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

White-faced ibis ROCKS my world...

White-faced ibis adult, non-breeding plumage.

Not too shabby for least-fancy plumage of the year, eh?

These birds are a mysterious kaleidoscope of colors that frequently look just black.

Except in strong light.

Enjoyed cruising around Merced National Wildlife Refuge (NWR)

and San Luis NWR yesterday.

While California is mid-mega-drought,

at least there is SOME water SOMEwhere for these creatures,

and the plants & animals they rely upon,

so I am VERY grateful for the USFWS Wildlife Refuge System

for providing for these ecosystems, and allowing people to visit.

Cost us ZERO $.

=)

I hope y'all had a great Martin Luther King Day.

xoxobb

what you don't want to see ...

 ... AFTER you've clambered down a hill, off trail, taking pictures of the veg.

Oops.

Sorry, state of Colorado, area of Boulder.

Won't happen again.

xoxo

bb

office: summer 2007, wordless

Joshua Tree NP - NOT going to get dumped! YAY!

  

As far as I can tell, this is REALLY good news.

I learned about the proposed project many years ago when I was at an NPS training and a guy from that park talked about it. WOAH. It was HUGE.

According to the NPCA it was going to be the largest dump in the U.S.,

right next to the park.

Wow. Scary stuff, ecologically speaking.

From the NPCA announcement:

"...the Supreme Court has announced that it will not hear an appeal from Kaiser Ventures, LLC, the corporation seeking to build the dump. This decision confirms a 2009 U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, overturning the land exchange necessary for the development of the dump."

This is really good news.

Joshua Tree National Park

is one of the most enchanting places I've ever been.

And I don't talk like that a lot: I'm a science dork.

 

But, this place is amazing.

If you've never been there, for heaven's sake GET THERE

and bring ANYONE who will come along.

Of course, I recommend spring and fall. =) 

Something about this place makes me want to walk. For DAYS.

It's a walkabout siren, for sure.

So, I'd like to say,

PHEW!

And HOORAY to everyone who helped make this ending

an ecologically happy one.

 

They helped assure that this hawk has clean digs.

=)

So if, by any chance, YOU helped,

THANK YOU!

Nice work.

bb

In honor of SPRING -- prevent woo-ing birdy smash ups

 
Slap up a few WindowAlert window decals--they are AWESOME!
(These are the ones I get, like 5 envelopes at a time.)

The decals are clear for us, but reflect uv for the birdies, so quite obvious to them.

They are not expensive, stay up FOREVER, and do not impede your view at ALL.

(broad billed hummingbird photo by http://www.naturespicsonline.com/)

And they keep these poor, love-crazed romantics from crashing into our windows.

Happiness is NOT finding little puffs of feathers on your window and/or hearing the BONK of a poor, tiny bird that smashed its little body into your window thinking it was pursuing happiness.

Happiness IS healthy, singing birdies flitting about, feeding chicks, decorating the heavens.

(photo of golden-backed weaver and nest by frederic.salein)

"Family values," biobabbler style.

=)

(award winning photo of Calliope hummingbirds by Wolfgang Wander, Papa Lima Whiskey (edit))

Press them every few feet on your windows, and you WILL save lives.

Promise.

And think how much you'll get to gloat! I sure do. =)

xoxobiobabbler

P.S. They also make great gifts (IMHO).

P.P.S. This is NOT a paid endorsement; I pay full price for mine. =)

salamander venue...

 
Mind you, we didn't catch any salamanders while I was there, but here's some pics of the site to give you an idea.

Nice, very peaceful place. The military has (at least for now) some REALLY nice pieces of land that hugely benefit (ecologically) from the fact that regular folks and strip malls are not allowed to wander around there.

I took this picture because I'd never seen the hills quite that color. A dark, mysterious, blue-ish green.

My boss took this early morning shot. That's Mount Diablo on the left-ish.

Much of this land (lightly used by military these days) is leased to ranchers, so there are gates everywhere (my role was gate open-and-closer, as my co-workers drove), and cows (and evidence, thereof). But it is peaceful and lovely.

And, because of the cattle, we had to surround each wildlife fence we built with electric fence so the cattle wouldn't go for a nice scratch on one of the posts, thus flattening our fencing. =)

See the bright flags (click on the picture below)? That's for the electric fence--it's only fair to warn the creatures (including Homo sapiens) something's up...

 

 Co-worker checkin' buckets at our largest site (over 100 buckets!)

 Nest in Baccharis sp. shrub near one of the sites.

Coyote cruising for ground squirrels...

ooh, good scratch!

(taken from car via normal old zoom vs. fancy lens, so...)

And, unpacking:

That's AFTER I'd scraped MOST of the mud off. =)

So, der ya go.

Those salamanders have some nice digs.

xobb

This is what I want...

  
... for Christmas. And I live near the San Joaquin valley, so there'd be TONS of fuel. And even our little hens could get in on it!

AWESOME.

bb