What's outside of your picture window today?

Nice photos! Though I'm not liking coyotes in my neighborhood due to the small dogs and cats around 🙃 The bird looks kind of like a Junco. I see them once in awhile around my feeder.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Dark-eyed_Junco/

John, remember that coyotes gotta eat, too. Unfortunately, they find cats and small dogs, which never should be allowed to wander away from home, easy prey. For years, there was a coyote who carried his right rear leg; I thought of him was Wiley the Coyote. Every morning, very early, he trotted along our gravel road toward the ocean, only far enough to confirm that it was still there. Then, he came back along the road and used our driveway culvert to cross the big marsh so that he could hunt pine squirrels along the edge of the marsh.

One day, a doe followed by two very young fawns came racing along the road, with Wiley in pursuit. The doe crossed the marsh using our culvert, and I feared that I'd see something dreadful. About a hundred feet up our driveway, the doe ducked into thick woods, followed by both little fawns. Wiley stopped in the driveway for a moment, then turned and sauntered back out to the road. His coat was always good, and I often saw piles of cat hair where some unfortunate cat who'd been dumped along our road met a bad end. It was obvious that the effort of chasing those little fawns just wasn't worth it for Wiley. I could only blame bad people for all the cats that are dumped or allowed to wander through the woods...remember, I have no close neighbors.

A year ago last fall, I failed to see Wiley. Since he'd been here for years, I assume that he may have died from some problem of aging. Although I hear the coyote pack tune up whenever there's an accident on Hwy 101 and all the emergency vehicles race out of town, I haven't seen Wiley since the fall of 2021, and I've never seen another coyote in our yard or along this section of road. It is possible to see some of the coyotes when I hike back into the hundreds of acres of woods, but they never appear to be threatening to either me or my large dog.

Now, if I could just figure out a way to teach those coyotes to dig out pocket gophers, my yard would look far nicer and be easier to mow!

These look like dandelions on steroids. The yellow flower with spiky leaves it blooms with is gorgeous but they weren't open when I went out.

These look like dandelions on steroids. The yellow flower with spiky leaves it blooms with is gorgeous but they weren't open when I went out.

Hi @vellen. They do look like dandelions on steroids and just as fun to blow the fuzzies! 🙃
Actually they’re called Goat Beards and they only pop open on sunny mornings and close by noon!
My mom used stick the puffy heads in bouquets after she sprayed them with hair spray. LOL. My dad just called ‘em dust collectors!! He didn’t get the “natural” bouquets of weeds my mom used to have on the table. 🤣

@vellen Wow, those Goat Beards look like "Grandi-lions!"

I would love to see a pic of all the baby grasshoppers. I hardly ever see one around here. I also love a good praying mantis. Years ago, I walked out onto my patio and saw a praying mantis wrapped up like a mummy in a spider web. Suddenly, I realized it was still alive with its eyes blinking as it marinated for dinner. Like in the movie "The Fly" I felt it was saying, "Help me!" I spent about 10 minutes gently peeling off the the very sticky web (sorry spider -- you did a spectacular wrapping job though). It was fine and so grateful for the rescue that it stayed on my patio wall for the next two weeks. It stayed right next to me when I came out to visit each day. It was a good listener with a great sense of curiosity. 🙂

What a great story! I'll go out now to see if I can get those little critters to stay still long enough for a photo. If I could post a video... alas.