Lupine Bush, originally uploaded by Pacific Landscapes.

Just one more example of how much beauty there is to appreciate in the San Francisco Bay Area. This spectacular stand of lupine is on the Coastal Trail in the Marin Headlands, Marin County, California. It overlooks the Rodeo Beach area and the Pacific Ocean.

The April flowers along the Northern California coast can be quite stunning. Most common is the California poppy a brilliant and ubiquitous presence in parks and along roads. Lupine flourishes along the coast in many varieties and adds unexpected contrast to the coastal blues and greens.

In April of 2009, I met up with several friends for a week of bird photography during the migration that goes through eastern Oregon and centers around the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. We stayed in Hines which has a Best Western and used that as a home base to fan out every morning looking for Snow Geese, Northern Pintail ducks, White-fronted Geese and raptors.

Initially we were disappointed that the accessible portions of Malheur Lake were completely dry. We didn’t research enough to know that the lake level is controlled by man and uses a series of waterways and dikes to flood the fields of the neighboring area. Even Google Maps satellite image shows a big, blue lake where there was nothing by dry ground and grass. It took me a few days of driving past the same spot in The Narrows to realize that in another season we would have been driving over water.

This image was made just at that spot. This tree is an icon of The Narrows, and is the threshold of the refuge. We were far enough away that stopping the car didn’t disturb this pair of Canada geese. Perhaps my personal favorite image from the trip.