Mary, are you saying that they make you mow the lawn on Mother's Day!? LOL Of course not. That would be cruel and unusual punishment. The Govenator finally declared a state of emergency for some counties south of here in Cali due to the rain. Luckily, most of the danger has been in agricultural areas and not residential...so far. I thought it was bad back in January... ...when this fisherman along the Sacramento River fell asleep while on sturgeon patrol. LOL Notice the toppled chair on the roof? That was probably from his wife high-tailing it out of there, like normal people tend to do. (BTW, no one was harmed in the taking of this picture.) Sorry to all of your allergy sufferers, though! :( Brenda

Yesterday seemed like the first real spring day here: relatively warm, and windy. I saw lots of migrating birds, including several turkey vultures, lots of hawks, and even a group of what I think were 5 American white pelicans, way way up (sometimes it pays to look up into the sky alot). Two weeks ago I caught a glimpse of a fence lizard, probably the first one I've seen since about November. Here in Santa Fe, the currant and elderberry bushes are just starting to leaf out, the junipers and elms are releasing pollen like crazy, and all the tough little herbaceous perennial plants are starting to come up. We have yet to see any fruit trees flowering (which is a good thing). It's really neat to hear what's going on in other parts of the state, for example, the swallows... I won't expect to see them at my house until late April. The old-timers used to say it was safe to plant out chiles when the swallows had returned.

PKponder: You described the behavior of White Pelicans as the prepare to start their migratory flight. That has got to be a sight to behold. Bird books mention that their migratory flight is disorganized with each bird acting as an individual, but I am wondering about their take-off procedure. I wonder if they are using the same technique as cranes. In the past 20 years, we are seeing more migrating sandhill cranes passing through. Unlike geese, their flight seems much more leisurely and playful untill it was explained to me what they were doing. Cranes will sail along and slowly drop altitude until they find a thermal. They will use this thermal as an elevator to gain altitude. The flock will fly into the thermal and circle in it while it shoots them upward. It looks like they are playing. They stay in the same location playing the thermal for all its worth before gliding off to the next thermal. Its a slow way to travel, but labor saving. That explains why they may prefer sunny afternoons to fly.

This is the sample color FYI