BIG SUR

Greetings.

This week, a legendary battle was waged between birds and men. The ultimate quest to bring down mighty Condor mysterious black swift. The most difficult stage of this quest was convincing my boss to give me three days. The quest sat on the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and all would fail. However, using my training from mom, I laboured to convince Mary to give me 3 days. It was NOT easy. But in the end, she graciously gave me leave, God bless her.

With the most difficult victory in the bag and various never-ending work tasks cleared, the two companions set off on their great journey with high spirits. Within the first mile of a thousand, we spotted a medium slim raptor on a powerpole. Hark, a prairie falcon! An early omen for things to come. We forged on, through the deep kern canyon toward the city of Bakersfield. On the way, we snatched two dippers in the river, which Neil is obsessed with. We were halted by a party of police and fire trucks, since they appeared to have just put out a fire up the hill. While were stopped, I all of a sudden heard the unmistakeable tooting of a pygmy owl. Unfortunately, at that point it was our turn to go. It would have been tough call to turn around, I wanted too but Neil though it a bad idea with all the lined up cars, and what with the fire and all. So, we made a painful concensus to forge on.

While driving through Bakersfield, I just remembered a post I had read about some burrowing owls, and just by luck happened to have memorized the street names. We had no idea where the intersection was, so we went with our instincts and took an exit. After consulting some local Jehovah's witnesses, we arrived shortly to the scene. At first there was just one poking head out of a hole, but then it was a frenzy! 2 adults and 5 babies, all flying around and calling and stuff.



Onward! Only 4 more hours to Big Sur.

Luckily I fell asleep for the boring central valleyish part of the drive, and woke up in some random campground that expert campground-finder Neil had spotted. When I woke up, a cool breeze infused my nostrils with freshness that only could mean the sea. We made an early retreat, just as the gate attendant rolled in for work. As usual, stuffing the tent in the tiny bag is like a St. Bernard trying to mate with a Chihuahua. The highway that follows the coast passes through some amazingly beautiful coastline, which we didn't stray far from the entire time. The first spot we encountered was a lot with a sign that said "elephant seal colony". WOW! The fattest living things I've ever seen in the wild, but just wait until you read on...



We snagged grasshopper sparrow at this spot as well.

The great thing about this road is the speed limit is 25 and there are pulloffs everywhere. As usual, we followed our instincts, stopping all of the promissing-looking pulloffs. A new pineapple of victory was ready for slaughter, in anticipation of the upcoming lifers.

It did not take long, for as I was scanning hundreds of Sooty Shearwaters on the distant horizon, I spotted something. It was huge. Neil was taking a piss at the time. NEIL NEIL NEIL, I THINK I'VE GOT...AN ALBATROSS. He ran over and as it flew closer, it was clear: Black footed albatross!!! To complement, there were bottle-nosed dolphins and some sea otters frolicking. We forged on. A couple of peregrines screamed by.

As we approached a bend, I wanted to re-read the birder's guide to check a couple of things. I saw a dark bird soaring for a second but it disapeared behind the bend. I was going to look at it as soon as we rounded the bend but then I forgot about it since the reading on black swifts was intriguing. Then Neil started yelling like a crazy man: CONDOR CONDOR CONDOR! Praise Jesus, there it was in all its glory. I have to say, I've been birding for 9 years and I've seen alot of crazy shit but this was incredible. As I struggled to not crap myself from this bowel-loosening view, we pulled over and stood in awe as it soared illegaly close to us. It wandered down the coast, so we decided to follow it in the car. As we approached, it was joined by 1, 2, 3, 4!! other condors! We pulled over and stood beneath these beheamoths as they emitted their rays of awesomeness onto our eyes. Eventually they flew off, and we did the same because our quest was not yet complete. There were still black swifts out there, and we were going to find some, but where?



We interrogated a local birding lady on black swifts.




After a productive day of coast (but still no swifts), we decided to camp up Palo Colorado road. It was the most beautifull campground I've ever been in. This photo describes it best, but in reality does not do it justice.

