Short Vacation in California

We spent a mid-May week in California, U.S.A. The trip fulfilled our every-90-days departure from Panama to renew our tourist visas and allowed us to pick up more of our stuff and bring it back to Panama, we took care of a little business in San Francisco, and best of all, we got to see some of our California pals. Friends in Kensington and Occidental hosted us in their homes, and we also reconnected with many other friends there and in Marin County. It was a great trip!

While in Kensington we took a late morning walk with our friend Jorge on an East Bay Municipal Utilities District property, where we heard the rich and glorious spring birdsong typical of this mixed redwoods & oak woodland with grasslands along the edge.

It was quite a treat for us to recognize each bird sound and song we heard and to know by name nearly all the trees, flowers and bushes we saw. (This is unfortunately not the case in Panama - we are at the bottom end of the learning curve on our home turf.) We enjoyed listening to Warbling Vireos, Wilson's Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Brown Creepers, Acorn Woodpeckers, Red-shouldered Hawks, White-breasted Nuthatches, Ash-throated Flycatchers and all the other species common to the area during the breeding season. How many do you recognize?

We also saw the little beauty in Jorge's photo and Marco's video:

a Ringneck Snake (Diadophus punctatus.)

Photo by George Griffeth