Steve,

Up here in Sonoma County we have many varieties of bird life flying around on a daily basis. I'm not good at naming exact species of them, but I think I can describe them well enough. In the last week I've seen blue jays in my back yard and even a dove came by and sat on my fence for a few minutes and in Petaluma near the water there are sparrows, little tiny birds that look like finches, snowy egrets and hundreds of crows. I did see one quail in the underbrush last night at the preserve and I don't think they ever leave. However, I can't recall if the red wing black bird is around right now. Those birds are very noisy and frequent my study area and are in the thousands in Petaluma. I have to go downtown to have a look or the marsh to confirm. They have favorite places where grasses and water are in abundance. Thank goodness not near most homes.

Regarding the Parkfield mention; I was thinking if we had a 4.0 in Santa Rosa it would be somewhat rare, but Don says no, there was one in 2000. I don't remember that; but if there was a 5.0, it would be on par with Parkfield as there haven't been any since 1969. A 5.0 doesn't sound dangerous, but around here it is. We still have lots of unreinforced brick buildings and many old homes built after the 1906 earthquake when the city was leveled. I don't even know if the house I live in is retrofitted and I'm not going underneath to find out either.

I learned they are doing a reinactment of the 1906 earthquake here in Santa Rosa on April 18th and they asked for 115 people to volunteer as victims. I'm sorry I'll miss that since I'll be in your city; but I'm sure they'll cover it in the news. I don't know why they selected 115 as 300 died.

Petra