Our free camping streak came to an inevitable end, as a campground host approached us and requested the 12 bucks. Well, I suppose it is 12 bucks well spent.
We wanted this to be our owling night, so we decided to go for spotted. At dusk we walked a couple miles down a road into the valley that descends into some big redwood groves. We heard a couple of screech owls, but couldn't get coax them in. The spotted owls here are the endangered northwestern illegal variety. On the walk back up the road, we had pretty much given up, and this was starting to resemble our last owling trips. However, as we were walking, I thought I heard something, so I stopped and gave my best impression of a spotted owl. There it was! We listened in awe as it broadcasted back to us in the night. It was pretty far and wouldn't come in, but somehow just hearing it was satisfying enough.

In the morning we woke up at a record late time, 7:30. Refreshed from this extra-long sleep, we headed back to the coast with a new optimism. The legendary Matt Brady instructed us to pay a visit to nearby Rocky Point to have a rare chance of seeing a black swift. We sat for a while on a huge jagged rock sticking into the sea, with a cove to our left, and the open ocean to our right. It was the kind of commanding view perfect for spotting black swifts.

If you're not familiar with black swifts, I will say a bit about them. They are a bird about the size of a large swallow, with long sharp wings. They fly high in the sky in search of insects (mostly winged ants) all day since they can't perch, except on the sides of cliffs. They only nest behind or adjacent to waterfalls, or on seacliffs, where they also sleep. A pair raises one young per year, which each parent feeds once per day, at dusk. So as you can tell, seeing one of these is no easy task. Neil asked how much longer I wanted to hang out here. I think I said something ridiculous like 3 hours, and he said soon, so for some reason we agreed on half an hour. There were hundreds of common murres feeding offshore, and the only pacific loon of the trip flew by. Other than that though, it was turning into a boring seawatch. As I gazed out along the coast, I started to see something flying head to us, that deffinately did not look like a swallow. As it bombed toward us, it was immediately obvious. All I remember is that we both started yelling like freaks, as not one but three black swifts came in, and flew around right above us for at least a minute. It was a super moment as we realized just how brilliant birding with a great friend can be. After so many hours spend searching for this elusive bird, we finally got to bask in its awesomeness. Matt Brady deserves some major credit for recommending this spot. A bold statement but I think this is the best bird I've seen this year.

With the major weight of two super-birds off our shoulders, we were free to roam the rest of the day and the next in a leasurely fashion. We headed south down the coast, toward Morro Bay where our next quarry would be snowy plover, elegant tern and Allen's hummingbird.

We hung out at Grime's point again in hopes of seeing the Condors again. The waters off Big Sur are DEEP. We were on a giant cliff, the biggest I've ever seen, looking down at a deep underwater canyon. While admiring this view, I happened to see a cetacean swimming below us. Neil said its probably a dolphin, which I thought too, until I considered how high we were. I binned it, and realized: man, its a humpback whale!! We got the scope out just in time to see it roll sideways and waive a fin in the air, before it disapeared out to sea. INCREDIBLE.

Then, the 5 condors retured, except this time they were below us, riding the slope.

After a few stops, we found another BF albatross that was a little closer, really cool how they fly. We birded our way down toward morro bay and got there in time to see hundreds of godwits, curlews and willets, plus other stuff. The best part about morro bay, which is a mega tourist town, was not the birds but in fact a huge pizza that we hoovered, since as usual all we had eaten aside from a ceremonial pineapple was peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Neil got 3rd degree burns in his mouth so we had to get some icecream.

We camped in the parking lot at Oso Flaco Lake since all the campgrounds were packed with thousands of tourists and RVs. I did not realize some people got up at 3 am to go fishing. We walked through some willows and a marsh to the ocean, where they have a whole bunch of dunes fenced off for snowy plovers and least terns, real interesting place. We figured we'd just walk down the beach for a while until we run into a plover. Luckily we did, in fact we found 3, and it was awesome.

We also saw just one least tern on the way back. A bunch of pishing in the willows got us a female Allen's hummingbird too!

With a long drive ahead, and work the next day, we left, but the birding was far from over. On the way back we poned Yellow-billed magpie. With plenty time left to spare, we headed back via the greenhorns to score some mountain birds.

We spent most of the time hicking up to Sunday peak which is at 8300 feet. Our mission here was to find a Sooty Grouse. This is the southernmost known location for them, and Neil had never seen one. Up at the summit, we heard two down a huge slope. We bushwacked down there, but they proved to be too elusive even for us. Everytime we got close, they'd be further away. In the end Neil got a glimpse of one flushing, and it was getting dark so we had to head back. A bittersweet victory for this one. When we got back it was dark, and I had to work at 4:30 the next morning. But what the heck, why not go owling? We decided to cut if off at 11 at the lastest which ended up being a good idea. It ended up being just barely too windy to hear well, but on our final stop (sound familiar?) we heard a flammulated owl decently, the final species of the trip, and were back before midnight.

