* * *
What sounded like rain in the woods was just the pitter-patter of fog
dripping from the canopy onto a carpet of dry leaves.
Sometimes a Douglas fir's rat tails show loud and proud.
Sticky patches of sap pool among the cone's scales.
Hardly a drop of water in this little arroyo seco off the Benstein Trail.
Spotted this crime scene at my feet as I knelt
to explore a small pool of water in the ravine.
A California Giant Salamander, here a juvenile sporting about three inches
of length, chills in the bottom of a pool.
An excited mob of acorn woodpeckers and steller's jays called out
from the vicinity of this coast live oak bristling with nuts,
stopping only when a cooper's hawk swooped in.
* * *
