Rando photo fling

Gotta go do fieldwork, but gonna fling a few photos 'cause it's TIME, jeepers! =)

Lovely cosmos face in November.

The Three Faces of Eve (or 3 stages of a cosmos blossom).

We got 2 inches of rain a few days back, so I looked for soggy green stuff.

Lichen and moss assemblage on the shady side of a rock.

First hygroscopic earthstar I've seen this year.

In order to keep my solitary hen company,

she lives with a mirror that she can cuddle up to.

It needed washing, so I brought it outside in the shade & this happened.

One of the joys of stormy weather: places for the sunset to play.

xoxoxobb

Late summer: Yosemite, clouds, cowboys & cutting out California wine...

Home...

Tiny, gorgeous fork-tailed (I think) bush katydid nymph on California poppy, chez-nous.

This young creature is backing verrrry slowwwly away from yours truly. =) 

Got a twitter-heads up that "mares tails" were in the Mariposa county sky,

so I looked out the window:

They're lonnnnng, thin clouds

(streaky left-to-right thing, not the vertical contrail).

And this one had a rainbow in it. BONUS.

The garden is underwhelming this year (I'm being very stingy with water),

but these pea flowers really do have the golden sparkles you can see, here.

It's one of the few things our local Anna's hummingbird gets excited about in my garden.

I need more flowers, next year.

I'll have to make additional drought tolerant, flowering plants happen.

Maybe next year the (very drought-tolerant) pomegranates I planted will bloom?

And the baby California roses? Maybe? Crossing fingers. =)

And Away

Hiking to Lukens Lake in Yosemite, recently, 

we happened upon a family of

one of my favorite & most rarely-seen birds: mountain quail.

Can you see them atop the log?

Cropped.

Adults have exclamation points atop their heads (v. Calif. quail have commas).

And cropped again. Such a stunning bird, jeepers.

Crap photos, but I was thrilled.

A stunning bird with a haunting call that can

send a chill up your spine when you're hiking in the forest.

The ever-picturesque Lukens Lake. A super easy hike, even at ~ 8,000 feet in elevation.

Note smoke on horizon, from the Rough Fire.

At the lake, I ogled this beautiful snag.

I have a thing for dead trees...

 I love how 'neath the bark is what looks like

a mysterious language scrawled into the tree.

What does it say?!?

 I wanna know.

Sat at the edge of Lukens lake with dozens of blue damselflies.

Sharpest shot I got (via my non-telephoto lens):

Such gorgeous animals, jeepers.

A favorite plant, California corn lily (Veratrum californicum).

See the little damselfly, center right, resting on a leaf?

Most of the corn lily was past blooming,

but this one, in the shade by the lake, was still going.

There were numerous happy bees merrily visiting these flowers.

Recently, in Tuolumne county, I was later to a work site than I'd planned, due to a traffic jam.

They had a bunch of cows & their young on the road. Poor creatures sounded stressed.

It took several men & horses, a dog & lots of yelling & arm-waving to get the job done.

Finally, cattle off the road, I drove past slowly, stealing a shot of this horse & its super fit bod.

Check out that crazy butt. This was back in August,

so you probably want to be lean in that heat

(daily over 100F in central CA).

Horses are SO beautiful (IMHO), I find it confusing.

Why do they affect us this way (from an evolutionary perspective)?

Did we co-evolve with them, so a desire to have horses could be selected for?

Or have we just selectively bred them to increase what we consider attractive traits?

Last, but not least, a tiny conservation vignette,

and why I may never accompany DH to this golf course again.

This sign calls the vineyards an "ecologically sensitive area."

Biobabbler's head exploded when she read this.

The quotation marks definitely indicate sarcasm, to me, in this case.

The baby vines are in the white tubes, in front of the mature vines (green in the background).

I never golf ('cause Imma conservation biologist), but I accompany DH and look at birds.

However, I used to love this course 'cause it had

large stretches of native California habitat in it

(vs. an entirely transformed, non-native landscape).

This is very unusual for golf courses in California.

