Redneck Safari

Yesterday, we went to a friend's new place out in Grimes (farming hinterland near the Sutter Buttes) for BBQ.

 We heard there was some interesting wildlife so we all piled into the truck for a little "redneck safari" (must credit my clever friend Jack with coining that great phrase).   After bumping along the country roads for a little bit we came upon a raucous cacophony of bird cries in the nearby slough.  It is a rookery for Night Herons, Egrets, Bitterns and who knows what else.  It stunk to high heaven, but oh what a sight, there were literally hundreds of birds and nests all crammed into this one little area in the middle of miles of farmland.

we saw lots and lots of nests with juvenile birds, many looked just about ready to fledge, like these egrets.

the Night Herons make a very interesting cry, sounds like a cross between a little dog woofing and bird whooping.

Jack found some volunteer walnut saplings to take back to Esparto.

back to the homestead, we enjoyed some great food and company.

after dinner we took a walkabout to a little pond up the road known to be home to some beaver and otter.  We didn't see any critters at first, but there was definitely wildlife trails and evidence of beaver cuttings and dam building activity.  Io, Blair's super friendly black Labrador dog, decided to cool off in the pond.

We were just fooling around, throwing rocks for the dog to chase, when out of nowhere a beaver appeared

 and was swimming towards the dog, who was unaware of anything amiss at this point

the beaver was making a bee line for Io, and everyone started screaming at the dog (who is kind of deaf) to get out!!

when all of a sudden SLAP!! went the beaver tail

luckily this story has a happy ending, Io was just a little startled, no one had to get into the yucky water to rescue her and the beaver was evidently OK, it simply wanted to scare the dog away from the pond. 

Relieved, we all walked slowly back home through a gorgeous sunset