Cathy. . .well, the best time to come to the northern California coast would be ***right now***, but plan for just about *any* weather. Currently, we're in the middle of a heatwave. That's due to change come Thursday. Some mild showers are expected for Friday and Saturday. . .for the **best** in terms of the warmest weather? Believe it or not, typically, *October* is warmest. :) EVERYONE: thank you for your kind comments and posts. I am happy to have brought smiles. . .this series is the shortened version of one I am compiling into a coffee table book. . .details to come soon if you're interested. :)

Thanks for all the kind comments! Since these photos I was able to get a few more migration photos before the rain set in, but kept hoping I could get some more. We spent one weekend at a family reunion in IN, then worked out of town as extras in the Disney movie Secretariat during two very cold, windy weeks (long hours, miserable work, but at least I got to see John Malkovich and Diane Lane). This weekend coming up might have some sun, but I've not seen any migrants for awhile, so our migration action may be over.

Too many photos. You only need 1 photo of the dining room and don't need to photograph every bedroom and only 1 or 2 of the front of the home. The living room photo, move that orange/brown leather chair before you take the next photo. It hides the room. You can slide it back after the photo. Also, you need contact info and asking price on the web site. Also, you need several bullet points that describe the house and/or area on the web site. Maybe talk about the square footage and lots size also. maybe taxes and age of house and major features (new furnace, roof, fireplace, x bedrooms, 2 car heated garage, etc)? Don't list small crap that everyone has, like garage opener and such. What made you BUY the place? Often that is a selling point as well that you can market. List on craigslist.com as well and post 4 photos and write about a paragraph or so. And repost on craigslist about every 10 days. Don't get lazy and not post the photos, thinking the web site link will do. Folks need to see the pix on craigslist or they won't go to your web site. Also ref to your web site from craigslist. Get a custom made For Sale sign for your front yard. Go to a sign shop. They make them for under $100. It is well spend. You pick the color, font, sign size. I usually go bigger than the standard R.E. sign. Pick a color that will stand out against the green grass or white snow. I like electric blue and yellow. You can even use an icon, such as a golf club if that was the type of home you were selling. Put major features (finished basement? acre lot? waterfront?)on the sign and # bedrooms, bathrooms and your phone number. Get flyers for the front yard. Keep them in the little box that you put next to/on the sign. Keep the flyers stocked. realize neighbors will take them, especially the first week. Don't worry, it is natural curiousity. Also reference the web site on the flyer, saying for more PHOTOS go to www.sitexyz. Make sure you have at least one front photo on the flyer. Have price and address in bold either at the top or right below the photo in large/bold. Have your contact info easy to see on flyer. I sold several FSBOs, so am giving you advice that truly will help you. Also, I suggest a discount broker to get into MLS. But then you have to pay an agent that brings the buyer (2.5-3%). If you do this, you need to be able to not pay this commission if you sell to someone that doesn't have an agent. In my case, this occurred and I simply paid the $400 or so to get the listing into MLS, and nothing more. Good luck. it is hard work. Then screening the callers is not easy either. Neighbors might lie to get in to see the place. they say their uncle(or mother, brother, etc) is looking to move and they are looking for him. BS 97% of the time. Return all calls pronto. Good luck.

Popmama, I usually see about one orchard oriole a year. Apparently we had one here at the house last spring according my eBird checklists but I honestly don't remember it. This year I got photographic proof! The bullock's are much more common. That thicket they are hanging out in actually gets a really good cast that I never noticed until this year when I have been in there trying to get oriole pictures. We've had the usual characters, like robins, grackles, and downy woodpeckers, but I've also seen brown thrashers and spotted towhees, a clay colored sparrow, warbling vireo, yellow, yellow-rumped, and Tennessee warblers, and a Swainson's thrush hanging out in there. I have always spent more time birding out on the back side of property mostly ignoring what was going on right here next to the house, but I can see now that was mistake. I'm pretty amazed at how much diversity is in that little area. Hummingbirds are a rare sight out here on the Eastern Plains. I hear a few of them at the refuge every year during spring migration, but I have only ever seen a single one here at the house back in the fall of 2018. Mom gets loads of them where she lives over in Jefferson County. Mostly broad-tailed but a few rufous swing buy on their back south from the Northern Rockies and even a calliope showed up one year. I do miss them out here. Right before the grackles showed up, we had a family of 5-6 blue jays hanging out around the house. I still hear one or two every now and then but otherwise they seem to have moved on. I don't see very many ospreys. I had one I thought was a ferruginous hawk fly over a few weeks ago until I reviewed the photo. But other than that I haven't seen any. Last year when we went to Oregon, they seemed to be pretty much everywhere. I guess out lack of water makes the "fish hawks" a little scarcer haha. That's cool you've got a nesting pair nearby! Catherine, Right?! How dare they think of me as a threat! I'm only 1000 times their size! Oh well I guess. Some weeks it seems that NOTHING wants their picture taken and others it seems I get at least one good photo of practically everything. Our grassland migrants have shown up in force, and probably the "tree birds" too I'm just really bad at birding anywhere that isn't open country. The lark buntings have shown up at the refuge I work at in numbers I have never before seen. It's probably just a fluke, but at least a good one. The western kingbirds have shown up in force, but I've seen comparatively fewer eastern kingbirds than I have in the past I feel like. They usually show up later than the westerns, so maybe it's just a bit early yet. the number of grasshopper sparrows seems to have gone down significantly. Our former biologist who comes in as a volunteer and I've been emailing since shes been staying home this spring, thinks it's possibly because our bison herd has reduced the grass height to below what they prefer for nesting. I heard a few buzzing from the roadsides early in the month but haven't heard one in several days. We do have more Brewer's and chipping sparrows than I have seen before though, or I may just be paying closer attention to the "LBJ's" than I typically do. The Swainson's hawks, which fly all the way up here from Argentina, have started to nest. Lark Bunting. Our state bird that is neither a lark, nor a bunting. Originally it was classified as a finch (called the "prairie finch") but is actually a big, fancy sparrow. Swainson's hawk with dinner Loggerhead shrike, also with dinner Western Kingbird Brewer's sparrow Our shorebird migration is pretty much over down here on the prairies, but it was fun while it lasted. I saw several "first for Colorado" and even a couple "first time ever" species on my list, including marbled godwits, snowy, piping, and semi-palmated plovers, Baird's and semi-palmated sandpipers, plus our more common ones like long billed dowitchers, great and lesser yellowlegs, willets, Wilson's phalaropes, least sandpipers, and my all time favorite, avocets. An array of shorebirds, marbled godwits, Wilson's phalaropes, and a long billed dowitcher. I got this photo after they had just been flushed by a peregrine falcon! Another new bird for my "Colorado" list. Snowy Plover Semi-palmated plover Baird's sandpiper I'll try not to be a stranger Catherine! And yes, I'm very glad that we have nature in this time. As John Muir once said "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." I'm also very glad that travel restrictions don't affect migratory birds! Thank you Pudgeder!