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

Falling through November...

 Found yet another ootheca, this time under the greenhouse eaves.

 Wonder how old this one is... years?

Was tracking a red-shouldered hawk,

when this raven decided to shoo it away.

Many insects seem to be loving ANYTHING that's blooming in November.

Which includes our zinnia, which is going bananas.

Moby (hen) struts by, headed for the cherry tomatoes...

Among the flower-fans:

This painted lady eyed me whilst it drilled for nectar.

I want to call those little frills eyelashes, but don't actually know that, so...

 I'll just call them super cool.

Fawn post-rain, chewing cud, enjoying the sun.

Fawn and mama, who's got her eye on me. =)

Big ol' gang moved through, taming the greenery for us.

And trimmed up the circular driveway. Thanks!

The deer are looking SO much better than this summer, now that there's actually FOOD. =)

Their faces are fuller, muscles are back, 

and this one even has a shine to her coat--hooray!

That's fall in this climate: the long-awaited return of water,

and all the life that it brings.

xoxobb

Masterful clouds, acorn woodpecker fun & a fawny face

Post winter storm sky, this morning.

Forecast calling for stopped rain, and a return to the weirdly warm temps of highs in the 60s.

And from a wee bit ago, before the rains added more watering hole options for the birds,

we'd been rich in avian visitors...

Two males. The females have black between the cream and red on the head,

so the sexes are very easy to distinguish.

Therefore, lady on the left, gentleman on the right.

Whoop! Waterbowl is slippery (and in need of a refill).

And a cutie (male mule deer fawn) stopped by to lap up breakfast,
namely some of the bird seed we'd flung here and there.

Hope you all are well.

I am feeling VERY grateful for the rain we finally got.

Hooray!

xoxobb

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

A valiant effort

to rain, but none was forthcoming.

It was nice to have cloud cover, though.

Back to sunny and mid-60s. In JANUARY.

And there's a wildfire in the county.

In what is normally the COLDEST, wettest* month of the year.

xoxobb

*I KNOW we get our coldest temps in Jan, not sure we get the most rain then, but we're Mediterranean, so get the VAST majority of our precipitation in winter, and virtually ZERO June-October. And so far, January is precip-free, which is FREAKY. Setting records all over the place, in this, the first month after the driest year on record for California.

still-spotted fawn ambles by...

The lure of the late summer garden in a dry climate... 

 Clearly a finishing school graduate. 

 

 

teeter, teeter, teeter... 

xobb