Nature upload: the living, traces of the past, finicky finches, and a GAME! =)

The Living

Some lovely lichen I found 'neath an old oak tree

when I was foraging about for some nature coolness.

 

Under the same oak, I found this a few days later.

Looks like a nest with a perfect hen's egg in it, right?

It's fungus. Some kinda puffball, I presume. =)

And, from my field site, a super not great photo of a FABULOUS bird, a phainopepla.

I'd never seen one at the site before, and have only seen them maybe 4 times?

Looks like a black cardinal with red eyes. And makes a sweet little sound.

SUPER cool.

Traces of the Past

Photo that represents much of what I love about my job.

Looking for and detecting wildlife, in whatever form I can.

This is a coyote print in some tasty mud.

And thanks to the smarty tweeple I follow on twitter (e.g., @Laelaps & @LianaBrooks),

I believe THESE are worm tracks.

I only find them RIGHT after a rain storm in areas that are pure dirt (no plants).

I'm super psyched I learned this. Such beautiful tracks.

DH and I were cruising around learning about local mining history.

Our shadows on infrastructure of what I think was a ferry landing at the Merced River.

 It's just off highway 49 (its name is NO coincidence re: 49-er history).

Hills are greening up nicely, around here. Yay! =)

Then we cruised down foothill backroads to where some mines used to be

and found this beautiful fence. I LOVE the way it frames everything.

Finicky Finches

Got photo documentation of our local birds

rejecting the millet in the birdseed I put out for them. =)

House finch grabbing millet to fling...

...annnnd flung!

(See lower right hand corner)

Duly noted. =)

Guessing Game: How Big Is This Oak?

An oak as viewed from within the Ahwahnee in Yosemite NP.

How tall would you guess it is?

If you were standing next to it, how high up would the top of your head go?

Just go ahead and try and picture yourself there. 

Then scroll down to see how tall people are relative to the oak.

derp

derp

derp

So, how close were you to reality?

I think that tree is OVER 70 feet tall.

A towering beauty, to be sure. =)

I hope your winter is cruising along nicely. =)

xoxooxobb

Yosemite etimesoY

 Reflecting near Tioga Pass, Yosemite NP, this past weekend.

It's a pretty nice place.

Here's to finding a beautiful, natural place near you,

and getting into it.

And, although the NPS is running a

Find Your Park campaign to encourage & celebrate such things,

and I am a huge fan of the NPS,
it doesn't have to be a national park.

Whether you're at some famously stunning natural landscape,

or peering at the bugs that flew to your porch light,

nature can always enrich your life.

Ours is a complex and wonderful planet.

And it's all right out there...

=)

xoxobb

How big is Half Dome? Well, can you see the people? =)

So, if you've never been to Yosemite, and wondered how big Half Dome was,

here's a hint.

Half Dome, photographed from Washburn Point

Same photo, cropped and enlarged to show the people at top

Same photo, cropped and enlarged again to show the people

Same photo, the for-sure people outlined

Tiny little bipeds: aren't they cute?

=)

Now go back to the top photo
and mentally picture the people (teeny, tiny specks) there.

So, there's your answer.

It's big.

xoxobb

Uh-Mayzing vid on milkweed, monarchs & more in Yosemite & beyond

 Holy cow.

Another gem produced by Steve Bumgardner.

SO, so great.

Give yourself a treat for 7 minutes. You deserve it. =)

AND a TIMELY REMINDER for me to PLANT

my must-be-planted-in-fall (native to CA) milkweed seeds.

Cannot WAIT to see milkweed in our garden next year--HOORAY!!

Huge thanks to Steve & Erik & everyone involved for this GREAT short film.

*sigh*

xoxobb

Storm cloud + ogling Tenaya Lake

 Had a nice little storm, yesterday.

Which proved that it CAN rain in California.

Got about .14 inches.

We'll take it.

Was enjoying the #IAmANaturalist thing on twitter, yesterday,

which inspired me to riff off of it:

#YouKnowYoureANaturalistWhen you have to unplug everything due to thunderstorm

then grab your camera & go outside. =)

Yeah. Amid a bit of lightning and a few drops of rain.

MAN, that smelled amazing.

Tenaya Lake, Yosemite NP.

Went to Mammoth Lakes this weekend, and upon our drive home,

took a wee little walk at this perfect lake.

And was delighted to see a tiny beach restoration test area (my interpretation).

And, in case you've never been there, here's shots, scanning right to left, of Tenaya Lake.

Lots of people climb that big thing, so many people also park just to watch them. 

The rest is just more trees.

=)

Can you see why it's popular?

If you go to the south side of the lake,

you'll see some really cool rock formations,

and some AMAZING reflections, if it's not windy.

Next time I'm stopping there, too.

Hoping I'll process, and later post, a few photos from Mammoth Lakes.

xoxobb

Friday Foto Fling

and Happy Flehmen Response Friday!*

Ridiculously beautiful day at Mono Lake. Kinda stormy.

Driving home. Road trips are ROUGH when there's nothing to look at... =)

View during (brief) traffic stop at Yosemite. Again, hard to bear. =)

Note debris on road at right. Brief, intense rainstorm washed stuff onto the road, hence road work.

Finally landed on a term for dahlias: absurdly beautiful.

iPhoto plot: it opened onto May 22, 2014 & I saw this guy. HAD to re-post. Cute little hopper!

