A Day of Curious Flying Machines, Vertical Squirrels, Mysterious Visitors from Siam and a Fine Kettle of Vultures...

The landlord having turned off the electricity for some measure of hours this afternoon here in our little neck of the Northern California woods (in order to effect some type of repair, I was told), I headed (quite naturally) outside with trusty camera in hand to stalk worthy photographic subjects...

Of which, I might add, there seemed to be no shortage on this fine Saturday...

The droning of several small engines at once prompted me to look up into the stratosphere to find a small squadron of the most curious flying machines passing overhead...

Living within a half-mile of the tiny, local Cloverdale Airport, we are used to small and medium-sized aircraft going overhead (light planes, helicopters -- even biplanes!) but, as it turned out, these were unlike any I'd ever seen around here before:

I came to the conclusion that it was probably a club of "ultra-light aircraft" enthusiasts who were probably kicking off their Labor Day weekend by going on a short hop together from our Cloverdale airport up to the little municipal airport in Ukiah (the next largest town to the north).

As I walked back down the driveway toward the house, I heard something in the trees across the driveway making an awful racket! It sounded like a large bird had missed his landing and was crashing down from treelimb to treelimb -- all the way down one of the oak trees!

Upon closer examination, however, I was delighted to find that it wasn't a bird at ALL! No! It was our local, native "grey squirrel" whom I'd only seen once before (and, at that, several months ago...)! I just asked Hubby a couple of days ago if he had seen him at all (he hadn't) and I was afraid that one of the "Great Horned Owls" had gotten ahold of him early in the spring... Happily, that wasn't the case!

I could only get one shot of him as he RACED down the trunk of the oak tree like a little, furry, grey cannonball! Here it is (and I surely do apologize for the lack of quality of it):

When I got to the front yard, several passing shadows on the ground all around me made me look upwards once again into the sky...

Circling right above were AT LEAST 25 turkey vultures at once! They are usually pretty "solitary" scavengers around here and I've never really seen more than 2 or 3 of them at a time in any one place before...

I looked up the correct terminology for a group of vultures and, apparently, "generally" they are called a "venue" ("a venue of vultures"); HOWEVER, if they are circling (as these were), they are more correctly called a "kettle" (just as a group of circling hawks is, also)!

So here is a "fine kettle of vultures"! ;o)

Well... Cheyah... THAT was kinda creepy... So I decided to go in the house and check to see if the electricity had been restored yet...

As I stepped up onto the front deck, I heard the crackling of leaves just a few feet up the driveway and it turned out that THIS noisy culprit wasn't a bird, either! 

Well, well... Hello, my little Asian friend! And just WHERE do YOU live, hmmmm???

I do believe that this is the fellow that I caught in my flashlight beam the other night when I was taking the compost out to the compost bin...

(Around here, if you venture outdoors after dark and you see two eyes reflecting back at you, you best not let go of the front door handle until you know for CERTAIN that it's not a cougar...  ;o) ) 

I do believe he's one of the landlord's son's cats that rarely ventures this far up the hill from his house down below us, though... He didn't seem to be too concerned with ME, anyway, and went on about his "important kitty-cat" business...

Well, my wonderful Gather friends, that's about all I have for you today... Hope you enjoyed the visit --I sure did! :o)

luv,

jean