An incredible weekend, gratefull I got to go and I could have no better companion to bird with than Neil. Seeing as work isn't going super wizer at the moment, it was a real blessing which I will not forget. For our next mission, Neil and I plan to join forces one last time to plunder the offshore waters of San Diego on a double pelagic voyage. Hope it works out.

I did a checklist with notes but the computer froze and erased it, here is a less accurate on I re-did later:

BIG SUR trip list
1. Common loon
2. Pacific loon (1)
3. Red-throated loon (3)
4. Pied-billed grebe
5. Clark’s grebe
6. Western grebe
7. BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS (2)
8. Sooty shearwater (1000?)
9. Brandt’s cormorant
10. Pelagic cormorant
11. Double-crested cormorant
12. Brown pelican
13. White pelican
14. Snowy egret
15. Great egret
16. Great blue heron
17. Black-crowned night heron
18. Brant
19. Mallard
20. Northern shoveler (1)
21. Gadwall
22. Surf scoter
23. Ruddy duck
24. CALIFORNIA CONDOR (5)
25. Turkey vulture
26. GOLDEN EAGLE (1-3, maybe same one)
27. Red-tailed hawk
28. Red-shouldered hawk
29. American kestrel
30. Peregrine falcon (5)
31. PRAIRIE FALCON (1) – first mile of the trip!
32. Sooty grouse (2) – Neil got a glimpse of one, but heard only
33. Mountain quail
34. California quail
35. American coot
36. SNOWY PLOVER (3)
37. Killdeer
38. Black oystercatcher
39. Spotted sandpiper
40. Whimbrel
41. Long-billed curlew
42. Willet
43. Marbled godwit
44. Western sandpiper
45. Least sandpiper
46. Short-billed dowitcher
47. California gull
48. Heerman’s gull
49. Western gull
50. Caspian tern
51. LEAST TERN (1)
52. Common Murre (3000?)
53. Pigeon guillemot
54. Band-tailed pigeon
55. Mourning dove
56. Yellow-billed cuckoo (Neil post-trip solo)
57. Barn owl
58. Great-horned owl
59. FLAMMULATED OWL (heard only, in the Greenhorns)
60. Western screech-owl (3 – heard only up Palo Colorado road on the way to the boy’s camp)
61. NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL (1 – heard only up Palo Colorado road on the way to the boy’s camp)
62. Northern Pygmy owl - 1 possible heard in the Kern Canyon, while we couldn’t stop
63. Burrowing owl (8 ) in one field
64. White-throated swift
65. VAUX’S SWIFT (15) in one flock!
66. BLACK SWIFT (3) together at Rock Point
67. ALLEN’S HUMMINGBIRD (1) female at Oso Flaco Lake
68. Anna’s hummingbird
69. Acorn woodpecker
70. Nuttall’s woodpecker
71. Downy woodpecker
72. Hairy woodpecker
73. White-headed woodpecker
74. Red-breasted sapsucker
75. Northern flicker
76. Olive-sided flycatcher
77. Western wood-pewee
78. Willow flycatcher (Neil solo post-trip birding)
79. Dusky flycatcher
80. Pacific-slope flycatcher
81. Western kingbird
82. Ash-throated flycatcher
83. Black phoebe
84. Warbling vireo
85. Hutton’s vireo (1)
86. Steller’s jay
87. Western scrub-jay
88. YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE (5 - together)
89. American crow
90. Common raven
91. Tree swallow
92. Rough-winged swallow
93. Cliff swallow
94. Barn swallow
95. Purple martin
96. Oak titmouse
97. Chestnut-backed chickadee
98. Mountain chickadee
99. Bushtit
100. Red-breasted nuthatch
101. White-breasted nuthatch
102. Brown creeper
103. Marsh wren
104. Rock wren
105. “PACIFIC” WINTER WREN (2) Palo Colorado road
106. Bewick’s wren
107. House wren
108. American dipper
109. Wrentit
110. Golden-crowned kinglet
111. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
112. Western bluebird
113. Townsend’s solitaire
114. American robin (a white one!)
115. Hermit thrush
116. Swainson’s thrush
117. Northern mockingbird
118. Phainopepla
119. Starling
120. Orange-crowned warbler
121. Nashville warbler
122. Yellow warbler
123. Yellow-rumped warbler
124. NORTHERN PARULA (1 male) – Neil post-trip solo birding, at the Preserve
125. McGillivray’s warbler
126. Common yellowthroat
127. Wilson’s warbler
128. Summer tanager (Neil post-trip solo birding on preserve)
129. Western tanager
130. Lazuli bunting
131. Blue grosbeak
132. Black-headed grosbeak
133. Spotted towhee
134. California towhee
135. Rufous-crowned sparrow
136. Chipping sparrow
137. Savannah sparrow
138. GRASSHOPPER SPARROW (3) at the elephant seal colony
139. Fox sparrow
140. Song sparrow
141. Dark-eyed junco
142. White-crowned sparrow (2 different looking subspecies)
143. Bullock’s oriole
144. Western meadowlark
145. Red-winged blackbird
146. Brewer’s blackbird
147. Brown-headed cowbird
148. House finch
149. Purple finch
150. Pine siskin
151. Lesser goldfinch
152. Lawrence’s goldfinch
153. American goldfinch
154. House sparrow

