Wed, May 21, 2003

Wed, May 21, 2003
10 a.m.
Antelope Community Park
warm, clear - maybe 80 degrees (forecast high 93, yesterday's high 92, amazing how quickly our weather has changed from so cool & wet to so warm & dry)
light breeze

So much birdsong to hear! No one else is at the park on this weekday morning but the birds are making up for it: sparrows, blackbirds, woodpecker, magpies, finches, doves, mocking bird.

Beneath me is mown grasses, along both sides of the paths the grasses have been cut, revealing the drying plants. Still green but much is more straw colored than the last time I was here. Plenty of foxtails litter the ground between clumps of plants and below that a just visible layer of decaying oak leaves.

At eye level are the low hanging branches of the oak whose shade I sit in, the oaks are in full leaf again.



Above me the sky is clear clear blue with the wispiest of thin could trails in the distance, the myriad of birds flying overhead - darting from one tree to the next - constantly talking, twittering, squawking chit chit chit squee squee warble and trill.

mother's day

May 11, 2003
midafternoon
Mother's Day picnic at Rusch Park
warm and sunny - clear skies
70's - such a treat!

Picnic tables in the spotty shade of big oaks, creek runs a semi-circle course around our favorite spot...

Earlier I saw a pair of brown squirrels foraging in the grass, later a pair of robins, now a magpie poking around -


looking up from the picnic table


Birdsong - squawking cry of magpie, twittering of songbirds too tiny to see. I see a robin but he's not singing (someone else: twee twee twee) robin flies off to join another, black and white flash of magpie wings, nearly constant twittery twit twit tweedle in the background, scrub jay on the dead branch of a nearby tree, for a moment, then on to an empty picnic table and back to a tree



much later, spotted a pair of little blackbirds, probably a source of much of the twittering

thunderstorms

May 8, 2003
5 p.m. Antelope, Ca (at home)

The thunderstorms that were forecast have finally arrived this afternoon. I just spent a session after school with kids at Kohler and had prepared and planned for what we could do with the rain, what great rain photos we could take - but the storms held off and we talked about the weather in general and how unusual all this wetness this late in spring is for us here. We did take photos of the threatening clouds and tried to capture how the wind was moving the leaves on the trees and the grass on the ground. We even saw flashes of lightening in the dark clouds in the distance. Not until after the children were well on their way hone and I was packing the last box in the car did it begin to rain big fat serious drops. Sure enough, on my short drive home, the clouds burst in earnest and now thunder echoes nearby, much sooner after the flash of lightening than before.



So I take photos of rain splashing in the driveway and the raindrops on the window as I look out back - then long for the monotonous blue skies and 70 degree breakfasts on the patio...

backyard

May 2, 2003
birds in the backyard 4:15 p.m.
overcast - windy - another storm coming in
several birds are regulars at the feeders -


(testing my new 250 Land camera - it works!)
house finches at the main feeder

a pair of doves are regulars,too

they like to feed on the seed that falls in the grass below


Resident scrub jay will chase off all others - finding sunflower seeds, he often takes them to a nearby flowerpot to crack - where I find all the discarded shells -

male & female finches come most often together, as do the doves, scrub jays mostly come alone, though sometimes as a pair