January 31

These trees near the path along West Davis Pond were tricked into blooming by the mild weather so far this winter.  I've tried photographing this scene for a few days now, but today's light was by far the best. 

January 30

Nice morning light on the trees across from my house as I started out on my walk with Clover today.  This was the first photo I took today too. 

I always like it when that happens.

January 29

I was surprised to see this turtle out today at West Davis Pond. 

It was late afternoon, and the sun was low. 

So I guess he was enjoying the nice light, same as me.

January 28

I took my family out to the sandhill crane area in near Lodi tonight, but there were hardly any cranes.  They must already be migrating.  So I ended up photographing telephone poles instead.  Oh well.  Just how it goes some days. 

January 27

Guess this is bird week.  I wanted the crows to land closer, but this was the best I could do.  Mainly I liked the colors here.  This is a lot of color for a field in January. The blue in the background isn't sky.  It's actually the coastal range in the distance.  The hills were under clouds so they photographed blue.

January 26

Hard to believe, but this is the same Green Heron, taken just a few minutes after yesterday's photo, from a different angle.  Here I think he looks like an Easter egg on legs.  Or a hypnotic plushie.  Look deep into his eyes.  He's like the Hypnotoad from Futurama.  He's a versatile bird, as you can see.  Have I made my case for super hero status?   

January 25

Lots of bird activity at West Davis Pond now.  This green heron flew right past me and landed in a nearby tree.  I got several dozen photos as he was busy hunting.  This was probably my favorite, because of his fierce pose.  I'm thinking there ought to be a comic book super hero called The Green Heron! 

January 24

West Davis Pond after two wonderful days of rain.  

With all the trees underwater, there were lots of interesting inkblot reflections today.

January 23

Where I come from in Indiana, robins are considered a sign of spring.  I can't recall when spring started in this part of the Central Valley last year, but it was early.  I know the orchards were all blooming by mid-February.  So today when I came home at lunchtime to find all these robins on my street (and if there were four, there were a hundred!), it got me thinking of spring!  Do robins migrate in huge flocks?  I suppose so, although I had never seen one before today.  And is spring really just around the corner?  If so, I'm certainly getting spoiled here in California. 

January 22

Hello, Puddles! 

I liked that sections of this photo look like they've been ripped out. 

And the fact that we've got puddles again.

January 21

I'm sure this winter wheat will like all the rain we got last night.

Right now this is my favorite light to photograph in. 

A bright sun low in the sky, and clouds in the distance. 

January 20

Well we finally got our rain today, and I chose to photograph indoors.  There wasn't much blooming at the Arboretum Greenhouse, but I really liked the face on this one.  It could be the main character is some Pixar animation, I think.  And because this was a greenhouse plant, I can report that it's name is Spicer's Paphiopedilum in the orchid family. :)

January 19

This seems like a good companion photo to yesterday's, with its expanding sky and bright colors.  It was actually taken a few weeks ago; today we had nothing but gray skies, and no rain to show for it.  I remember thinking when I took this photo and chose not to post it, that I could just take it again on a different night.  Today that seems funny to me.  I guess this is a photo to appreciate on a colorless day.

January 18

We've got clouds rolling today, and it looks like we should finally get some rain tomorrow.  Just before sunset the sun peeked through the clouds out in Yolo and cast this rich light over the ground.  The band of red is a fairly young orchard; as usual I don't know what type, sorry.  But it was that stripe of red that made me stop and pull out my camera.

January 17

Davis is a big bike town.  This is one of several bike repair stations located around town.  Sort of an abstract take, but you get the idea.