About a year ago I joined the Senior Saunters, a group that gets together once a month to walk (well, saunter) in one of our many regional parks. It's organized by Sonoma County Regional Parks and it's a free program. Our guide is Alexis, a young, energetic parks employee who clearly enjoys being with us "oldies" and who is a wonderful resource of knowledge about everything connected with our parks. The size of the group varies every time, but there is a core of people who always join in the saunters. We not only enjoy the environment where we walk, but we also have a lot of fun together.
Last week we met at the lake, but Alexis didn't want to walk around the lake but led us up the hill away from the lake. We stopped at the Discovery Center and enjoyed the view down to the lake. You almost can't see it!
We eventually arrived at this meadow with two vernal pools. This area is a bit of a "no man's land" since it's right on the border between the regional park and the adjacent state park. Employees of both parks take care of this area.
This morning Alexis spoke about newts. She did it with a lot of humour, which I like, and always has a matching story to tell. Then she took us to the vernal pools and told us to look for newt eggs and tiny newts. We were quite taken with this, discovered the eggs, saw some newts, until someone shouted "there's a coyote!".
No one was looking for newts anymore, everyone was mesmerized by this beautiful guy who wasn't afraid of us at all (we were a group of about 25). He - or she? - took his sweet time to cross the meadow to eventually disappear in the woods nearby.
What a wonderful encounter!
This certainly made my day.
We had a couple more great views of the lake. It looks so much bigger from up here.
We saw some beautiful mushrooms - I think these are Spring Fieldcap (Agrocybe praecox)
I tried to figure out what kind of fungi had settled on this branch. I'm not sure, but to me some of them look like dried up Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor).
A last view down to the lake before we entered the Discovery Center and finally said our goodbyes.
12 comments:
...I would be happy to keep my distance, thank you!
I enjoyed the photos thank you
That coyote was bold as brass!
What a lovely walk!
I can imagine how exciting it must have been to spot the coyote.
Sounds like a beautiful day out in nature.
The newts would have already made my day, Carola, and the appearance of the coyotes was the sweet icing on the proverbial cake. There is something touching about this account of the coyote and the people being together, neither one intimidating the other. Nature should always exist in such harmony. Big hugs - David
That sounds like a great walking group. And to see a coyote is always special. It's a great way to spend a day, isn't it? And did you ever see any newts? Thanks for sharing. hugs-Erika
The landscape is beautiful with the colors, the first wildflowers, of course the lake, and especially the appearance of the coyote. The big rocks on the hillside are also nice.
We once walked around a lake (two?), although it wasn't big. Lake Balaton has a peninsula, and there's another lake on it. We walked around it in pouring rain, but at least the plants had nice water droplets.:)
This is a fabulous day trip. Alex seems to be a great guide. Oh yeah, seeing the coyote is a gift for sure. Lovely photos. I enjoyed this very much. Have a nice day.
Ja, dass das ein wunderschönes Erlebnis für dich (oder euch alle) war, glaube ich dir gerne, liebe Carola! Wir haben in Kanada (bei den Rotary Marshes von Kelowna) auch völlig unerwartet einen Kojoten gesehen - sogar an zwei Tagen hintereinander! Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass es derselbe war, denn die beiden Orte lagen ganz nah beieinander und er sah noch relativ jung aus, wie ein "Kojoten-Teenager". (Zwar bin ich keineswegs eine Kojotenexpertin, aber sein Gesicht war noch so Kindchenschema-haft, sein Körper aber wohl schon ausgewachsen. Und beim zweiten Mal sahen wir dieses süße Gesicht ganz nah!) Wir konnten ihn beide Male fotografieren. Wenn ich mit meinem Posting so weit bin, werde ich versuchen, dich darauf aufmerksam zu machen, damit du ihn dir ansehen kannst. Wirklich ein hübsches Tier! Und eine tolle Sache, eure Senioren-Spaziergänge in so schöner Umgebung!
Alles Liebe,
Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2026/03/rostrosen-winter-202526-bloparade-denim.html
Beautiful scenery, thank you for sharing. There are no coyotes here in Finland at all, so it was nice to see in the picture.
I've never seen one in the "wild". I'm not even sure I've seen one in a zoo! That would be a terrific sighting.
Parece que fue un precioso paseo, me encanta todo incluido el coyote. Besos.
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