Found Art: Sidewalk Animals (September 29, 2011)

Here are a couple of more chalk sidewalk animals from an early morning walk to school. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Birds I'm Watching: Shollenberger Park, Petaluma, (September 26, 2011)

I went out to Shollenberger Park this morning to look for a rare sparrow that had been spotted there--a Clay-colored Sparrow--and found it fairly quickly, with the help of another bird watcher who had come for the same reason. Clay-colored Sparrow is a rare bird around here. It usually spends its summers well north of us in the middle of the North American continent, migrating to Mexico for the winter, passing through the mid-section of the country. Occasionally migrating birds get lost....

In addition to the sparrow, there were many Northern Shovelers, Black-necked Stilts (below), White Pelicans, Dowitchers, and other water-loving birds. There was a particularly pretty Lesser Scaup and four Wilson's Phalaropes--another fairly uncommon bird around here. The Clay-colored Sparrow was life bird number 339 for me and Sonoma County bird number 206.

 For more information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Rain: First Rain of the 2011-2012 Season Today

Rain was predicted overnight and for this morning. I was skeptical (although the first day of rain last year was about a week earlier), but it did rain last night and it's raining now. This is the first rain of the 2011-2102 rainy season, which officially began on July 1. Last year we had around 41 inches--10 inches more than in an average year. I wonder how much we'll get this year?