On January 1 the stock tank was dry. On February 13 it held 22 inches of recent rain water. The creek is flowing strongly past the ranch in two channels.
By mid-February Big Valley is already in vernal mode. The calls of the first restless toads can be heard. The ospreys are back from Mexico and on their nest. Tree swallows cavort boisterously while bluebirds cavort with shy decorum. The horses still wear their winter coats
A vulture was evidently hit by a car in front of the ranch fence. It was likely one of our resident group of five.
The damp allows fungi and mosses to thrive on fallen oak limbs. Signs of disintegration and regeneration are everywhere.
As a pellet from a barn owl dissolved in the rains a rodent skull was revealed.
The narcissus bloom is at its peak.
