Fur, fin, feathers, and flowers

[Don Alaska]

I don't have pictures, but Sand Hill Cranes landed in our yard this morning. This is only the second time they have landed in the yard, the first being last year. Only one pair, and it may have been the same pair as last year. We have all kinds of water fowl and often see Bald Eagles fly over. We see cranes fly over often, and I suspect they have landed or even nested in other parts of our property, but they are new to our yard.

 

[Sheryl]

 

[Axel Slingerland]

When I lived in Eureka, I used to ride my bike every day for many years. Usually from about 9:00a to 11:00a. But if I couldn't do it at that time I would go out at midnight and ride, loving the peace and quiet. Specially if it was foggy.

One night I was close to Eureka High School and I saw a family of Racoons sitting on the grass. I stopped to watch them for awhile, and at first they ignored me. But when I reached down to grab my stainless steel water bottle to have a drink, it clinked on the carrier, they heard that and ran off. Right strait into a broken window of the basement of the old school building, which was built in 1925.

Over the next several weeks I saw them several times. And it was obvious that for them, home was in the basement of Eureka High. I knew a guy who worked in the maintenance crew for the school. I said something to him about them and he said the adults had been living there for many years, and had several litters there. He said all the maintenance guys knew about them, but none of them said anything to the school about them. Nobody ever went down to the school's basement and they weren't hurting anything by being there...

 

[Krystal]

A bumblebee on my coneflowers.

 

[Don Alaska]

First Robin was spotted today

 

[Sheryl]