26 June 2008: The fires in California have turned the sky around San Francisco Bay grey, and the sun pink.

So that empty nest we noticed when we moved in 6 months ago is now occupied. We think she is the mate of the little guy with the red plumage. Interestingly, we haven't seen much of him lately. Perhaps he's done a runner. Anyway, Mrs Bird is always there, looking out at us, or sitting on the edge of the nest with her arse in the air and her head down in the bottom of the nest arranging things. Perhaps she is turning her eggs.

This is pretty cool. I took it with the built-in camera on the Nokia cell phone, at around 1:30pm, during a quick walk after lunch:

The cell phone camera doesn't capture colours accurately; is pretty low resolution; and has this halo effect that you can't really avoid. But the results can be quite good! I suppose it helps to be in a picturesque location. You wouldn't know from the picture that it was very bright sunlight and 92 degrees. It all looks very tranquil and mild.

This little guy shows up in the morning and evening and sings for about 10 minutes before flying off somewhere. He's very regular in his schedule. So far we have not indentified him.

I took this picture (one of 12, the only one that had him in focus) through the slats of our window blinds.

Normally he faces towards the house and we can see his glorious red-orange waist-coat.

He's about 4 inches tall.

Last weekend we ventured outside just before the sun set, to walk around the neighbourhood and take the air. It was very picturesque.

Sailing behind East Marin Island, looking South.

East Richmond hills - possibly Wildcat Canyon Regional Park - poke their heads above a cloud bank looking East across the San Pablo bay.

A duck flies West.

Yesterday I took a walk into Barbier Park, climbing up San Pedro Mountain. It's really just a big hill on the North side of the San Rafael valley, but it is big enough to have very nice views.

The trail starts at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quiet neighborhood, and is initially quite steep, but soon levels out and is a much easier walk. It took me about 45 minutes to get fairly close to the top

I expected to get to one of the highest peaks and take in some panoramic vistas, but actually the radio relay stations or suchlike are surrounded by security fences and dense bush on either side of the trails, and the best views are to be found about 3/4 of the way up:

This is a true 360 view, with San Pablo Bay in the North East, Mt Diablo far away in the East, the Richmond Bridge in the South-East, and the San Rafael valley in the South-West, and the glorious Mt Tamalpais. The Sun is thinking about setting in a couple of hours, behind the hill to the West.

I walked down to McNeer's Beach yesterday as part of an effort to get regular exercise. It was very busy, lots of people picnicking and playing volleyball and suchlike, but also some quiet areas without anyone around, where if you were patient, you could see some wildlife: