To owl of you

  

Happy holidays to owl of you!

 

 

The second photo is a Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) photographed in Petaluma at the end of the day today (24 December 2025). 

Drop after drop

  

We went for a short walk in Petaluma this morning (22 December 2025).  One of the plants there had water droplets at the tip of every branch — a field of droplets as far as you could see! 

On the surface

 

 

Female darner (possibly a Blue-eyed Darner, Rhionaeschna multicolor) ovipositing in tule stems lying on the surface of the water.  Photographed in Petaluma on 16 October 2022.

Gradient

 

 

Looking west from Petaluma at sunset, 26 February 2022

Burrowing among the boulders?

 Rocks, lichens, mosses...and an owl!  Can you spot it?

 

 

 

There's a Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) just right of center.  If you're having a hard time spotting it, here's a slightly closer view (below).  [And you can click on the image for a larger version.]

 

 

 

Photographed in Petaluma on 31 January 2021.

California and Connemara

The other day we were watching a coyote hunting — walking, pausing, listening intently:

 

 

 

It was late in the afternoon, so the lighting brought out the different colors in the coyote's fur:

 

 

 

Afterwards, I kept pondering what colors were there.  How would you describe them?

 

Later that night I was reading a book I started recently (Listening to the Wind by Tim Robinson) and I came across a line that strung together these colors — "tawny, amber, and rufous."  Tim was describing sedges in a bog, but it immediately made me think about this coyote and I thought, "That's it!  Those are the colors in the coyote's fur."

 

A fun connection between a coyote in California and a bog in Connemara.

 

P.S.  Connemara is on the west coast of Ireland in the northwest corner of County Galway.

 

Ringing in the new year

 

 

We had some nice views of a small group of Ring-necked Ducks (Aythya collaris) in Petaluma this afternoon (1 January 2021).  The reflections of the shoreline vegetation in the water surrounding the ducks were amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

The north end and the south end

 

Two ends of one rainbow in Petaluma on 2 December 2019 — the north end (above) and the south end (below):

 

I hope this is just the start to "rainbow season"!

 

Rainbow over rain clouds

 

Looking north from Tolay Lake in Petaluma on 26 November 2016.

Purplish pink

 

Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum) in Petaluma, CA, on 26 March 2016

Calling from Petaluma

I recorded some fun bird calls and songs in Petaluma this weekend.

Do you want to try to guess which species of birds they are?

I'll reveal the answers at the end of this post.

[If you're reading this in an e-mail, click on the title of the post above to go directly to the website to see the audio files.]

Be sure to turn up the volume of your speakers. (Listening with headphones is even better.)
 

Here's Sound 1.  There are some background sounds, but listen for the hollow, knocking notes.  You'll hear three different series of these notes —  at about 3 seconds, 10 seconds, and 16 seconds.

Here's Sound 2.  In this case you'll also hear three different series of notes, but this time the notes are loud whistles and gurgles.





Here's Sound 3.  There's some background sound, but focus on the clear, whistled note.  You'll hear the note five times — at about 1, 4, 6, 9, and 11 seconds.




Okay, are you ready for the answers?


Sound 1: Common Raven (Corvus corvax).  This is sometimes referred to as a percussion-like call.  Some liken it to a drumming woodpecker.  It's apparently only given by females.

Sound 2: Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta).  An impressive vocal array.

Sound 3: Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus).  I don't know much about shrike vocalizations, but I was intrigued by this beautiful call note.  I couldn't find a good written description of it, and only came across one other recording that was somewhat similar.  Have you heard shrikes calling like this?  Is it a sound that just hasn't been described very well?  Or is there geographical variation in shrike call notes?

Now that you've heard the shrike, here are two pictures of the individual that was calling:

 

 

Flock of eight

 

 

A distant picture, but a photo for the record: Tundra Swans (Cygnus columbianus) at a flooded field along Roblar Road in Petaluma on 21 January 2016.  It appeared that at least two of them were immature birds.

If you're interested, here are some older pictures of Tundra Swans — from Doran Beach on 22 January 2013 and 21 November 2013.