#GreatBlueHeron #Birds #PointReyesNationalSeashore #Fujifilm #SOoC

A Great Blue Heron, wings spread out, appears to be aggressively stumbling through water, making a small splash with its right foot. It looks very awkward.

Yesterday, Point Reyes was mostly overcast. Today the clouds burned off by 10am.

Point Reyes Lighthouse, South Beach, and Abbotts Lagoon #PointReyesNationalSeashore

A lighthouse and two utility buildings, capped with red roofs, are lit up by sunlight on their left side. Seas beyond are calm and the sky is clear.

A Long Beach strand faded into the horizon. The surf breaks in white seafoam along the shore. The day is clear, if a bit hazy.

A trail leads to a bridge that’s just before Abbotts Lagoon. An egret can be spotted flying past the bridge. The area is bounded by shallow dunes.

At Point Reyes National Seashore this morning, we wandered along the Tomales Bay trail. After lunch, we followed the Estero Trail to Schooner bay. Great weather & very relaxing day. We’ll visit the beach & lagoon environments tomorrow. Wildlife photos will come later #PointReyesNationalSeashore

A human, wearing a backpack and a hat, pointing toward a copse of trees in a swale of dried out grass. It’s a bit overcast with some sky showing through.

The Estero at Point Reyes National Seashore. The calm estuary has two fingers of ridges reaching into it, before vanishing under the water. It’s overcast. There’s a beat up wooden hand rail of a foot bridge framing the bottom of the photo.

At Redwood National and State Parks, last July, this bat was probably sick. It’s sad to see a disoriented bat out in the open daylight and not at its roost or hibernaculum. My telephoto lens let me get a good look without disturbing it. #Myotis #Bat #Skypuppy #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SOoCThe backside of a bat, climbing down lap siding. It is nice and fuzzy. You can see its skin lined tail connected to its feet.A brown mouse-eared bat is climbing down the lap siding of a building. Its mouth is open, as it looks down.

We got the flu and covid vaccines today. No issues at the CVS in town. We did not want to take any chances, so we got them earlier than usual. It’s good to get that task out of my brain.

The first storm of Fall over the California Northern Coast Range means I should be hearing the song of White Crown birds very soon! (they summer in the foothills and mountains, overwinter in the valley; seemingly they appear shortly after the summer weather breaks)

Update: Voting is over and Azurite lost.

Here’s a photo of Azurite with smaller amounts of Malachite at the Freudenstein Castle in Freiberg, Germany. Let it lull you into voting for it in Mineral Cup 2025! Only a few hours left… #MinCup25 #Azurite #Geology #Minerals

A professionally displayed hunk of dark blue nodular Azurite or Azurit (German) from Seabra, Brazil. There are some greener nodules of malachite. It looks like clumps of candy making a rock, all but ensuring that you’ll vote for it. Photographed with permission.

My wife discovered another, smaller avocado fruit in our “Bacon” avocado tree. So that’s two! Very exciting. We still need to continue research harvest time for this variety. It’s a minefield on the internet for that 🤨 #Yarden #HomeOrchard #Avocado

A small, finger length avocado amongst broad dark green avocado leaves and tree tape.

A Nuttal’s woodpecker visited our front yard Toyon yesterday! #Yarden #NuttalsWoodpecker #Birds

Update on check engine light: loose gas cap! 😅

Grumble. We all know the check engine light is just a catch-all these days. Probably an emissions fault. #CheckEngine

Goodyear Blimp reg. N3A just passed by. They’re headed to a college football game at Eugene, OR from Livermore, CA. If you’re in Redding, I think it’s heading your way… #GoodyearBlimp #N3A #Aviation #AvGeek

FlightRadar24 screen shot showing the Good Year blimp about to pass Orland, CA at 2400 ft and 44 knots A heavily cropped photo of the Goodyear Blimp passing far in the distance. Its cylinder shape can be made out but otherwise there’s no detail. The foreground is a residential area with lawns, power lines and trees.

Adult California Gull and their chicks at the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary last July #CaliforniaGull #BirdPhotography #Birds #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SOoCOn a manmade island, covered in short grass, an adult white and gray California Gull looks away from their three chicks. The chicks have fluffy brown plumage.

Brown Pelicans occupying an island at the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary back in July #BrownPelicans #BirdPhotography #Birds #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SOoCA Brown Pelican comes in for a landing on a very small island in a large pond. The island is full of other brown pelicans, mostly grooming themselves. They're a dirty brown with awkwardly long necks and long, thick beaks.

Last time I was in Mendocino County, for the first time I finally saw the Stellar’s Jay. The fancy looking birds were a riot to watch flitting between trees. They were not easy to photograph being high up in the canopy. #StellarsJay #BirdPhotography #Birds #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SOoC

The back of a Stellar's Jay, with its signature mohawk head crest, sitting on a dead branch. It is looking to the right, so its face with a very large and dark eye can be seen. There's green foliage in the background, slightly blurred.

Monday. Here’s a Song Sparrow #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SOoC

A close-up very round brown-red Song Sparrow is hanging out at the stem of a fennel plant, looking just off axis of the camera lens. Its chest is white with speckles.

It’s the backyard Asian Pear harvest! Yellow are New Century variety and the brown skinned are the more familiar looking Hosui variety. They are odd spindly trees right now. I’m not used to pruning central leader trees, but vase shape. #Yarden #HomeOrchard #AsianPears

A colander with a mixture of yellow and brown skinned Asian PearsA very spindly Hosui pear tree with multiple stakes and lots of tree tape. It has pears still. The sky is blue and there’s more vegetation along a fence in the background. Drip line and gravel are in the foreground.A New Century Asian Pear tree with small yellow skinned pears. It’s better branched and dilated compared to the Hosui tree. In the background, there are ugly metal structures behind a wood fence. In the foreground is gravel and drip line.

Our cultivated California native seedy grapes are ready. The two plants mostly feed Northern Mockingbirds, Western Scrub Jays, and in the late fall, Kinglets, but some grapes will be for the humans in the form of a compote. As a bonus, gaze upon our lone avocado! #Yarden #HomeOrchard

Many bunches of ripe purple grapes hang from a grape vine.A hand is holding a metal colander filled with ripe red grapes. It's being held under a grape vine.An avocado is hanging from an avocado tree. It has a long stem and a narrow, green speckled body. A hand is nearby acting as a scale. It's about five fingers long and three fingers wide.

Randomized Albums in Track Order on Sonos (and Jellyfin)

A solution for Sonos, and other music player software, to generate M3U playlist files with shuffled albums by track order using various *nix tools and Mac apps.

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Small lizard friend at work today

A small lizard is standing with its forelegs extended on a slab of unknown material surrounded by dry dirt and scattered twigs.