A Snaky Atmosphere

"In one spot I found an opening in the thorny sky where I could stand erect, and on the further side of the opening discovered a small pool. "Now, HERE," I said, "I must be careful in creeping, for the birds of the neighborhood come here to drink, and the rattlesnakes come here to catch them." I then began to cast my eye along the channel, perhaps instinctively feeling a snaky atmosphere, and finally discovered one rattler between my feet. But there was a bashful look in his eye, and a withdrawing, deprecating kink in his neck that showed plainly as words could tell that he would not strike, and only wished to be let alone. I therefore passed on, lifting my foot a little higher than usual, and left him to enjoy his life in this his own home."

(Muir, Steep Trails)

There is still a bit of a trickle in lower San Antonio Creek and, though I have had plenty of encounters with creekside rattlers over the years, I have always been more concerned with the ones that might be hiding out in all the thick dry mustard that cracks and rattles and makes it impossible to hear a warning tail shake. All the deadfall in the eucalyptus grove makes quite good cover for the sharp-fanged slitherers too, and serves as a good reminder of a lesson learned in scouts - never put your hands or feet anywhere you can't see.

Speaking of the eucalyptus grove, there seems to be a klatch of, what I believe are, Nuttall's Woodpeckers living in there. They were making a racket when I passed through this past Sunday morning. I stopped for a listen when three of them flew up into the topmost bare branches of a tree, while a couple others flew off to some nearby hillside oaks

The clouds were pretty spectacular all morning, and while they were an obvious distraction, I still noticed a newly [?] well-beaten path to a wreck I had not noticed before. I am not sure, but guess it might have been a VW bus in better days. The brush has done a really good job of burying it, and I probably would have continued to pass it by, oblivious, but for to tell-tale trail.