ONE KESTREL AND THREE GARTER SNAKES

We did a lovely loop up the West Ridge Trail at Cronan Ranch on Sunday.

We had another hike in mind, but most of the Auburn area hikes were too inundated by high water in the creeks and rivers.

It was a lovely, sunny day with a bit of chilly wind. We hiked with our friends and their almost-one-year-old. Just before we started a guy and his horse came over to say hi and let the kids pet the horse. It was so sweet. He said the horse was particularly suited to kids and spent a lot of time with is grand kids!

Our friend spotted a bird hovering like a kite and said it was a Kestrel after a peer through binoculars.

A highlight was seeing three garter snakes by the tiny stream. Kiddo was over the hike and had found a "fishing pole" (stick) and was really doing some serious dawdling so close to the end of hike. His "fishing" brought us off trail up to the stream and that is where we saw three different snakes at different parts of the little creek. One was right in a little pool with just it's head up.