First Blush: Late fall at Arastradero

The female Dawn Jogger headed out to do a Friday Arastradero Open Space run where she found herself surprisingly alone – given the holiday and after turkey day “walk it off” motivation. Plus, doing her regular loop was hampered by a number of trail closures, she presumes due to earlier in the week rain, although other trails were mudless by now. It’s was a good outing nevertheless, filled with late fall scenes. As with other recent outings, there was that all important pause…

First Blush: Sorry to disturb you Mr./Ms. Coyote

For a steady couple of weeks, the female DJ was seeing a two coyotes (she surmised mother and almost grown pup) atop Big Dish. But while the warning signs remain along the Dish trail, she hasn’t seen a coyote there in a month or so. Today she got an up close view of the crafty canine while out on a long run at Arastradero Preserve. It was around 8:00, so fully light, and the coyote was still on the hunt for breakfast in a field about 30 feet in front of her. He/she turned to look at the jogging intruder and then went on with the hunt. It was only when the female DJ uttered “Git” a few times did the coyote yield the space and dash into the bush while the she jogged by. Coyote encounters are always a cheer up…

First Blush: That’s rain over the Bay

The female Dawn Jogger didn’t get up super early. But seeing the bright blue skies out her window, she decided it would be a dandy morning to head over to the Arastradero Preserve for her morning jog. (Yes, she still thinks far too many mornings since June have featured gloomy gray.) About the time she was worried that it was going to get too warm for the up and down route she favors, big bellowing gray clouds appeared overhead. By the time she was on the top of the ridge, she could see rain over the Bay below. She was too late for any good wildlife…

First Blush: Sunny, coyote-filled morning at Arastradero

The female Dawn Jogger continues to enjoy every sun-filled early morning hour, after the relentless grey of the past weeks. She took the opportunity of no first-of-the-day appointments to head out for a 5-mile loop run at Arastradero open space, long the Friday morning destination for the male DJ and Cassie the dog when all were jogging together. A number of the trails in the preserve are marked with warnings about “aggressive coyotes,” and while the female DJ is always watchful, she’s much more concerned about coming on a snake than a coyote. This morning a lone, she guesses female based on size, coyote appeared on the trail about 10 feet ahead of her but didn’t stay in place long enough for her to snap a photo. It scampered up the hill, and when she got out from behind the brush lining the trail, she could see it eating its breakfast on the hillside (a sharp eye can just make out the coyote right in the middle of image above left). She knew she was looking at a coyote because she’d just seen it, but she can see why people who are looking at these animals in the distance might think they’re seeing a mountain lion. Masked by the golden grass, the colors of both are pretty similar…

Way we were and the way we are

It’s still hard for the female DJ to go out to Arastradero open space for a dawn run as it brings back memories of the many Friday mornings that she’d go there with the male DJ and beloved Australian Shepherd Cassie. When they were there really early, they’d often see coyotes heading home from a night’s hunting. During the summer, when the sun rose earlier and it was fully light, they’d often see deer, always a good sign as it probably meant Mr. or Ms. Mountain Lion was not in the area.

This morning the female DJ spied two young deer grazing. Recently weaned yearlings? One agreed to pose.

It provided the start of a day to that ended in a perfect bookend. The very first neighbor they met when they moved to Menlo in 1990 was Kay who trundled across the street with a sweet of some sort as they are unpacking the moving van. It began a friendship that included wonderful dogs, good walks and shared sorrows over the years. But there were also extreme joys, none more so than when son Nate came home from Stanford hospital as a newborn, to be joined a couple of years later by daughter Malea. One is an official godson; the other unofficial goddaughter. How can they be almost all grown up? And how generous the two teenagers who tonight shared yet another Su Hong meal around the dining room table where they once played Pond Scum…