sunrise from home
November 27, 2010

The later sunrise this time of year is a bonus here. Unfortunately, I don't have other recent pictures to share on Nature ID. Wishing everyone a lovely December. Happy holidays!

habitat ~ 11/25/10 ~ Monterey Bay Recreational Trail

Turkey Trot
November 25, 2010

It was beautiful here for Thanksgiving this year. Andy took these pictures as he ran to the start at Lover's Point for the decidedly unofficial, annual Turkey Trot. As I understand it, the goal is to run towards Asilomar and back within 1 hour exactly. Whoever returns closest to the 1 hour mark gets an ugly trophy to hold and keep safe until next year. We have several pictures of friends and I'm still figuring out if sending pics as an e-mail attachment is couth.

rainbow ~ 11/20/10 ~ at home

rainbow from home
November 20, 2010

Yep, it's the season for rainbows. The recent rain has been refreshing and it hasn't been too cloudy or windy, yet.

black-tailed deer ~ 11/19/10 ~ at home

Columbian black-tailed deer
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

I believe these three are the mother and her twin females that I spotted back in May of this year. The buck that visited at the end of October stayed around for a couple days and is now gone. I'll admit, I was a little nervous taking out the trash for a few days, because he liked to hang around under the oak tree next to our bins and he'd startle me as he quickly got up from his rest.

Three things to note: 1) the deer seem to love the end of our driveway as a gathering and resting spot, 2) notice the bright green grass in November, and 3) notice the darker winter coat than the chocolate brown in spring.

ps 01/23/11 - For those friends who have dismissed my research into figuring out which subspecies of deer we have on the Central Coast of California, I present this great CDFG pdf, with much thanks to Jim Coda.