 LOVE those eyes...

I added mulch one day and I SWEAR the NEXT DAY everyone looked happier.

Gaillardia infront of chrysanthemum. 

Perusing lovely images of gardens (& listening to gardening podcasts)

it occurs to me that many people don't have the

gophers, rabbits, deer, bears, etc. that we have.

Their plants are just OUT THERE, and all's well.

Can't. Even. Imagine.

Here's the deer's eye view of our dahlias:

Looks like flower prison. For the criminally gorgeous. And tasty.

Moby trying to figure out how to GET to those tomato plants.

Nevertheless, I still enjoy gardening; miracles abound.

Soaked these pups 1.5 days, and they had ALREADY started to germinate.

Which may be why this happened 5 days later:

=) Hard to see, as I MUST disguise baby bean plants so birds don't get them all. 

Next day:

SO amazingly fast. SUPER gratifying.

They're scarlet runner beans, so when they mature,

not only will they be beautiful and shade-making,

but also I'll finally have something for the hummingbirds. Hooray!

K. THASSIT!

Have a fabulous weekend, cherished peeps.

xoxobb

*To perk up your Friday, just google image search Flehmen response.

It's PG rated, a real biological thing, and SUPER entertaining. =) Plus, tapirs!

AMAZING time-lapse compilation video of Rim Fire at Yosemite...

by the brilliant Jonathan Byers,

including shots from the Crane Flat helibase and a view of Yosemite Valley.

With SOUNDTRACK!

'Cause this is STILL practically ALL I can think about.

I must have a pea brain.

That is filled with ecological obsession.

xoxobb

Feeling sore? Yosemite-ice it. You'll feel better.

Teetered carefully around Yosemite Valley, today.

Cold & icy, but lovely, of course.

another 30 robins? really? Does anybody still care?

fabulous American Robin photo (attribution)

Beware: this robin is larger than it appears.

Numerically speaking, that is.

The Christmas Bird Count.

It's big, it's 113 years old, it's awesome,

and now it's free (used to be all of $5 to participate).

Here's "us," one of the groups in the Yosemite Christmas Bird Count on Sunday.

Can ya guess which one is moi?

As the Audubon Society's page says,

"the longest running Citizen Science survey in the world,

Christmas Bird Count provides critical data on population trends."

It's all day.

I participated in a CBC in San Diego

where I met the guy at my park at about 4:30 a.m.

so we could find the great horned owl he knew was about,

which we did (this dude was prepared).

Then we napped in our cars until dawn.

And resumed birding.

Anyhow, one begins such adventures all psyched.

I didn't sleep well the night before 'cause I was nervous.

Then I figured I'd think of Christmas carols

to lull myself to sleep.

Good plan.

First one I thought of was "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Which is ALL ABOUT BIRDS!

Seriously:

7 swans a swimming

6 geese a laying

5 golden rings

(ring-necked pheasants, that is)

glorious pheasant photo attribution

4 calling birds

3 french hens

2 turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree.

arf.

Eventually, though, I slept.

So, got there next morning,

was still nervous ('cause not v. skilled birder)

but our group leader calmed my fears.

She was 100% positive,

super mellow and supportive, so that was great.

Cue fun machine.

Yet, she warned us of birding fatigue.

If you go all day, it's about 7-8 hrs of birding (or more).

You'll run out of steam.

Instead of seeing some birds and thinking "YAY!"

you're bored and want to go home.

IMPOSSIBLE! thought I.

I am Queen of Bio-Enthusiasm.

She was right.

7 hours later, I was thinking:

Do I REALLY have to write down ANOTHER 20 ROBINS?!?

Does ANYBODY CARE at this point?

'Cause your caveman brain knows this is not useful info.

For a caveman.

It IS, however, useful to the CBC compilers.

And to us, later. And prosperity.

So, the American Robin was THAT bird this year.

White-crowned sparrow photo by Wolfgang Wander

Years ago I did CBC w/Bear in the San Joaquin Valley.

That year, white crowned sparrows were "that bird."

I still remember the field I was standing in,

when I asked Bear (quietly, so no one else heard),

"Do I really have to keep counting these white-crowns?"

Bear stared at me.

"Yes."

So, I counted and added another 110 to the list.

And I am a COMPULSIVE counter.

I LOVE to count.

But 7 hours is a long time.

However, this CBC data set is

OLD and HUGE and awesome.

So, it's worth it.

And who knew? I did much better than I expected,

AND I got a really good look at one of these:

red-breasted sap sucker (photo attribution)

Gorgeous bird.

And I actually saw a ruby-crowned kinglet

up CLOSE, that had its ruby crown on full display.

I've only seen THAT about 3 times.

killer cute ruby-crowned kinglet (photo by Dan Pancamo)

Saw lots of other good birds,

cute birds,

cool birds.

Lots of birds.

But, what I like best about it,

is 2 things:

1. I'm not the world's worst birder.

A little studying, and I improve.

2. I've reawakened to birds.

Ever since Sunday,

I keep grabbing my binos

to identify things in my yard.

And pulling Sibley's off the shelf,

and looking stuff up.

And listening to the Birdchick podcast.

It's all good.

Even for a caveman.

xobb

Thilent Thurthday: thankful for national parks