April 4, 2014
In May last year I joined the docents of Laguna de Santa Rosa for a walk around the Delta Pond nesting colony. The walks begin early on a spring Saturday morning with a hike out to Santa Rosa's Delta Pond on the edge of the Laguna. With the hike circling a path between the waste-water storage pond and the laguna, and with several scopes set up directed at nests in the trees, we witnessed many types of birds including a bald eagle, dozens of double-crested cormorants, great egrets, red-tailed hawk, and great blue heron.
Red-wing blackbird
Cliff swallow
Canada geese
Tree swallow
Common merganser ducks
Red-tailed hawk
Bald eagle
Nesting double-crested cormorants and great blue heron
Double-crested cormorant
Great blue heron
It's so fun to think that some of the willows I planted a few years ago may some day become nesting habitat.
birds (27), cormorants (1), ducks (3), eagle (1), geese (3), hawk (1), heron (1), laguna (3), nesting (1), swallow (2)
Birds (27), Santa Rosa (21)
March 17, 2013
Wild garlic (Allium triquetrum) flowers
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) flowers
Arugula (Eruca sativa) flower
Grape hyacinth (Muscari)
Within the past few days, hundreds or thousands of these Boxelder Bugs (Boisea trivittata) have suddenly gathered in my backyard. I tried to get the chickens to eat them, but they turned up their beaks to the crunchy critters. Today we noticed the bugs are covering the south facing walls of our house with eggs.
Reading up on them, I'm not too worried about them messing up my garden since they are pretty specialized in their diets, preferring boxelder trees, though they could do damage to my apples, pears, or plums later on.
bird (5), flowers (37), garden (21), insect (21), plants (17), spring (6)
Birds (27), Creatures (75), Degree (56), Flowers (41), Santa Rosa (21)
January 22, 2011
On a foggy Saturday morning I met up with a group of people to plant trees and shrubs for the restoration of Irwin Creek in the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed. Having signed up for the event a couple months prior through the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, I did a little fundraising for this annual "Tree-a-Thon" event to earn money to support their watershed rehabilitation efforts throughout the year. Thank you to those who contributed!
After observing the two little sleeping barn owls in palm trees in front of the Foundation's offices, we were taken to the creek-side planting site by horse-drawn carriage, with a little pony excitedly galloping along with us in it's pasture on the other side of the driveway fence.
Prepared with my hat, boots, and gloves, everything else was conveniently supplied and ready for us when we arrived, including a breakfast of spinach croissants and water in a booth set up by Whole Foods.
The site was a strip of area that had previously been part of a cow pasture where the cows were allowed to graze right up to the creek, allowing manure to pollute the watershed as well as cause destructive erosion. The understanding I gleaned by asking questions of as many people as I could, was that the county bought an easement from the property owner in order to protect the watershed by planting a riparian buffer between the relocated pasture fence and the creek.
We were organized into groups, assigned rows to work down, and given a demo of how to dig, plant, and use the cardboard weed barrier and juice-box to protect the young seedlings. Three of us from our group ― me, and a man and woman a bit younger than me ― volunteered to began the digging of holes so that the children and older members of our group could begin putting plants in the ground. After more than half the row was dug, I went back and joined in the planting. I planted 8 oaks, 3 ash, 1 box elder, 2 California blackberries, and 2 California rose.
After our row was finished, I went on to help dig holes and plant in some of the more difficult areas, the wet, lower areas closer to the creek. When every plant was in the ground, we got a carriage ride back up to the offices and were served pizza in the backyard while the fundraising leaders were honored by Executive Director, David Bannister.
$22k was raised by the event, and a total of 500 native plants were put in the ground that day. It was a fun and fulfilling experience that I plan to take part in again soon.
creek (4), laguna (3), santa-rosa (20), trees (28), volunteerism (1), watershed (1)
Degree (56), Santa Rosa (21)
June 3, 2005
After dinner we were standing in front of the bookstore drinking coffee when this man offered us half his pizza. He then sat down to play us piano.
musician (21), santa-rosa (20), stranger (28)
Musicians (23), Nikon D70 (54), Santa Rosa (21)
February 7, 2005
The lights for the blue cat and the "TCO" were out.
neon (2), night (33), santa-rosa (20), sign (9)
Santa Rosa (21)
February 3, 2005
Watching Micah while his mom was at a Kaiser appointment. He badly wanted to put his tongue in the fountain water.
family (35), micah (13), santa-rosa (20)
Family (48), Santa Rosa (21)
November 28, 2004
At a park in Santa Rosa these twin girls were not there to toss bread to the ducks and geese. The twins were sneaking up in order to better throw rocks as hard as they could from close range. Luckily, water fowl are well protected by thick layers of feathers and down. I just can't believe the parents stood by and let the girls do this.
birds (27), ducks (3), geese (3), lakes (5), park (3), santa-rosa (20), stranger (28)
Santa Rosa (21)
July 29, 2004
This is actually outside Andy's Market in Sebastopol.
Santa Rosa (21)
Arianna Helen