What Is This Bird Doing?

I looked out the window and saw this bird with what looked like a red bill... mmm... what bird has a red bill like this. So I grabbed the camera and zoomed in a little closer. Oh wow, it's a crow with its head in a weird pose and its mouth open. 

It kept its mouth open for quite some time. I of course was worried about it, but there's not much I can do for a crow on our derelict neighbor's roof.

So I wrote the bird maven guru Julie Zickefoose and asked her what she made of this behavior. She wrote: 

"I believe it's sunbathing, and trying to expose its neck and breast to max sun. If it was able to fly, able to take off and go, there was nothing wrong with it. Its wings are slightly out here, too, which is consistent with sunbathing. At the full-blown level, he'd have keeled over, head tipped to the side, bill agape, tail and wings spread, and you'd have been sure he was dying."

Ah, just a sunbather enjoying this sunny warm day respite from our week-long foggy gray weather. We understand!

Saved By The Fog

 We are literally surrounded by insanely hot temperatures here. The Pacific Northwest is being baked with a record-breaking heatwave. At Roger's sister's place in southern Oregon the temperature is expected to get up to 114 degrees. That's 46 degrees celsius. That's crazy hot. Here's how The Washington Post described it:

The strength of the heat dome, or sprawling zone of high pressure centered near the U.S.-Canada border, promoting these temperatures is simply off the charts. Its intensity is so statistically rare that it might be expected only once every several thousand years on average. But man-made climate change has made exceptional events like this many times more probable. 

Meteorologists are describing the situation as insane, bonkers, and incredible. 

So now I wake in the morning, run to open the blinds and hope to see the sky socked in with gray fog. Yes! Sunday morning it was gray gray gray. I did my happy dance. 

It was even cool enough to go for a nice long neighborhood walk and enjoy the gray skies and see a Great Blue Heron hanging out with bales of hay.

It's supposed to stay cool, gray, and comfy for the next few days here. Who would have ever guessed that we would learn to love the fog, but we did. We are so grateful for the ocean in every way. 

 

another garden report

 spring has been a bit cooler than usual. even so we have a lot of veggies growing.

 

 beets

 having one with dinner

zucchini flower

yellow squash baby

tomatoes

tomato flowers

roses, bicycle, yellow squash

potatoes

peas

one (1) poppy plant

kale, marigolds

carrots,onions,nasturtiums

broccoli

Rain Gauge

I know it seems crazy to run outside and photograph the little rain gauge we have on our fence, but I couldn't resist. I wanted to send the photo to my brother. We've been talking a lot about the California drought, how we're in pretty deep trouble facing a dry hot summer ahead. But then something crazy happened. We actually got 1 1/2 inches of rain here in Northern California on Sunday. There was even more  rain north of us in Crescent City where they got 2 inches. It never made it much further south than where we are. My brother (350 miles south of us) didn't get any at all. 

Here's a screen grab of a drought map that the San Francisco Chronicle had in their paper the other day. It does not look good at all. 

We're in the Moderate Drought Zone. My brother and sister are in the Extreme Drought Zone. Pretty scary stuff, considering the fires we had to deal with last summer. 

So I've been thinking about the rain we did get on Sunday. I wouldn't quite call it a rain. It was more of a long day of drizzle. It accumulated in our rain gauge at 1 1/2 inches, but would a day long sprinkling like that really soak the ground? I went out and dug around in the yard where nothing is planted and we don't water much. The ground was nice and moist an inch or two down. That made me happy. So a daylong drizzle did moisten things up a bit. Not sure how that drizzle will help the giant redwood forests and mountains to the east of us, but I'm hoping. 

When I was downloading the photo of the rain gauge I noticed a photo I had taken out at the marsh that I didn't post here the other day. I loved the view, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Hope you're all doing well. Thank you for stopping by.

Reflections At The Marsh

We woke Tuesday morning to a beautiful blue sky day. We had our tea and toast and decided to head out to the marsh nice and early and take a good look around. When we arrived we were so delighted by the reflections of the clouds in all the marsh ponds.

The heron posed for us, looking like it was floating in the sky. 

And the Greater Yellowlegs quietly preened while looking for something yummy to eat.

It was such a warm and beautiful day even before 9:00 am. It felt so much like the old days before the pandemic that we actually forgot to bring our masks out with us on our walk. We laughed about that. It felt good to just feel normal. We did remember to put them on when we shopped at the co-op after the marsh. As of June 15th a sign outside the co-op said that there will be no more mask requirement. California is opening up. Not sure how feel about that. We may continue to wear them until the variant has stopped spreading here in our county. 

Lots to reflect on these days.

Friday Music: White Bird

It's been a while since we've posted a song on a Friday, but we couldn't resist. Looked out the window the other day and saw this White Dove on the pole down the street. I ran outside to get a photo. It was such a little beauty. 

When we saw this bird we both started to sing this song. It had been a long time since we heard it, and we found it as lovely as ever. So here is a flashback to 1969. White Bird by It's A Beautiful Day.