BY GUEST BLOGGER PETE

For my Fathers' Day present, Ruth had booked a photography excursion for us both in a nearby vineyard.  It was a good day out, but unfortunately, although much larger than Ruth and John's the vineyard was no where near as attractive.

There were 5 of us in the group - led by Dave from Rohnert Park, who had been a wine maker.  It was a bit disappointing that he spent so much of his time telling us about grapes and wine-tasting and very little about the art of photography.  That could have been because 2 of the 5 participants weren't photographers and came to accompany their photographer daughter. 


Ruth and I enjoyed the day and found some great shots to take.  I overdid the bunches of grapes photos but with a digital camera that's not at all important.


Almost unbelievably, it was a cloudy day.  This was fine because the lack of sunlight made the taking of photographs a lot easier than in conditions of bright sunlight and dark shade.


About three quarters of the way through the tour, Dave reminded us to look out for snakes, adding the rider that they wouldn't be out in the overcast conditions anyway.

Some of the most interesting shots were the rows of vines leading the eye up to a feature in the hills beyond.


The vineyard - B. R. Cohn - is situated just out of Sonoma.  Bruce Cohn, the founder and owner, had at one time been the manager of a group of musicians - The Doobie Brothers. The group had broken up and Bruce had then bought the acreage for the vineyard.  A few years later he arranged a charity music festival and his old group reformed for the occasion in order to take part in the concert.



That night was so successful that the group have stayed together and the one off concert is now an annual event.  The vineyard is a perfect setting in which to enjoy music.


When we returned to the visitor center a huge lunch was given to us. I'm sure that my lunch along would have fed all 5 of us!


After lunch, Ruth and I took some floral photographs and also four unusual and attractive fun sculptures by an artist living nearby in Sebastopol - Patrick Amiot.  If you are ever in that California town - hunt out Florence Street where the sculptor lives. Almost every house on that street has a piece of his work on display in their gardens.


A good, enjoyable, fun and even unusual day. And the sun broke through the fog at lunch time.

Just spotted a little Green Heron on the duck birdhouse on our pond.  We often see him by the pond under the dock or in the canoe doing some fishing but Green Herons are typically shy so we haven't seen him on top of the post before.  Got some nice photos of him too showing his green head...


I'm wondering if he is sitting further from the water to get away from the noise of Bello the bullfrog whom I mentioned in yesterday's post! Can herons put their wings over his ears to block out the noise I wonder????


And even though herons eat frogs - I think Bello could be a little much for the little green!  We also get a great blue heron regularly but not even sure if they eat bull frogs.... Adult bull frogs seem to have few predators.


I think I'd have to say that I prefer the elegance of the heron to the croak of the bullfrog.  Sorry Bello!

As I mentioned yesterday, I wanted to show you the second rare bird sighting I've had this week here at Birdland.  Thanks Jennifer for your help yesterday in the identification.  You are a sharp-eyed woman!

So here is the other bird recently sighted in the vineyard:


Look at the bill on it!  Just amazing.  But still I'm undecided as to what it is.

I'm thinking its either a female Greater Billed Gobbler or the Dopey-eyed Billasaurus...




He/she has very distinctive markings on the chest - but I'm afraid I couldn't quite catch those in the photo.....so maybe its a Chest-barred Chirper?


What do you think?  And yes - the two birds even came close together - as you can see here!


 And the large billed bird was busy nest building


 I think they quite like each other.....


So get those bird books out and help me identify these birdies!  Thanks, in advance, for your help!  I'll keep you posted of their activity........

Springtime is definitely bringing the birds to Birdland!

Just today I've spotted two birds that I'm having trouble identifying.  I'm hoping you can help.  Please circulate the photos to see if your family and friends and any other birdwatchers out there can help identify the species.

Here's today's bird:


I'm thinking it could be the male Sharp-eyed Shufflerasis


or maybe a juvenile Lesser Flapasaurus


Or maybe it's the rare Bog-eyed Bugeater?


Any ideas?  Get your bird books out and see what you think!

I'll post photos of the other bird tomorrow so even if you can't figure out today's - be sure to come back tomorrow and see if you can help....please!

Bud break has just started in our vineyard.  This is the time when you first see the tiny little leaves unfurl.  It starts at the top of the slope of the vineyard and only the very top row is showing those little unfurlings.


It'll be a few weeks before the rest of the vineyard catches up - especially the vines on the flat ground, but it's a lovely  time to see all that regrowth.  We've just had what look like dead sticks since November - and now, signs of new life!

