Photo taken on Mt. Tam, during a Plant Spirit Medicine workshop with Maria Owl Gutierrez. Background texture generously supplied by the Pacific Ocean.

I've found several of these in Cooper's Grove lately. In my field guide to nests I learn that Turkeys nest on the ground. I'm guessing I've walked right past several nests in my explorations of the grove, and that they are very well camouflaged, in the way of natural things. 

I made a point of carefully exploring the area to see if I could find any nests. I could not. Turkey feathers, yes; but they are abundant in the neighborhood. 

Someone made a meal of this egg. They left it on a well-travelled foot trail, which suggests to me that it was a mammal, not another bird species. There are many foxes in the neighborhood. So Fox is currently suspect #1, until other evidence arises to suggest differently.

This time of year the oaks are in a particularly beautiful phase: they have new foliage to brighten things up, but not yet enough to completely obscure the structure of their limbs. This photo is taken toward the end of this phase. I wonder if naturalists or botanists have a name for this time of transition, very much a season in the life of the tree.