Our Nature Walk

We've had a strange and wonderful experience in Chico this past week. Not only has it suddenly and decidedly become Spring, but it became Spring suddenly on the exact day we had Daylight Savings Time. Spring fell on Chico like a sack of hammers. Our sinuses are stuffed, the sun is bright, the plants that survived the frost are blooming, and yesterday Laurie and I had one of the most tremendous nature walks we've ever had together.

You are going to have to click all of these pictures to make them bigger. At least on the ones I took in the park in order for you to see what I'm talking about.

Our tulip tree is blooming by the way. It survived the winter, so its future is looking hopeful.
I just noticed on enlarging this picture that you can kind of see Ginger watching me in chiaroscuro in the window.





If you enlarge the picture, note the spot of red near the peak of this broken tree limb, you can spot the woodpecker.

Deer. And they were this close to us.

 

It was a far shot, but if you enlarge the picture and look under the arch of the fallen tree, pretty much in the middle of the photo, you can see the fox.

And this was one of the cooler and slightly unnerving ones. If you enlarge the picture and look slightly to the right of the center of the image, you can see the coyote. The coyote was eating some small animal and looking back at Laurie and I every time we moved or spoke. The slightly unnerving part is that where I took this picture, in broad daylight, is less than a ten minute walk to a residential area.





This one is kind of an eye-test, but around the middle of the picture is a monochromatic finch style bird who had a magnificent chirp. I wonder if anyone can identify it. It's not a bird I've seen around Chico before.









Oh, and for those following the saga of Agnes, our rescued former feral cat, she is in great health and lately has been crawling right up on our lap. She's still a little skittish, especially when she's eating, but she's pretty much turned into a domestic cat. She is pretty much at peace in her new life.