Soaring with the Turkeys

Move along, nothing to see here! That's right, move it along. You there, you raised an eyebrow. Want to see something sort of cute? Here.


Those turkeys were gobbling along with me right up until I started filming. Rather humiliating to be made into a turkey by a flock of the buggers. Oh well! Turkeys crack me up every time; amusing bird - beautiful and hideous all at the same time. Isn't that the definition of some kinds of cute?

I saw this little flock of Tom Turkeys at the River Bend Park of the American River Parkway. I just wanted to stare at a few birds and maybe see a deer or two. I haven't been to River Bend in ages, but was not surprised that my favorite part of the park is cut off from the public - that is unless you're up to hiking through the woods. I'm up to that, but wasn't up to picking ticks off myself - a bit early in the season for that yet.

You're as interesting to stare at as they are
These photos and video were recorded on my iPhone - my camera when I don't have a good camera on me.

Grazing on Through

And now for a little Turkey Trot. Not a clue what that big Tom was up to.

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.