Three days of warm weather to be followed by hard freeze temperatures … I didn’t stay home. Buffy and I went for a lazy hike at my rural property.
Obviously, the creek hadn’t seen any rain for a long time.
This was the start of a rocky area on the west side of the ravine. The south end (in above picture) is on Forest Service. The short bluff/rocky area continues north to the bluff on my property.
Mud daubers commonly build their nests in back under areas that are mostly out of the rain.
Eastern phoebes (a flycatcher) build their nests from mud, mosses and other fine plant material.
They return in late winter and build their nests on ledges protected from the weather. Under bridges is commonly used too.
What a nice cozy place for a squirrel to dine on acorns.
The view to the southeast sure has changed.
We continued on to the north. The short bluff on my property is just on the other side of the overhang at the far end in the picture.
An ebony spleenwort fern looked all tucked in the crevice.
This “cave” is behind the overhang.
A pair of turkey vultures successfully nested in there several years ago. The nesting was successsful, so I don’t understand why the cave’s not been used again.
