We made a quick stop at Cosumnes River Preserve on the way home after spending Christmas with Dad. It was wet! We didn’t see huge numbers of waterfowl, but we did have a nice walk around the ponds.
Blog
Sporadic dispatches from the hinterlands.
Waxwing and persimmon
Dad’s persimmon tree was heavy with fruit this year, and a flock of Cedar Waxwings took up residence in the orchard to enjoy the bounty.
Redwood Coast
We’re finally starting to get more comfortable with going out into the world. We postponed trips because of Covid, and then because of the wildfire smoke blanketing the state. We moved our planned vacation from the Sierra to the Oregon/Northern California coast, searching for clean air. We switched from camping to staying in motels, because Joy had to do a little remote work.
It worked beautifully. After we planned our trip, the weather forecast changed from sun and smoke to intermittent rain; we were glad to be able to stay out after dark and come back to a warm, dry room. It mostly rained at night, and we enjoyed some great days out there.
Our itinerary:
10/15/21: Quick visit to Marvin in Wilton.
10/16: Colusa National Wildlife Refuge; stayed in Redding (which was nice!).
10/17 through 10/19: Explored area around Brookings, Oregon, especially the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor.
10/20 through 10/21: Stayed in Eureka, California: Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Arcata Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, Humboldt Marsh National Wildlife Refuge.
10/22: Drove home, just before what turned out to be a record-setting deluge that caused widespread flooding and road closures!
Garrapata
We made a day trip down to Garrapata State Park to take a walk on the Soberanes Canyon Trail. Although we just had an extremely dry winter, there were some wildflowers to be seen, and we grabbed some quick photos to help us identify and remember them.
Here are some of the resources we used to identify these organisms: