February flash, flung 1 day late =D

 He is glorious; she has the munchies.

It's that time of year, turkeys parading all over.

I LOVE the percussion males provide to accompany their dance. SO COOL!

Squirrel-y cunning leads to tasty breakfast.

Extremely impressive core strength in this creature.

BIG THING FOR FEBRUARY:

new-to-me species!

Common sharp-tailed snake (Contia tenuis) I found while raking around the grape arbor.

 Pretty gorgeous tummy, eh?

Those are pine needles, so you can see this is a SMALL snake.

It was kinda cold, so I righted the snake for a photo,

then returned it to its home under a bunch of leaf litter.

Such an exciting discovery, and I'm glad it was unharmed (far as I could tell).

For more info on this species, I highly recommend its page at Calherps.

Now that gardening activity is on the upswing (here in the northern hemisphere),

a friendly reminder to CHECK under your row covers

EACH a.m. & release anything trapped w/in. =)

Beautiful male wasp (ichneumon, I believe)

I found under my row cover and released. 

It was 0% aggressive and, btw, males don't have the

equipment to sting. Note LACK of pointy barb @ end. =)

From February 1st--note the snow on the ground.

Seems like FOREVER ago. =)

Super cool stuff soil does when the cold freezes the water out.

I didn't grow up in really cold places, so this is fascinating to me. 

One of the first macro photos I ever took was

of this non-native early bloomer, red-stemmed filaree.

Changed my view of the world.

I'm a sucker for visible pollen grains, especially on purple anthers! =)


A lovely little flower...

Gorgeous small beetle I saw clambering across the greenery as I photographed the above flower.

So glad I got to see it.

Wildlife prints I found at the work site:

best part is the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) print...

you can SEE the fur on the underside of the fox feet. SO cool!

K. That's some of the myriad delights that transpired in spring.

March onward!!! =)

xoxooxbb