

New Year, New Car?

So, we traded this:


for this:


Any questions?

Yolo Causeway and Andrew's Birthday

Saturday was Andrew's birthday. . . We celebrated at 6AM just before heading off for a visit to the Yolo Causeway. . .
We hardly ever get to the Causeway in the early AM, so this was a real treat for us. In the Summer, the area dries up and there are few birds because of the aridity and because many have flown North. But, as September rolls in, the migrating birds are flying through and some will even stay for the Winter. However, most of the below photos are of year-long residents:

A red-tailed hawk watching us watch it:
White-faced ibis:
Green heron:
An egret:
American white pelican:
Immature night heron:

Mature night heron:
Green heron:

Bee on a flower:
Dragonfly:

Damselfly:
Butterfly:
Haystacks: