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.

Continue reading →

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.

Kīlauea is erupting, and at night it is mesmerizing: www.youtube.com/watch

It’s been a few months & Return to Office is still exhausting

Sorry to those that are squeamish about spiders, but this Western Spotted Orbweaver was just asking for a photoshoot. This spider took the night-shift last night in our front yard #WesternSpottedOrbWeaver #Spider #InsectPhotography #Yarden #Fujifilm #SoOC

Plan-view of a Western Orbweaver spider with a fat, round abdomen and a tiny brown cephalothorax (head). The abdomen has patterns of brown within a matrix of coffee with cream. Its spider web can be descerned from the background, which is all blurred out. Its legs alternate between brown and coffee with cream. It has hairs on its head. It has spikes on its legs.The underside of the Western Spotted Orbweaver, which appears reddish probably because of light conditions. It has four clear white spots on its abdomen and an elongated white spot just below its head. Its chelicerae are visible. The background is completely blurred out.

I think this is the last nectarine harvest. About 6 pounds. The shield bugs were showing up and nectarines were dropping fast from wind and bird pecks :-( They were effortlessly plucked off the tree. Next harvest: Asian pears! #HomeOrchard #Nectarines #Yarden

A nectarine tree with almost a dozen dropped fruit on the gravel and dirt area below. The tree still has a few dozen nectarines on it.A collander of very ripe dark red to orange colored nectarines sitting on a scale. The scale is on a plastic covering upon a tile counter. The scale reads 6 pounds and 5 ounces, so there’s about 6 pounds of necartines.

Black Saddlebags spotted on my walk just now #BlackSaddlebags #Insects #InsectPhotography

A black saddlebag insect on Russian thistle(?). The insect has clear long rectangular black areas on its wings.

Here’s our Northern California seismograph for the M8.8 earthquake at Kamchatka. Impressive. Took about 10 minutes to reach our town. Not sure what the signal was 15 minutes before it though.

Edit: Looking at the timing, the 15-minute earlier signal was likely me coming home from work & closing the front security door #Earthquake #RaspberryShake #Seismograph

A screen capture of a RaspiShake seismograph showing the M8.8 spiking clearly at around 23:34 GMT.

Another nectarine harvest. This time, 4 pounds. Smelling more fragrant this time! A few came off with a tug (yellower stems) but most still need shears. Also, our milkweed has busted open their pods and omg the tufts are so soft! #HomeOrchard #Nectarines #Milkweed #Yarden

Four pounds of dark red to red to yellow nectarines piled up in a metal colander.A milkweed pod is releasing its seeds, which are ready to wind carried away by their fluffy, white tufts. The pods are cone shaped and split down the middle to release their seeds.

#RedSidedGarterSnake #Snakes #SnakePhotography #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SoOCA Red-sided garter snake is amidst grass and forbs, with its head facing the camera and its body resting in a U-shape such that part of the snake wraps around to comes towards the camera. The snake has red and dark grey patterned sides with beige stripes along the bottom and top. The snake's upper head is red with large eyes. Its mouth is beige.

Trail on the Trillium Falls Trail at Redwood National and State Parks #FootPathFriday #RedwoodsNP #Redwoods #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SOoC

A dirt footpath that is set with diamond cement stones has shadows cast on it in a wooded area full of ferns and conifer trees. A person with dark clothes, a back pack, and a shade hat is down the path. A tree casts a shadow directly on the path.

#WhiteTailedKite #Birds #BirdPhotography #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SoOC

A White-tailed kite, soaring above under overcast skies, is gliding away from the camera, showing its belly and an eye. It has a mostly white body with its wings fading to grey. Its neck has a rust-red collar.

#Wrensday #MarshWren #Birds #BirdPhotography #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SoOC

A tiny Marsh Wren, kind of far from the photographer, is perched on a reed, just below a fluffy cat-tail head. The Marsh Wren is looking to the right, with its near vertical short tail just visible behind the reed. It is within a sea of other cat tails, all with fluffy stuff hanging off them.

#Rabbit #RabbitPhotography #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SoOC

A relaxed brown little rabbit, in profile view, sits on a path in front of some thorny berry bushes.

Redwoods, likely grown together, on the Trillium Falls Trail at Redwood National and State Parks #ThickTrunkTuesday #RedwoodsNP #Redwoods #NorCalCoast2025 #Fujifilm #SOoC

A very thick trunk red wood is straight down a foot path through a wooded area. The tree top of the giant redwood can be viewed at the top of the photo, as it has broken through the canopy and is shining brightly in sunlight. Below its canopy, everything is shaded with some dappled sunlight.