“Turkey Lane” might not be an inappropriate name for our little ribbon accreted from an old river:
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Wow! Where is that? We moved to Vacaville last summer and I’m on the hunt for some nearby hikes 
That is Fort Funston beach, the southernmost point along the coast in San Francisco. It is probably actually in Thornton beach just south of there but best accessed from the Fort Funston car park. I’d be happy to show you around sometime if we could work it out. How long a drive it is depends entirely on traffic. Today and yesterday there were no slowdowns at all so just 30 minutes from Berkeley.
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This is a picture of a few of the 15,000 gulls (plus 100 or so Turkey Vultures and 14 Bald Eagles) that were at the Conway, SC Landfill on Saturday. Four of the ones in the picture are Laughing Gulls, ten are Ring-billed Gulls, three are juvenile Herring Gulls, two are the rarer locally Lesser Black-backed Gull, and one (guess which) is a lost Slaty-backed Gull. Slaty-backed Gulls are supposed to be near Japan or Korea this time of year, but a few every year show up on the US West Coast and in New England. About four per decade show up near the East Coast between Virginia and Texas. This was the most recent of those.
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A really nice Eastern Fence Lizard. Was surprised that I was able to get it since they can run really fast. But I bear hugged the tree above it and so it darted down and then onto the ground and I thought well that’s that I can’t run through palmettos and dwarf oaks. Then felt something and looked down and it was on my pants and i was able to cup it. It’s the prettiest one I’ve ever seen. You can see their reddish and greenish scales on its back. You can see it’s blue throat really well and more green pattern along it’s belly. Was really pretty. I almost wanted to kidnap it and buy a terrarium for it and keep it but let it go.
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That is one well dressed lizard. Blue becomes him … or her.
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I like the eye paint too. ; - )
It’s a male. Darker and more vibrant hues and lack of defined horizontal black marks along its back.
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I don’t have a photo of my own easily available, but here’s a stock photo of the “rainbow lizard” we found all over our walls in Africa. They called them “kiski” or “gadangari.” I found it interesting that your lizards have blue in the males, too. The female is the bottom.
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Only 18 more miles to bike and then time to turn around and head all the back. Then a 5 mile jog followed by 200 push ups, 400 sit ups, crunches and leg lifts and lastly 50 dips. Most of my workouts are not this much. But I do it a few times a year.
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Some of our “snow birds” yesterday. Species present, but not in the pictures include three woodpeckers, grackles, Red-winged Blackbird, goldfinch, Brown-headed Nuthatch, blue jay, and crows.
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The video is not supported, but for reference on conditions this morning, I sledded down a shady, ~120 m long stretch of road in our neighborhood going down toward the First Broad River. After partially melting and refreezing yesterday, the road was coated in a rough sheet of ice, and the slope is about 25 degrees.
The lowest 16 meters of the slope took about 1.2 seconds to go down, hence my peak speed was about 31 mph, which means that I almost broke the road speed limit (35) on a sled.
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Glad you were on a sled, and not in your car.
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It’s crazy to me it’s still thst cold. Our winter is finally coming to a end and snakes and stuff are coming back out. In six weeks or so our beaches will be flooded with shirtless college dudes and girls in bikinis sun tanning.
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The snake is supposedly a very black water snake species. I could not ID because it was about 20 feet below me and that’s the best image I could get. I thought it was a glossy cray snake but knew it’s shake was a bit off and in a group it was IDed by three good people as a rarer coloration of water snakes. But since I never even seen one remotely that black and solid I had no idea.
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Most other roads were entirely passable by midday, and that one probably will be tomorrow.
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Yummy soup I made today. Food is definitely one of the best aspects of creation lol.
Found some wild tree ear mushrooms. Added them to the soup. It’s potatoes, sweet corn, peppers, cherry tomatoes, sugar peas, carrots, cashews, sweet onions and fried tofu in a coconut cream broth with some curry.
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I love to see a happy dog having an adventure outdoors!
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Point Reyes National Seashore, my first time to the Pacific! But maybe it doesn’t count because I didn’t actually touch the water.
My theme for moving to the West Coast has been
“If I take one more step, it’ll be the furthest away from home I’ve ever been.”
-Sam Gamgee, The Fellowship of the Ring
I have to say this line every time we travel somewhere new.
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When I got my first car this is the place I’d go to walk and camp. Inspiring isn’t it?
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