But, this summer all those native spaces were razed and converted to vineyards.

=(

Vineyards are crawling across California,

taking out so much of California's remaining, unique native habitats,

it is a serious source of habitat destruction.

For something we do not need to survive.

And who knows how much water they are using?

Yours truly doing fieldwork in California habitat.

Thinking deep thoughts.  =)

Therefore, I've decided will not drink California wine, pretty much as of now.

I'm sure this decision won't be felt by the wine industry,

but I cannot reward this behavior (by giving them my money)

and feel OK about how I'm living my life.

So, thank you, darling peeps, for letting me express this.

I feel better, now.

=)

xoxoxobb

Mumday photo parade

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

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Super Exuvia! (plus wildfire cloud sexiness)

It flies through the air

with the greatest of ease,

that daring young exuvia

on the flying trapeze.*

Found this near the bottom of a dahlia, suspeded somewhat invisibly.

Pretty sure it's the exuvia of YET another bordered plant bug.

I say "yet another" 'cause just before dark, the day before, across the garden, I found:

eep! I'd NEVER seen this sort of thing happen in person. SO COOL.

Obviously some kind of beaked bug shedding its old exoskeleton.

However, bug colors can change as they dry out & inflate wings, etc.

40 minutes later:

Beauty, eh?

Pardon plant cage wire, but it was basically dark,
I couldn't really see and I didn't think to engage auto focus,
so this is the ONLY shot I took that was clear.

Next morning I rooted around the VERY same dahlia plant and found:

A VERY fresh looking bordered plant bug, Largus spp.

I'm guessing it's the same individual, just all dried and hardened,

and maybe L. californicus 'cause we're in California & it looks right. =)

BUG MYSTERY SOLVED

Looking at Largus images on bugguide

I ran across images of the nymphs,

which I'm convinced are the TINY, shiny bugs

that earlier this year crowded our zinnia plants:

As you can see, that zinnia stem indicates these little dudes are LITTLE.

Yesterday morning, peering up from a basil leaf:

Hi!

It's a very snouty little creature that I find adorable.

  I'm thinking Scolops genus, one of many plant hopper species.

I just love that face with the dreamy eyes. =)

The ONLY reason I knew this dried lavender leaf was actually

a crab spider is that it ran out & posed when I arrived.

Amazing camouflage.

Imagine flying around, trying to find nectar & pollen in a super dry year,

zooming past a dead lavender leaf & it GRABS AND EATS YOU.

Yikes! Nature is NOT kidding around.

I was in the above spider's neighborhood 'cause I'd spied this

and wanted to know who it was:

Looks a lot like our friend on the basil--though this one didn't fare so well.

But, a spider's gotta eat.

A relative: an exuvia of a fulgorid nymph (another adorbs plant hopper) I found days ago.

Even its exoskeleton is cute. =) This thing is pinky nail tiny or smaller.

FIRE SEASON

This photo was taken from our backyard Saturday at 5:22 p.m.

The El Portal Fire started ~3:30 that day.

I love the (presumed) lenticular cloud forming over the pyrocumulus cloud. Wow!

Two minutes later, lenticulars are pretty much gone.

 SO much amazing texture.

Once again, felt the wildfire feelings:

awe at this powerful, weirdly beautiful phenomenon,

AND concerned our house might burn down.

Never fear, though, it's on the "other" side of Merced River from us,

and the "French" fire (east of Oakhurst, CA) is bigger & more out of control, 

but is much further from us.

In the meantime, we will be breathing a pretty smoky palette.

Never seen a forecast like THAT before. =)

However, better smoke than fire...

And there's always the smoky sunsets: delicious!

xoxoxobb

*This is based on the Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze song, from 1867, inspired by the super successful trapeze artist, Jules Leotard. Presume the name of the close fitting article of clothing favored by dancers comes from his last name. 

An image of Jules Léotard in the garment that bears his name (in public domain due to its age).

=) He's probably wearing rather unusual attire for the late 19th century, but I imagine he's wary of clothing that may catch on things...