Exploring the Hillside

While I was working in my vegetable garden yesterday I heard a rustling sound on the hillside above and looked up there to see....

Do you see them perched on the fallen limb of the Oak?

I crept up the hillside with my camera.

I got a close as I could until they started getting nervous about me.

It's a couple of Turkey Vultures.

I went back down to the garden after this shot.

After they left I went up to see if there was anything there.

The deer like to spend the night under this tree.

I was a little wary of what I might find...

I was happy to find nothing other than limbs that had fallen last winter.

There's a good view of the vegetable garden from up there.

And a nice view across the valley.

Fungi are at work on the dead parts of the oak.

I thought this was an interesting seed thingy.

But it actually turned out to be a downy feather

stuck to an old leaf.

A white Shooting Star

There's a nice patch of Shooting Stars further over.

It's the time of year when you can get a permit
to burn brush and tree trimmings.
There were little plumes of smoke up and down the valley.

The Shooting Stars come in various colors.

So pretty!

I saw the first Blue Dicks blossom!

(Dichelostemma capitatum).