California Dreaming

Driving from Washington to California in late Spring is marked by a remarkable change in “seasons” the further south you travel. The dominant flower in the Humboldt District of Northern California during our trip was the native rhododendrons, huge tree-like plants of purple and pink,

Pink Rhodies

a typical Spring flower in the Pacific Northwest.

We didn’t have to drive much further, though, before we started seeing the California State Flower,

California Poppies

brilliant orange poppies, a flower that begins blooming in early Summer and lasts most of the Summer where I live.

Pink Rose

When we finally reached Mary’s house in Santa Rosa, though, the dominant flower was the beautiful

roses, seldom seen before July here in the Pacific Northwest, already past their prime.

Home Again

If you try to map your way from Santa Rosa to Tacoma online, almost invariably the maps will take you up I-5, and that’s certainly the quickest way home. Despite that, Leslie and I almost invariably go up 101 instead, even though it adds miles to what’s already a long day’s drive.

The main draw is

Walking In Redwoods

a place I continue to photograph even though I have little hope of actually capturing its essence in a single photograph, or a series of photographs, for that matter.

We also stop to see the elk virtually every time we drive through Prairie Creek Park, even though they’re certainly as tame as any zoo animal I’ve ever seen — which doesn’t mean I don’t honor the sign saying to stay back that these are wild animals. I respect any animal that large with that kind of amazing rack:

Bull Elk

Nor can I ever manage to drive by the numerous pull outs without trying, once again, to capture some sense of the ocean’s grandeur, at least on a rare sunny day like we experienced this time.

Northern California Coast

We’d actually planned on spending the last two or three days of our vacation on the Oregon coast, but as luck would have it a huge storm pushed down out of the Gulf of Alaska, and rain was predicted all the way to the weekend. I just couldn’t see paying for a motel room at the beach and watching the rain fall.

I also considered driving inland and visiting Crater Lake, but this was one of those rare summer storms that actually covered both sides of the Cascades. Sure enough, our drive through Southern Oregon was just plain nasty, with rain so heavy I actually considered pulling over and waiting for it to pass. We also encountered two serious accidents, with accompanying traffic jams.

We didn’t get home until nearly 2:30 AM, but I didn’t regret a single stop along the way. There’s no prettier place in the world than the Northern California Coast on a sunny day. Of course, there’s a reason those Redwood trees, which need lots of water, have survived there nicely for thousands of years.

A Tree Full of Egrets

The final day we were in Santa Rosa I had to decide whether to go back to the Sonoma County Park or Spring Lake State Park. Normally I would have chosen the Sonoma County Park just because there’s usually a lot less people there and I have a chance to see a greater variety of birds, and Acorn Woodpeckers. In the end, though I went back to Spring Lake because I’d been unable to get a shot of the egrets in the tree surrounding the lake the day before.

The day before I’d only seen Snowy Egrets in this tree, and it was hard to get much more than an obscured shot of one, often with only part of a head, or even no head, showing. When I returned this time, though I found a Great Egret, a much larger bird, sitting in the tree with numerous Snowy Egrets. Here’s a portion of that photo,

Great Egret in Tree

a shot I’ve obviously played around with in Photoshop. I like it a lot, particularly when it’s seen full screen on my Cinema display. I’m so used to seeing egrets in the water that seeing them in a tree somehow forces me to look at them differently.

Of course, the very act of photographing a bird seems to have the same effect. For instance, I’d never noticed before looking at the last bunch of shots that a Snowy Egret’s legs were

Egret Staring into Water

dark in the front, and yellow in the back, just the way their upper beak is dark while the lower part of the beak is yellow. I’m also fascinated by the talons/toenails on the feet.

I’ve never seen more than one Snowy Egret at a time in the past, so I was a little surprised, though I probably shouldn’t have been, to realize how distinctive various birds were. I particularly like this egret

Snowy Egret

whose feathers seem to stand on end quite often, something I never observed in any of the other egrets.

The Kindness of Strangers

The second day we were in Santa Rosa I chose to go to Spring Lake rather than return to the Sonoma County Park, and I’m glad I did because I’ve never seen so many egrets and herons before, which was even more surprising because I’ve never seen anything but a Great Blue Heron there before.

I got pictures of both a Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron, but none that were better than the pictures I posted yesterday. I must have spent the most time taking pictures of this Snowy Egret at Lake Ralphine,

Snowy Egret

which made it incredibly difficult to choose a best shot because I liked so many of them. This might be my favorite bird to photograph.

I also got pictures of this young Green Heron at Spring Lake.

Green Heron

I happened to point it out to a fellow walker who told me that she had recently seen Night Herons on Spring Lake. That immediately got my attention because I’ve never seen one although I had been trying to get a picture of one in Colorado for several years.

Amazingly, right after she had departed and was walking the trail in front of me she motioned me forward and pointed out this Black-Capped Night Heron,

Black-Capped Night Heron

which was apparently napping because he stood there perfectly still for over a half hour, never changing his pose. Even more strangely, it turned out that some pictures I’d taken earlier on the walk of a “Great Blue Heron” that had been pointed out by another walker turned out to also be a Night Heron once I could see them on the computer.

I’m continually surprised what a friendly group of people most birders are, people who go out of their way to share their joy with others, especially with fellow birders.