The BLUE DICKS ARE UP!

A lone Blue Dick rises above the meadow grass
The BLUE DICKS Wildflowers ARE UP! Ah, me - I never tire of that juvenile joke.

A couple of days ago, Barb and I drove up the street to Pioneer Park to see if the vernal pools are at the show-off stage, but no dice. Not that there wasn't pretty sights galore; there was a beautiful pair of Great Egrets. Both had 'egrets' the long flowing feathers that cover their backs in breeding season.


Pioneer Park Vernal Pools, Stage one: WET
I could see bright yellow flowers off in the distance, but didn't want to wade through the ponds to see them.


Soap Plants are popping up everywhere
Next we drove out to Mather Field, one of my favorite springtime haunts. We were there on Saturday, but it was cloudy and somewhat rainy so the little poppies of the fields were closed up as tight as [insert rude tight reference HERE]. So as the sun was shining today, we headed out to Mather for a look-see. We found a nice fat patch of Butter and Eggs, also called Johnny Tucks.


A patch of 'Butter and Eggs'

Frying Pans!
The Frying Pans, a sort of mini-California poppy, that were closed up tight during the last several days of cloudy weather, are now OPEN for business! The yellow flowers are currently sprinkled about in small groupings that I think will grow to be massive in the coming weeks. There were also Fiddleheads, yellow flowers are also up everywhere one looks.


Fiddlenecks
Then we found one of the major showy flowers at Mather - Meadow Foam! They are large, bright and sit in great mounds in the meadow - later in the season that is - looking like ocean foam blown ashore.


Meadow Foam
Alas! Barb and I were in low gear and for the most part, so didn't wander far from the car so no close-up photos today. Wouldn't have bothered with this post at all if it weren't for wanting to shout from the blogger rooftop: THE WILDFLOWERS ARE UP! THE SHOW HAS BEGUN!


Napping Geese at Mather Field

Auspicious Night in Fair Oaks

My friend Barbara has been visiting me the last week, and tonight we decided to go for a drive through Sunrise Park along the American River. So, about 45 minutes before sunset tonight I went outside to put my hens 'to bed' in their coop. I no sooner bribed them into their pen with mealworms, when I heard a loud, "KEK KEK KKEK KEK KEK!" A Coopers Hawk and a Crow shot by overhead, like arrows. The crow was in front of and above the hawk, so it was a toss up if the coopers was after the crow and missed or perhaps the crow harassed the hawk then pulled up. I wish they had hung around for a bit longer.

Later driving in Sunrise park we saw the 'usual suspects', a couple of big arsed tom turkeys, strutting. I gobbled to them and the tom quickly gobbled back, calling me a %$^& which was quite rude. Later on we saw this tree full of roosting turkeys, one of whom was sitting puffed up on his branch, looking all macho.

No one up here but us turkeys
Then something amazing happened - we saw a little group of two does and a young fawn. The fawn was quite pale - not albino, but in the twilight it appeared quite pale. Made me wonder if the fawn was pale enough to be the sort the California Hoopa Indians would use in their white deer dances. I wonder what they would say if they knew there was a white-ish fawn wandering about. Of course, no surprise, I didn't have a good camera with me, only my cell phone and what I got was a crap photo of the fawn's pale backside. Maybe I'll manage a photo of him/her later in the season.

On the drive home, Barbara squeaked, "One, one, one, one...!" She got a look at my Honda's mileage which was at an interesting number.


Hum... Cooper's Hawk bulleting by overhead, a white fawn, a binary sort of number popping up in my car... perhaps auspicious things are in the near future.

The Drive Home from San Diego

Purple Owl's Clover

It's not often that I climb out of bed earlier than the first sparrow's fart, but to avoid Los Angeles traffic, I was up and on the road from San Diego at 4:15 AM.

I was over the Grapevine and into the Central Valley after 3 hours and decided to take Hwy 5 north with a stop at Kern National Wildlife Refuge. As I drove toward the refuge I decided to stop and admire the roadside wildflowers. I had my iPhone so I put it to good use, snapping a shot or two with its camera app.




My camcorder was on hand, and I spied interesting blue flowers on the far side of the meadow. Binoculars and camcorder in hand I headed off for a look.

WHOOPS! My foot shot out from under me and I was lying in a puddle of mud. It happened so fast I was stunned - where the HELL did the mud come from? I hadn't noticed it before. I 'saved' my camcorder by tossing it over onto a dry patch, then tried standing. My hands kept slipping out from under me - the mud was as slippery as a pot full of snot.

Slip, slip, slip! Every time I tried standing my foot would slip, every time I tried creeping forward, my hands would slip. GAK! I was trapped. I had my binoculars in my hand, and they were already coated with mud. I put both hands on the binocs and used them as a sort of anchor to inch my way across the snot and over to where I could get my feet under me and stand without sliding.


In the center - the Evil Pot full of Snot

Once I was back on my feet, I rescued the camcorder and surveyed myself - I was coated with mud, head to toe. Oh well! Nothing for it but to open the back of my Honda and strip to my skivies. There are times when being in the middle of nowhere is a bonus. Soon I was in fresh clothes, glaring mournfully at my mud coated binoculars. I was headed up the road for the refuge headquarters.


Kern National Wildlife Refuge

Approaching the refuge headquarters

I marched into the HQ & was greeted by a volunteer lady.

"Can I help you?"

"Can I wash these binoculars with a hose?", I asked, holding up a lumpy brown object, inside of which were my binoculars.

The lady was a gem, leading me to a sink where I washed the mud off my binocs.

She then tore up the front office until she found my second request of her - a holy grail - the official stamp of the Kern Refuge, for my Blue Goose Passport stamp. Believe it or not, it is my first refuge stamp for California. I have stamps from probably 6 or 7 other states, but not my own resident state.


Ok, might be corny, but I love my refuge stamps
I only spent about an hour touring the refuge before I left and headed home to Fair Oaks. The only refuge photo I got worth mentioning, and I assure you it is a CRAP photo, is of this Great-tailed Grackle. It was far away and it is only 2 pixels, taken with my mud soaked camcorder. Oh well!


Great-tailed Grackle