Mammals:
Steller’s sea lion
California sea lion
Harbour seal
Elephant seal
Humpback whale
Sea otter

A mountain quest

Tim and Neil: two legendary mates, the kind that make birding the best possible activity. The kind that make Kenn Kaufman wish he'd had this kind of friendship to write about in his novel.

Separated for four years, our brotherly bird bond remains as glorious as in the days of camp Chiricahua. In celebration of our reunion, we set forth for the southern sierras. Through glen and glade, mountain tall and valley deep, we swam through montane streams, crossed great fords, escalated many cliffs, ledges and boulders, and raged down many roads in search of our quarry.

Day 1:

Neil arrived. He is about the same, except now his voice is less high-pitched (more manly if you will), and he now has vantage over shrubs.

Our transport of choice: the mighty Subaru:

Subaru is indestructable. She can rumble treacherous roads, bumps, road mounds, downed trees, ground squirrels, drive through crater-like potholes and even ram into giant boulders without taking damage.

We began our quest by heading straight for the greenhorns. THE CONIFEROUS FOREST, CHECK IT OUT!

We easily disposed of mountain quail and hermit warbler.
Mountain Quail

Hermit warbler (courtesy of Neil)

At our camp we ran into this guy in his truck who was looking for a black and white stray dog. A couple hours later we saw this dog about 10 miles up the mountain:

We tried to lure it in with some cheese, didn't work. It followed us back part of the way but then I think it gave up. Cougar food.

Day 2

We birded our way down the greenhorns and up to the giant sequoias, following the Kern River.

There were many insects along the way, mainly mud-puddling by the river, and an American Dipper. Awesome!

A gold hunter's hairstreak (courtesy of Neil)

And some tiger beetles going for a great ride

I LOVE BUTTERFLIES. Well this is the most action I could get out here.

3 ultimate birds for this trip: Flammulated owl, black swift, and williamson's sapsucker. To find out if we succeeded, you will have to read on.

One spot that the swifts sometimes fly over when we're not there is the Johnsondale bridge on a lively segment of the Kern River, which managed to harden my nipples quite nicely in its frigid waters.
While I prefer redwoods, Neil points out that the Giant Sequoia is a very patriotic tree. "It’s big and fat like Americans." Indeed, some of the tourists likewise impressed me with their DBH. If you ever get to walk through a grove, make sure to inhale the beautiful scent of these trees.

