Last Visit to Lake Almanor this year

I drove up to the lake on Wednesday and returned Thursday ... 'the storm' was on its way and I wanted to get home before it hit (Friday). I believe I had my last visit with the dentist for this year!
About 17 miles from the town of Chester, I drove through where several fires burned this summer .. I can still smell the 'burn' .. the CalTrans crews are still cutting dead trees and making the route safer. At one point, we were held up for about 20 minutes while the road was being worked on and when we started again, we passed about four small waterfalls .. I managed to get my camera out and take this .. probably the smallest of them all .. but isn't it amazing that after the ground was so burned and the water levels in the creeks, rivers and lakes have shrunk to ridiculous levels, these very small creeks are still flowing .. and look how the underbrush has recovered.

On the way back from the lake I drive past a lot of rice paddies which are empty now through the winter. The various birds are taking full advantage of the water/mud/slush in the fields and I can only imagine the number of bugs there are for the picking. There are billboards on I-5 advertising 'guided goose hunts' and each time I stopped for a photo op, the geese immediately took off (photo at right) ... I suppose they're used to having men shoot at them. I saw pheasant by the road and geese, seagulls, egrets and some black birds with curved bills which I haven't yet identified (bottom right in photo above left) .. they're larger than ducks and smaller than geese.