Blasto

Yes, yes. I'm pregnant.
I can't say it came as much of a surprise as we were trying to become pregnant, but I am surprised by the daily rush of panic, misgivings and nausea.
The official due date is December 17th. We think it's a boy but it' s, or course, still early to tell.
Wish me luck.
" So why the picture of the rough skinned newt?" you may be asking yourself, well, H-man is finishing up his projects for the school year and I got to go with him to check on live-traps up in the mountains. When I say I "got to go with him" I of course mean he dragged me out of bed despite my whining and nausea and forced me to have a good time, which I did. Now I have poison oak. See what having a good time will get you?

Staycation

So Husbandman and I took the week off with plans to travel down to Sacramento to look for a place to rent while he's working for the Forest Service this summer. But we didn't go. Instead we've devoted the week to cleaning out the house and exploring our little gem of a region.
On Tuesday we drove up to Oregon, and when I say we went to Oregon I mean that we took five hours to drive 90 miles because we stopped every chance we got to explore places we haven't been before in Crescent City and barely over the border.
No we didn't see any damn whales, despite the fact that there was an article about the large amount of grey whales at the mouth of the Klamath. See any whales here? Cuz I sure didn't.

The Hammond Hole

We live in Humboldt County, one of the more beautiful areas I have ever lived, and subsequently we love to go out and hike and explore and watch birds and all that crap. Today, we explored the fairly recently addition to the Hammond Trail, which we live very close to. Achille likes to look for rough skinned newts in the puddles along the trail, I like to watch for birds.
Up until last year the Hammond Trail ended just north of the Mad River mouth, now it extends well past the airport and ends at Little River Beach. I believe the path is on the site of a logging train for the Hammond Lumber Mill, but I could very well be mistaken.
One of the new features to our little trail is a half mile interpretive loop that displays the restoration of salmon habitat in Widow White Creek, very cool. And no, we didn't see any whales.
But I did see:
Red-tailed Haw
Red Legged Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Common Merganser
Song Sparrow
Dark-Eyed Junco
Common Raven
White Crowned Sparrow
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Winter Wren -----new to my lifer list