DAY 3

We wanted to find saw-whet, spotted and flammulated owls, so we got up at 2:30 and owled for the rest of the night, then birded into the dawn. We failed, so we decided to bird down the mountain as the sun came up. At that point I figured I may as well try for a western screech just for the heck of it. After one session, we heard one way down the road. We proceeded down the road and saw the crap out of it. Then, Subaru shined a mighty beam on a Poorwill. Not a bad night after all. The the screech’s home at dawn (courtesy of Neil):

We birded down the mountain, coming back fairly victorious, but this was only the beginning. We were headed for Black Rock ranger station along the Chimney peak highway, via the backcountry by-way.
Along the way we stopped at my work on the Kern Audubon Preserve. An interesting place, it’s a huge riparian area along the South Fork Kern River. We picked some of its specialties, like red-shouldered hawk, tricolored blackbird, blue grosbeak, Nuttal's woodpecker, and willow flycatcher, the subject of my work. Lake Isabella had some western and Clark's grebes and white pelicans.
Black rock and the road up are supposed to be ultimate for our 3 target birds.
We got some really neat stuff along the way, like pinyon jay, gray flycatcher, plumbeous vireo, wrentit and a bunch of other ones.

The pineapple of victory was butchered each time a lifer was had. In this instance, pinyon jays provided an opportunity to taste its sweet flesh.

Day 4

We couldn’t find any sapsuckers or swifts, so we went to bed and got up at 2 again to go flammulating and saw-wheting. This time, it was an early victory, with Neil’s tooting bringing in a real beaut.

No Flams again, so we figured we’d go for our compensatory western screech, which came in like a charm. He was PISSED.

We went back up to black rock at 5 am to look for williamson’s sapsucker again. Just as we were getting out of the car we heard a male drumming. One thing I learned about these birds, is that they are elusive bastards. We hung around where the drum came from for about 20 minutes – nothing! So we walked down the road to try and find more, and finally heard some drumming, maybe 3. We stalked it for about half an hour, until finally we had him right behind a tree so he couldn’t see us. Then he gave a killer view for a few seconds and that was the last male we saw. The pineapple of victory was butchered to one third.

Later, we went to get the tent and could not figure out where the tent bag was. Well, I guess you don't really need a tent bag for a tent. Actually, it had been blowing around on the highway about 100km away when we were watching the pinyon jays. I pointed it out to Neil as it happened. He said it even brushed against his leg. Since we were both lazy tits, it was lying somewhere on the road.
Since Sherman Pass road was closed due to imaginary snow by the Forest Service, we decided to walk it instead. Not a bad walk at 8500 ft. Goshawk, Nutcracker, and a female sapsucker:

This is what its like up there:


Neil-isms:

"Plunges into icy mountain streams are a mandatory component of mountain birding. In this particular instance, we staged an amphibious assault on a Cliff Swallow stronghold."

"You look like a blond rambo"

"I hate cows, everything about them. Except I like eating them, that's about it".

Here are just a few great pictures of Neil doing various activities that he does. They are stand-alone.





The Peterson Guide to Western Birds makes an excellent cutting board. In this instance, it proves its worth by supporting a cheese-slicing on its hard bound cover.

The pineapple of victory provisioned us with unnatural energy and powers.

The alien starship came through a trans galactic energon portal, searching for their lost comrade Neil.


Like David Attenborough, we can find birds even where the land seems to harbour no life.


THE TENT BAG
On the way back, we figured we'd stop where the jays were and have a crack at that tent bag. Maybe it was still kicking around. I found it in a nearby ditch! VICTORY!

We read in the birder's guide that some LeConte's Thrashers come to a feeder in the nearby town of Inyokern, so we checked it out. What a shitty town. No LeConte's, and it was tit-blisteringly hot (100F!), but somehow there were still birds, like this roadrunner which thought it could hide from us.

But seriously, why do Americans insist on living in towns in the shitty mojave desert?

Our list topped off at 128, not bad for almost only landbirds. Nine woodpeckers, how bout that? HOWEVER, the black swift and flammulated owl still remain unseen. Not to mention the elusive blue grouse.

They may have won this battle, but the war has just begun. Next time, the pineapple of victory will be devoured in two halves until our tongues are raw and furrowed.



