Annie and Shelli visited on April 30th and did a little census. They saw: House finch - Common flicker - American robin - White crowned sparrow - American goldfinch - Savannah sparrow - Golden crowned sparrow - Black capped chickadee - Song sparrow - Violet-green swallow - Barn swallow - Red-winged blackbird - Chestnut backed chickadee - Spotted towhee - Rufus hummingbird - Red tail hawk - Double crested cormorant - White winged scooter - Brandt geese - Pigeon guillemont - Herring gull - Harlequins - Pacific loon - Sea lion - Harbor seal - River otters - Silver fox - Red fox - Deer - Raccoon - Bald eagle - Northwest crow - Turkey vultures - California quail (actually they only heard this one). The neighboras alo report there are four of these little guys up on the road:

The other significan thing that has happened is the road underwent it's five-year scraping and is now a much better surface for drainage. We also got the driveway scraped while the big equipment was in the neighborhood.

Spring is Official

Liz invited neighbor Ryan Browne to help in the garden. He came right over and helped turn a couple of the beds with compost and manure. They planted peas and potatoes and relocated the rhubarb. He's interested in being a garden partner which makes Liz (and Janna) very happy. The three of us enjoyed a great supper of chicken enchiladas that Janna cooked. The first of the daffodils are also coming out, as well as the new baby nettles.

Oh, feel the heat!!!

Grey Day

Janna, Liz, Addy and Al went down to the cabin for quiche and spinach salad. While Liz and Al inspected the beach Addy and Janna measured the dimensions of the cabin interior. We spent some time talking about possible reorganization of the space.

Al and Liz split up a nice piece of western red cedar for future fence rails. We also checked out Point Joe and discovered over 100 spider crab carcasses. Someone has been feasting fairly recently.

Walked down to the cabin to see how it had fared in the freeze. One water pipe on seaward side needs replacement. Deer have gotten into the garden in spite of the new slats in the fence. Now that they have tasted that delicious parsley we'll have to doubly reinforce the barricades.

A huge group of oystercatchers (well, at least a dozen) landed and inspected the intertidal while we stood on Point Joe.  Lots of fox tracks all over. There's a good protective amount of driftwood on the beach, preventing undue erosion from our recently developed "feeder bluff".