Winter Walk, Discovery Park

When you first enter the woods, there's a feeling of hush. Even the colors are quiet.

Then the details pop out. The underbrush is full of song sparrows. Most of them are giving simple chirps, but every so often one of them lets loose a barrage of notes and chuckles. Breeding season is coming.

At the pond, yellow-rumped warblers, flutter from willow to willow, peck and squeak. Their nickname is one of my favorite pieces of birder slang: butterbutts.

On the north beach a group of lesser scaup rest and preen.

When a dog appears on the trail, they take to the water.

But then a pair of sea lions swim by...

...so they head back to the beach.

The bluff has some fresh landslide scars.

Buds are bursting on the Indian Plum.

A pileated woodpecker methodically rips up a log, plucking out fat pearly grubs.

What a beauty.