Rain!

   The past week was great with my favorite type of weather: raining and overcast. I love seeing the gray skies and hearing the pounding of raindrops and seeing the sun behind thinner cloud layers; basically I love everything about rain. Additionally, my nightly runs were made much nicer with the cool air, piercing calls of killdeer from nearby fields, and light mist illuminated by street lights giving the atmosphere a surreal feeling. The new greenery encouraged by this rain was also sublimely beautiful.

Random phone-taken shots of mosses and lichens on a valley oak by my school

   On the 8th, I went to SLAC in Menlo Park to compete in the regional science bowl with a few other people on my team. Although we did not do so great (and because of that, no free survey of wildlife in suburban Washington DC :( oh well), I got some interesting pictures of surrounding flora. Still, not going to nationals sucks...

Moistened lichens on a cork oak

Base of a redwood

Oak covered with mistletoe (Phoradendron villosum). Weird how the mistletoe plants are all yellow, as they should be evergreen. Maybe the oak died?

A fallen mistletoe. Look at that junction between the parasite and the original branch!

    Later on the 8th between showers, I went to the Palo Alto Baylands to take in some sights of nice weather. I also kept my eyes peeled to see if any unusual birds got blown in by the storm but as the "storm" was not really that windy and as it was just me being way too hopeful, nothing out of the ordinary was seen. Also, I like how all of my landscape pictures have slanted horizons haha.

Sun shining through the clouds

So many gulls

At first when I saw this gull at Duck Pond, I got really excited, thinking that it was a first cycle Thayer's due to the really rounded head and bill on the shorter side.

Unfortunately, a Thayer's would have much less contrasting primaries so this is just another herring gull.... Oh well at least it was cooperative with my pictures?

Photogenic first cycle glaucous-winged gull

Photogenic adult Ring-billed gull. Look at that bright red orbital ring. Look at it!!!

This was a sad sight - a juvenile ring-billed gull trying to eat a piece of plastic after squabbling with its neighbors over it. I tried to flush the bird (I know that I'm not supposed to do that but seriously, this is one of the most common gulls and I really was not going to hurt it...) and grab the plastic but it fell into the water. Hopefully no bird dies choking on it.

Willet

Western gull working the mudflats

Oh dowitchers how all birders love you... I do think that these are long-billed, however, due to the bills having no noticeable droop at the end and the pretty straight supercilia forming a sideways "v". They're also the more common one here but whatever. But maybe my picture is not good enough for a good identification. If only they called.... Oh yeah this is an excellent website I stumbled upon one day that elucidates (somewhat-ish) the identification of long-billeds vs short-billeds (If you actually care...).

http://www.surfbirds.com/ID%20Articles/dowitchers1005/dowitchers.html

Storm clouds

Rail alley at high-ish tide

Rail alley with stormclouds

Rain falling in the distance

More rain. What a beautiful sight!

Random artichoke growing out of a hill

Look at that rain

Rainclouds just outside of my house

My reticulated irises starting to bloom. Hopefully they'll put on such a nice show next year!

   The past few days of precipitation were a lovely change of scenery from the preceding dry weeks. Although the rain was great, it certainly will not end this winter's severe drought. A dry year still ensues.