Northern Rail Line

We went on our usual Sunday run to the food co-op and noticed two locomotives of the California Northern Railroad on the tracks that run north-south behind the co-op. The geography of Davis has been built around a T-intersection of rail lines just east of downtown. There is a doubletrack line running northeast-southwest heading into Sacramento that get both Union Pacific freight trains and Amtrak traffic, and then there’s the line heading to the north, the one running by the co-op, that gets only light use, mostly by the California Northern.

This is a small railroad with a dozen or so locomotives. It’s based in American Canyon in Napa County, but they also run trains on a line stretching from Davis up to Tehama in the northern Sacramento Valley. We like them because the locomotives are pretty, with green and beige trim. Someday we’ll sketch one in color.

Berkeley for Indian and Blogging

We took a trip to Berkeley today to meet Allan’s sister et al. for lunch at Vik’s Chaat House (an Indian fast food restaurant in a warehouse, exceptional food, two-foot-wide pooris) and then to meet up with Tim of the Where Project.

We had a great cha(a)t with Tim about the future of Ecotone and how we might all get this back to the vital forum it was before it got so attacked by spammers… If you’re interested in joining this discussion, leave a comment here, and we’ll add you to the mailing list. It looks like there will be a new host, a new domain name, an archive of material that’s already there, and lots of new goodies.

Backyard Fowl

When I got home at dusk today, Pica was talking to our landlord about springtime trips to the desert. He went off, circling around the north side of the house. Then he shouted at us from outside — there’s a turkey under the walnut tree!

The Swainson’s hawks are back, though not in large numbers yet: I saw and heard one over the creek as I was riding home.

Turkeys By The Bridge

I was cycling to work this morning, heading up the rise to the bridge over Putah Creek, when I saw a flock of seven tom turkeys crossing the road. They were most of the way over on the east side of the road, but were indecisive and had thoughts about heading to the west side. When I came closer on my bike, six of them flew off west, joined shortly by the seventh who was already in the brush, and landed about 75 meters west from the road, just south of Putah Creek.

Returning

Some friends who live in the hills above Winters had their annual picnic today. The brodiaeas were out, almost past; the poppies up there are smaller and more yellow than the ones down here.

We ended up at the table with the pomologists and mathematical ecologists (hey, it was in the shade).

It’s an informal gathering, one where it’s completely acceptable to wander off for a hike or a sketch, which we did.

A year and a half ago, we got married at this spot. It’s a lot greener in March!

Swainson’s Hawks Return

And then, they were back.

I saw four Swainson’s hawks today, three of them over my office. They’ve been far, possibly as far as Argentina. It’s spring now.

Peregrines Nesting

Peregrine falcons hold some kind of mystique… whether it’s because they came so close to extinction during widespread use of DDT, or because they can tuck into a dive reaching almost 200 miles an hour, or because they’re just plain beautiful, these are amazing birds to see.

There’s a pair now nesting at the PG&E Building in San Francisco. This webcam is updated every five seconds.

update, Tuesday, March 8, 2005: there are now three eggs, and the female “Gracie” is predicted to start incubating full-time, but at 2:34 pm PST she’s absent…

Counting Crows, Again

My work buddies have been continuing to catch crows as part of a West Nile virus study. The backpacks with the radio transmitters seem to have held up remarkably well in most cases. There is a large roost site in Davis which most of the crows fly into at dusk, and their beep-beep-beeps alert the folks following along on radios to their presence. (This is, incidentally, a VERY bad place to park your car.)

Last week I spotted a crow with an antenna (well, I spotted the silver tag around its ankle) just outside my window at work. I’ve seen it every day since. This crow, #652, seems to be paired up. It’s almost always with another crow now. (By the way, Coup de Vent, it doesn’t seem at ALL bothered by the weight of the transmitter or the straps or even the antenna, though it had certainly lost the tape off the end…)

We heard 652 this evening at the roost site along with 14 others. We missed four, but we hope the volunteer will find them tomorrow night. All this rain we’ve been having is yielding a bumper crop of mosquitoes, and it won’t be long before the virus hits this region like a sledgehammer.

Spring

Numenius has installed a weather applet (Meteo) on our laptop which means I’m keeping tabs on the weather here, in Maine, in Boston, and in Juneau, where friends and family live. I definitely feel guilty wondering which blossoms to draw when I see everyone else is getting snow today.

Guilty or not, the blossoms here are on their inexorable march; the almond ones have blown away, giving place to the much smaller white plum blossoms. The pale pink nectarine and darker pink peach blossoms are next. We lost a cherry tree four years ago to rot and and the peach might be heading that way (helped along by an overzealous northern flicker), but they’re beautiful while they last.

Daffodil Sunshine

Our landlady keeps a fine garden, and she kindly planted daffodils in back of our house, viewable from our bedroom. They’ve been coming into full bloom right now, warmed by several days of sunshine.