(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Daily Bucket. Two-day old Pi; fresh sunshine. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-16 House Finch, photographed 15 March 2023; funningforrest is out in the sunshine again! Yah, so my diary about the number Pi [read it if you want, but it’s no big deal] got scrambled in the Kospocalypsemeltdown two days ago, but looks like the site’s all fixed up now so here’s another try at a diary, with fresh material because the rain stopped and I took a ride. Two views of American Valley, looking west, from locations about a half-mile apart. The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns. We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow. Following a series of snow storms that began on February 22 (here around Quincy, CA, in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains and subsequently all the heck over the state of California) and continuing through March 9, it turned to serious rain on the 12th and didn’t stop until yesterday late (March 14). Around the middle of this morning I took a look outside and figured I could chance a bicycle ride out along the valley, hoping that the rain and the snow plows had the sides of the road sufficiently cleared for safe riding, and so it was. I thought to get a couple of reference shots and do a “before and after” kind of thing with them. Ten days apart: Two weeks apart: Although not the exact same footing for taking the photos, they’re near from the identical spot. This is looking down the bicycle path in town, which used to be a railroad line. A train still moved on this line when I first came to live here in Quincy, back in 1960. (Bottom photo is 15 Mar 23) I don’t have to go far at all to find at least Canada Goose, and the first-of-season Red-winged Blackbird, and one of a dozen or more House Finch busy busy busy in a small tree: My bicycle ride goes out about three miles to my normal turn-around at Longnose Bridge over Spanish Creek. Here’s two Sandhill Crane and a Red-shouldered Hawk sighted on the ride out: The Sandhill were but two among nearly a dozen I sighted on the ride. The hawk was the only one of its kind this day. A fine privilege all the same. Best bird shots of the day is this sequence I got of a Great Blue Heron doing a short-hop takeoff; there was another GBH right close by. Courting behavior, perhaps? As I approached Longnose Bridge, at the confluence of Greenhorn Creek and Spanish Creek, I was expecting some flooding from all the snow and rain of late. In times past I’ve seen this spot get a couple of feet deep with flood water. About eight inches, max, today so I was able to ride my bicycle through it with no problems. Happy I did, because the view from the bridge was worth it. This is obviously a summer season view. Pink arrows show my lines-of-camera-sight in the following photos. Bottom photo is after I rode through the water, and turned around to take the shot, by the “SLOW” sign you can see in the middle photo with the truck plunging through. In this next series, upper photo is from the bridge, looking upstream, where Greenhorn Creek and Spanish Creek flow together. Spanish Creek comes in from the center upper, Greenhorn from the lower left. Middle and bottom photos are looking at the downstream side of the bridge. So, not quite the much-undesired massive flood, but you can see it wouldn’t take much more. I’m just fine with the rain stopping, thank you very much. Sigh. Good rides end, but it was fantastico-marvelluso to be outside again. Final shots from the return trip: Common Raven, American Robin, Northern Flicker Now it’s your turn. What’s up in your world, nature-wise? Let us know in the comments and as always please include your location, and photos if you got ‘em! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/16/2158441/-The-Daily-Bucket-Two-day-old-Pi-fresh-sunshine Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/