We also had other "signs of life" spottings today in the vineyard.  John was on a conference call - but while he was paying attention to the call (!!!!!) he spotted what he thought was a mountain lion just outside the vineyard.  So I got the binoculars out and had a look and it was in fact a bobcat.  It looked pretty big though - but with the obvious markings on it's body, black tipped ears and a short tail. 


It looked like it was taking a leisurely stroll......Every few minutes, it would sit down and take a rest....which meant that we could watch it for over half an hour while it walked just a short distance.

A little later, we drove out to a meeting and I jokingly said to John "watch out for the bobcat so we don't run it over" and 2 seconds later, there it was on the lane.  To begin with we both thought it was a different bobcat - as it looked so small!!!


The one above the vineyard had looked like this biiiiiiiiig cat - but we then had to face it that in reality, it was just a cute little cat!  We stopped the car -and of course, I got out to have a closer look.  It stood watching me for a while - really quite close so we got to see it so well.  Then it ambled off over the creek.  Unfortunately I'd only had my camera with me when it was outside the vineyard and not on the lane so the photos aren't that clear!

So a good vineyard day today!

What new signs of life have you seen today?

It was a lovely day today. The sun was shining and it was quite warm so we decided to go for a walk around the nearby lake and take a little picnic lunch with us.


As we were walking, lots of ducks came onto the pond and they were so busy with all their goings on. Most of them spent a lot of time splashing around and getting the water in all those little places that needed freshening up. It was really quite loud. And there was one very vocal duck....and they kept swimming one way, and then another.... There were over 100 of them - all mallards. We enjoyed eating out lunch and watching and listening to them all.

And right in the middle of them ( you probably can't see in the first photo), was Duncan Duck :


and Dippy Duck!:


They were quieter than the others and didn't splash around as much! But it was nice to see them all hanging out together!

Our first morning of the grape harvest for 2009. Here are a few photos to show you the vineyard crew in action.

Each of the green or white containers you see in the photos holds approx 1/2 ton of grapes. The vineyard really looks like a farm today with a couple of tractors, fork lift, flat bed truck, loads of cars parked outside and people everywhere! We normally don't have "equipment" everywhere! Even the deer are keeping away as there is too much activity.


The goal today was to harvest 5 tons. They are so fast at picking. It's 10am and they are done! Look carefully at the first photo below - it's taken under the vines and you can just about make out all the legs of the vineyard crew as they pick!


"Heavy storms" are forecast for tomorrow. We haven't had rain since spring so I'm not complaining....By the end of the week, it should be warm again so hopefully the rest of the grapes will be ready to be harvested then. We expect a total harvest of about 20 tons. I had a little taste of the grapes as I wandered around this morning....lots of good flavors.

Harvest time is upon us. We will begin on Monday, harvesting 5 tons of our lovely Merlot grapes. The vineyard is looking so beautiful with all these little grapes, in their dark colors against the turning green leaves....so splashes of yellows and reds...

By guest blogger Pete

Happy Easter to you all. I have always thought that Easter is the most glorious of the Christian Festivals - the one that gives true meaning to everything that went before it and comes after it.

I am writing this a few days before Easter sitting in the sun after a lovely walk through the sun dappled hills of the Glen Ellen Regional Park. Everything was so fresh and the spring wild flowers so abundant and colourful. The grasses were splattered with hazes of blues, yellows, and whites. Both coming and going we saw a Pileated woodpecker hard at work. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I can't offer you a photograph of this hard-working fellow. The 50 minute walk was followed by a refreshing cup of coffee sitting in the shade at an outside table.


By the time you read this Pam and I will have been back in the UK for a few days. With the onslaught of the dreaded jet lag I somehow don't anticipate being so relaxed and rested as I am sitting here and writing this. Perhaps the day will come when someone will come across a cure that will stop the "body clock" from going haywire. I usually feel that mine has a broken main spring.


Yesterday saw the four of us go into San Francsico to visit the new "California Academy of Sciences". This building is situated in one of my favourite parts of SF: namely the Golden Gate Park. One year we went there on my birthday and. hard though it may be for the 49ers to accept this, the temperature rose above 100 degrees.


We walked through the park sweltering in the heat with feet making the sort of protest that only feet are capable are making. Eventually we came across what could have been fountain but was probably a paddling pool and the 4 of us took off our shoes and socks and for quite sometime luxuriated in the coolness of the water on our feet. I digress though - what I wanted to do was to recommend a visit to the California Academy of Sciences to anyone visiting San Francisco or living in that area. It's well worth the time and effort trying to find your way both into and also out of the park (let alone parking your car). That's where I took the attached photos.

Bye for now.

Enjoy your Easter.