1. Mallard
2. Common merganser
3. Mountain quail
4. California quail
5. Western grebe
6. Clark’s grebe
7. White pelican
8. Cormorant
9. Great blue heron
10. Turkey vulture
11. Northern goshawk
12. Red-shouldered hawk
13. Red-tailed hawk
14. American kestrel
15. American coot
16. California gull
17. Band-tailed pigeon
18. Collared dove
19. Mourning dove
20. Roadrunner
21. Western screech owl
22. Saw whet owl
23. Common nighthawk
24. Common poorwill
25. White-throated swift
26. Black-chinned hummingbird
27. Anna’s hummingbird
28. Costa’s hummingbird
29. Calliope hummingbird
30. Acorn woodpecker
31. Williamson’s sapsucker
32. Red-breasted sapsucker
33. Nuttall’s woodpecker
34. Downy woodpecker
35. Hairy woodpecker
36. White-headed woodpecker
37. Northern flicker
38. Pileated woodpecker
39. Olive-sided flycatcher
40. Western wood pewee
41. Willow flycatcher
42. Gray flycatcher
43. Dusky flycatcher
44. Black phoebe
45. Say’s phoebe
46. Ash-throated flycatcher
47. Western kingbird
48. Loggerhead shrike
49. Plumbeous vireo
50. Cassin’s vireo
51. Warbling vireo
52. Steller’s jay
53. Scrub jay
54. Pinyon jay
55. Clark’s nutcracker
56. Common raven
57. Tree swallow
58. Rough winged swallow
59. Cliff swallow
60. Mountain chickadee
61. Oak titmouse
62. Verdin
63. Bushtit
64. Red-breasted nuthatch
65. Pygmy nuthatch
66. White-breasted nuthatch
67. Brown creeper
68. Rock wren
69. Canyon wren
70. Bewick’s wren
71. House wren
72. Dipper
73. Golden-crowned kinglet
74. Ruby-crowned kinglet
75. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
76. Western bluebird
77. Mountain bluebird
78. Townsend’s solitaire
79. Hermit thrush
80. American robin
81. Mockingbird
82. California thrasher
83. Starling
84. Nashville warbler
85. Yellow warbler
86. Yellow-rumped warbler
87. Black-throated gray warbler
88. Hermit warbler
89. Yellowthroat
90. Wilson’s warbler
91. Western tanager
92. Green-tailed towhee
93. Spotted towhee
94. California towhee
95. Chipping sparrow
96. Brewer’s sparrow
97. Black-chinned sparrow
98. Lark sparrow
99. Black-throated sparrow
100. Sage sparrow
101. Savannah sparrow
102. Fox sparrow
103. Song sparrow
104. Lincoln’s sparrow
105. White-crowned sparrow
106. Dark eyed junco
107. Black-headed grosbeak
108. Blue grosbeak
109. Lazuli bunting
110. Red-winged blackbird
111. Tricolored blackbird
112. Western meadowlark
113. Brewer’s blackbird
114. Great-tailed grackle
115. Cowbird
116. Hooded oriole
117. Bullock’s oriole
118. Scott’s oriole
119. Purple finch
120. Cassin’s finch
121. House finch
122. Red crossbill
123. Pine siskin
124. Lesser goldfinch
125. Lawrence’s goldfinch
126. House sparrow
127. Horned lark
128. Wrentit

The tale of the peeps

Let me tell you a tale.

Several years ago, a legendary league of men birded five Great Lakes. Unbounded by borders, nationality or rules, they roamed the lands from Berrien to...Point Edward. Fueled by the vigour of youth and country time lemonade, they tallied great lists of their slayings, at times even exceeding their masters in skill. These intrepid lads were known as: THE PEEPS. Originaly composed of four, our league grew in numbers as word spread across land of our powers. With greater organization and transportation from our parents, the peeps expanded our territory to the Chiricahua mountains and beyond, slaying many foes.

Sadly, four years ago, like any great empire, the peeps disbanded. Many key members grew in age, and began to attend universities. Thus, they scattered across their two countries, remaining in loose contact. Some pursued other things, begining to court young women, attend parties, and study. Our former birding glory was all but forgotten, until...

BEHOLD! The great Erik and David journeyed from the land of Nevada, to reforge the peeps! A glorious surprise as they appeared, unexpected guests at my door. I welcomed them into my keep and there was much rejoicing and birding. We celebrated our reunion by ransacking the countryside of Kern, slaying many mighty foes and drinking many pints of ale at the local tavern .
A glorious crane, first record in the Kern valley since 1977!...The treacherous Bob Barnes told us this fact on the phone before reporting my find, without my name in the email. A grave mistake...

Nearly 100 species were slain during this raging weekend.

We raged a butterfly, the San Emigdio Blue which only dwells in this county.

Our slaying left some soaked in red.

Erik's look of rage rings fear into the hearts of quail.


Next week, the conquests continue as I reunite with long lost peep Neil Gilbert.