The Dipper

Kathleen JamieIt was winter, near freezing ( Read more... )

Went birding (again!) the day before yesterday in Arroyo Grande, Pismo Beach, and Oceano. Saw robins by a creekside, a hummingbird feeding her two tiny nestlings, beach willow branches producing yellow catkins, and monarch butterflies mating in a eucalyptus grove. There was even a single early swallow ( Read more... )

I was teaching a class at 8 am and so missed the inauguration, but I went back to my office to catch it on the radio. I was flustered to discover that my cheap little radio is FM-only (I only use it to listen to music) but quickly moving around the dial proved that one of the music stations was streaming Obama's speech from MSNBC. I tuned in just ( Read more... )

1. Flogging Molly is the music for packing boxes and scrubbing the kitchen. For cleaning my bedroom, Garbage from the 1990s ( Read more... )

The season for jacarandas is over. No more amethyst--July sizzles in fuschia-pink clumps of oleander, crape myrtle, and bougainvillea, and the red-orange flashes of those almost neon summertime dragonflies, as bright as the beginnings of brush fires up in the hills. Ash is the color as well--the smoky haze that rose from the Goleta Fire now ( Read more... )

Hummingbirds are aggressive little creatures. They're bold, brash, agile, and territorial as all get out ("Get away from my nectar!' squeals the dominant male hummingbird, going into a steep dive. "Oh, how I wish I had been born with a tiny machine gun under each wing!"). Their feistiness only makes it that much more amazing, however, when you ( Read more... )

Posted because I want to post it!

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We're in between winter and spring this week. The red-winged blackbirds are advertising for mates, four species of hummingbird are squabbling in the backyard, and cormorants are nesting in the Sepulveda Basin, so clearly the equinox meant SOMETHING. But at the same time, the "winter birds"--white-crowned sparrows, juncoes, and goldfinches--haven' ( Read more... )

Last Bird of 2005: Black Phoebe

First Birds of 2006: Owls hooting in Topanga; Townsend's Warbler

Two summers ago, the dream of taking a road trip took root in my mind. It took too long for it to come true, but now that it has, all I can think about is when I can do it again ( Read more... )