06-09-03 Today along San Francisquito Creek a Great Blue Heron entered the picture. There's not much hope now for the small fish stranded in the dwindling pools with this bird and last week's Black-crowned Night Heron on patrol. 06-07-03 After spending the night at Kaz and Aiko Hayashi's Lodi home, Cricket and I went to Cosumnes River Preserve and birded for a few hours. The mosquitos were merciless and we each sustained more than twenty bites. We arrived at about 11:00 and set out on the creek trail to investigate the riparian woodland and some of the drier grassy areas. Bird highlights included many Yellow-billed Magpies, several Swainson's Hawks (including one being harrassed by a White-tailed Kite), a pair of Blue Grosbeaks, a probable Cassin's Kingbird, a female Wood Duck with young and a Black-chinned Hummingbird at the interpretive center feeders. These were each nice discoveries, but overall the area was a bit quiet. Most likely, the late start time and the heat were responsible. 06-05-03 As predicted, today along the San Francisquito Creek the piscavores have begun to gather. There was a Black-crowned Night Heron watching the small pools with interest. I didn't see it catch anything, but the bird's presence was interesting to note after my earlier comment. 06-03-03 After this week's heat, the San Francisquito Creek has officially stopped running. there are some deep puddles and lots of algae forming. The puddles are still connected by dark areas where water has just receded. The flow must have stopped over the weekend. I didn't check it yesterday, but Friday is was still running. The next steps will likely be the slow evaporation of water that remains, the trapping of small fish, the gathering of fish eating predators, and the baking of any crustaceans that fail to bury themselves in the mud.