I got to the office around 7:00 am, printed up a grant request letter and got it ready for mailing, and then I headed out for Lake Solano Park. to do a preliminary walk of the trails before our naturalist field trip on March 3rd.  The park is in Winters, about 35-45 minutes from the office in Woodland.  It was chilly, in the low 40’s and a little overcast, but it was still nice “walking weather”. My coworker, Bill got there a little after I did. I was trying to fend off one of the resident peacocks who walked right up to the door of my car looking for handouts when he drove up. Hah!

While I was fending of the peacock, I missed being able to get a photo of a squirrel who went hurrying across the parking lot at the same time with a mouth full of feathers and grass for its nest. Dang it!

Anyway, Bill and I walked down the short driveway from the parking lot to the front gate where the pay-here kiosk was standing.  In the first couple of minutes I managed to get some photos of the peacocks, a tiny White-Breasted Nuthatch, and a Turkey Vulture.  But just as we were about to cross the street from the kiosk to the camping ground to look for the riverside trail, I tripped on the very uneven pavement around the kiosk and fell forward.  I landed HARD on the pavement and dirt, primarily on my knees, and also hit the ground with my right forearm.  I did not hit my head, but I could feel a kind of “whiplash effect” at the back of head and neck (as though my spine shoved forward into the base of my skull).  The impact with the ground was very hard, but I never lost consciousness.

[This is why you should try to have someone with you when you go out into the wild. Accidents happens even in the most benign places.]

When I managed to crawl to a fence and get myself back onto my feet, I noted that I was seeing double and my vision was blurry, so I asked Bill to check my pupils for any sign of concussion. He said my pupils seemed to be of equal size, but he wasn’t able to determine if they reacted normally to changes in light.

I leaned over the fence for a few minutes to let my body process the shock of the fall — maybe 5 minutes — and by the time I stood upright again my vision had gone back to normal, and remained normal for the rest of the day.

I sustained deep bruising, abrasions and some small hematomas on both knees, and it felt like the cartilage or bursa or whatever you call it behind both knee caps was “burning”.  I also sustained abrasions to my right forearm — even through the heavy coat I was wearing — and slight abrasions to the heel of my hands.  I felt pain in the triceps of both of my arms (more so on the right side than the left), like the muscles had been strained in the fall.

Still, I was able to walk (with some but not a lot discomfort; maybe a 6 on a scale of 10), and Bill and I scoped out part of the trail.  While I walked, Bill kept an eye on me to make sure I was okay and didn’t have any other issues with my vision. We were able to come up with a plan of action for the field trip, and also generate some extra questions/fun facts for the naturalist students. So, mission accomplished despite the fall.

My main concern, though, was my camera.  It was smashed in the fall.  The lens was in the elongated telephoto position when I fell, and the entire lens housing was smashed into the body of the camera. I need my camera for the naturalist course, for Tuleyome social media postings and albums, and for my own personal stuff (and being very attached to my camera I feel “blind” without it).  I can take the damaged camera to a shop to see if it can be repaired, but it looks pretty thrashed.  I wasn’t able to take photos with the camera – obviously – for the rest of this trip and had to use my cellphone for photos. It does okay on the close-up stuff, but it sucks for anything else. I couldn’t get descent shots of the other birds we saw along the way.

[[As an aside, Tuleyome agreed to reimburse me for the broken camera, so… yay!]]

I was surprised to see, during our walk, that the Pipevine at the park is already in bloom. That usually doesn’t show its face until March.  We also saw Acorn Woodpeckers, an American Robin, Buckeye trees just starting to get their leaves, lots of Bufflehead ducks in the river, a couple of Bushtits, California Mugwort, Canada Geese, Common Goldeneye ducks, Elderberry bushes, Giraffe’s Head Henbit, some Golden-Crowned Sparrows, several Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets, a Green Heron, Long Stalks Cranesbill, Mallards, Manroot vines in blooms (so you could see the boy flowers and the girl flowers), Miner’s Lettuce, Mistletoe, a Nutthall’s Woodpecker, some Oyster Mushrooms, lots of Poison Oak, a couple of Snowy Egrets, and all sorts of other stuff.  I hope it’s this nice and varied when we take the students there.  I think they’ll really enjoy it.

I was able to drive myself home, but noted that bending my knees to get into and out of the car was very painful.  I opted not to seek immediate medical attention because I didn’t feel “concussed” or that anything was “broken”, and I didn’t want to go to the emergency room if I was just bruised.  When I got home, I took some Aleve, and went directly to bed.

Even though I “hate” the quality of most of the photos I took today, I’m putting them into an album to share with my naturalist students anyway.  You can see the album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkhnaturalist/albums/72157691735739781