We had a beautiful day yesterday, a good one to stay close to home to get caught up on things.

This American Yellow Warbler was alternating between singing and snatching insects out of the air about a meter or two from its perch.  It obviously had keen eyesight and high maneuverability.  My reaction time wasn’t fast enough to catch it in the air so I took over 100 photographs, some in burst mode, hoping to get lucky with an “in flight” photo.

And every once in a while it would check the guy with the camera sitting in a portable blind, a truck.

A very pleasant sight and experience.

Then a pair of fishers came by and ended up snagging bass that were starting to protect their redds.  Bass season in Zone 14 starts June 27, four weeks from now.

Mother or Father Goose was leading the brood to water

All under the watchful eye of J.L. Seagull

First sign of these this spring.  Here are some good recipes.

Pleurotus ostreatus is prolific around here, usually growing on a standing aspen trunk that has been dead for a couple of years.  I think that the mycelium grows for a few years then fruits right after a spring or summer rain.  I always find the tell-tale beetle and use it to confirm the ID.

I have a special location on Riverside Rd where I check on the progress of Ladyslippers from the road.  This is not the greatest photo in the world but it records them in bloom at the end of May.

On the way home I found this monster crossing the road at the creek between Wrights Marina and Steve/Trudy’s places.  I waited until it had finished it’s excursion.   I was  looking to the East where the setting sun was illuminating a big Cumulonimbus calvus cloud.  I wanted to make a photo of it as a background to the blossoms of my Crab Apple tree.

Alas, other cloud obscured the thunderhead.  But I was able to get this nice picture anyway.

It rained overnight so there might be some interesting flower blossom pix out there today.

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