finally! a new post

It’s been too long!! It’s REALLY hard for me to spend any extra time in front of a computer during Autumn, so I haven’t posted here in a while, but now that I have less daylight to wander I can start sharing the bounty of what has been a spectacular couple of months.

This is my favorite time of year here in Northern California … the weather, the quality of light, the warm nights and clear mornings, and the changing cast of birds as the migration and dispersal of this year’s young occur. The hot weather from a late summer has departed along with the abundant smell of tarweed, fennel and coyote bush, and is now replaced with cool, crisp air and the smell of crushed grapes, burning wood, and other odoriferous crops (who’s legality is a matter of differing opinions).

Today I was able to spend another amazing day by Jenner in Sonoma County, just above the Russian River where it flows out into the Pacific Ocean. The red-tailed hawks were not as prevalent  in the skies today, presumably due to the sustained 25 mph winds, but they were hanging out on the low posts.

red-tailed hawk

The resident red-tails were staying busy harassing ferruginous hawks which seem to have chosen this area to spend the winter, and the resident kestrels were also out in numbers.

female kestrel

Lots of Western bluebirds, European starlings, and Western meadowlarks feeding in the grazed cattle fields along the coast …

Western meadowlark

As I left my clifftop perch after an amazing sunset unobscured by fog or clouds over a very calm ocean, I walked over lichen covered rocks with the full moon and Jupiter by its side both leading my way back towards my vehicle. Within the rocks I found some left-overs from the local winged predators.

full moon and Jupiter over lichen covered rocks