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

Science dudes! Ecological dynamics rap. Heaven.

=)

bb

Carrizo Plain: would you like pronghorn with that?

Wanted to see the Carrizo Plain,

a super dry, somewhat elevated (2,000 feet-ish)

landscape that is home to the San Joaquin kit fox

(a species I've surveyed for many times w/o ever seeing)

and lots of other listed species.

It's a storied place, especially if you're a biologist in California.

Just mention that giant grassland, and a biologist's brain says

"oooooooh...."

Had no ambitions to see any specific wildlife or vegetation,

tho' we did plan a stop to check out the San Andreas fault.

So what are those creatures in the above photograph?

Pronghorn!

And we drove right by them.

Then Bear said "do you want to go back to see them?"

"Yes, and there was a sign for a bathroom back there."

"But it's 1.5 miles away."

"We're 30 miles from anything else!"

bb had to go (pardon).

And this landscape has SHORT short grass,

and is totally flat. NO cover.

Challenging even for an experienced (tho' bashful) field chick like me.

Here was the sign that made my heart go pitter pat:

See? The squirrel backed me up: "I'm 50 miles from nowhere."

Normally I'd be psyched about the kitfox reference,

but I was temporarily obsessed.

This cute little store was so isolated,

the dingdongs were still $1. Sold.

And the lady behind the counter was very happy

to chat about gardening, etc.

I think they don't get many customers.

Took a while to leave. =)

So, upon our return to the main road, we saw this:

pronghorn chewin' & chillin'

eep!

They'd moved MUCH closer to the road during our detour.

It's only the 3rd (or so) time I've seen them.

The first time in California.

Sooo coool!

Buns I'd happily gaze at.

Pardon the barbed wire; I didn't want to scare them off

by jumping out of my car to get above the fence line.

The lady at the store said that the farmers are fine with the pronghorn,

just plant extra wheat, and there's water at the wheat fields,

so the pronghorn hang out there.

All the time. =)

Good gig.

And if you are a spectacular running machine,

it's okay to live in a place with NO cover.

You can virtually outrun ANYTHING,

given a few steps to gather up speed.

For more on that, I highly recommend
Why We Run, by Bernd Heinrich.

It investigates why humans run,
whether they're built for it (v. just walking),
and devotes an entire chapter to
the spectacular endurance machine that is the pronghorn.

And whether or not Homo sapiens
could actually run that creature down.

Fascinating stuff.

And just one of the many exciting things the Carrizo Plain houses.
Glad we went. Gotta go back.

xobb 

our visitor whom I smelled... a BABY picture (so CUTE!!!)

Was a striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis.

baby skunk photo by AnimalPhotos

And a lovely, snowy scene with adult.

From the almighty Wiki and it's most delightful commons.

This pic was taken near Yellowstone.

Apparently, due to its strong scent, no mammals are

particularly interested in eating skunks.

Raptors, on the other hand, will.

They used to be hunted for their pelts, but skunk fur went out of vogue,
happily for the skunks, I'm sure.

Also, according to the University of Michigan

Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web (ADW),

90% of skunks die during their first winter.

Apparently, winter is ROUGH, out there.

"Striped skunks are nocturnal, sleeping during the day in underground burrows and emerging around dusk to search for food. They prefer to use burrows made by other animals of equal size or natural burrows under tree stumps or buildings. They use their long front claws to build their own den if necessary." ADW.

This nocturnal pattern explains why both here in the foothills, and back in San Diego years ago,
I typically smelled a passerby each night at 9 p.m.

Just starting their "day," on a regular route.

So cute.

Photo by Benefactor123

The more I learn about wildlife the more I realize how TERRIBLY IMPORTANT are those animals that dig burrows. Like ground squirrels in grasslands.

San Joaquin kit fox need them (well, certainly if the ground is at all hard), California tiger salamanders need them, red-legged frogs need them (all 3 species use squirrel burrows to escape the summer time heat), golden eagles need to eat them, etc.

Part of habitat suitability analysis for San Joaquin kit fox is whether or not these guys are present.

Kind of a lynchpin in the ecosystem, yet the frequent target for extirpation.

I guess, like the skunk or the ground squirrels, you don't have to be popular with everyone to be terribly important to many.

bb

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

ordered $41 worth of seeds for garden...

  
Woah. Three days ago ordered a ton of seeds for sundry goodies for the garden, including things inspired by my chatting here with y'all (red amaranth, the "three sisters"). Then today ordered 3 kinds of sunflowers. Just talking/thinking about it here helped me realize I really wanted them, so why the heck not?

(poor bee has biobabbler on her bum)

Then, inspired (3 days ago), I drafted a little list of yard work I could do this week to help prep for it.

Then (2 days ago) it snowed. And snowed again.

Hmph.

So, all things I might dig, etc., are covered in snow and DRENCHED, so I should probably wait.

In the meantime, what are your garden plans?
Have you ordered seeds already? If so, what? If not, will you?
What are you most excited about?
What do you dread?
What works, what does not, and do you know why? Esp. re: the climate/soil conditions near you.

What works here:

Tomatillos. They are so happy here, they're weeds. They grow and sprawl and bloom and draw bumblebees like mad. I get volunteers every year. They must love hot, dry days and at least tolerate cool evenings, of which we have many.

What doesn't work here:
Raising tomatoes and peppers from seed. Since I have cats, cannot raise things in the house, which is required to get and keep soil at 70+ degrees. It gets cool here every night, and I will NOT spend $50 for a mat to heat the seed tray for the green house. Just won't. So, buy plants from local nursery in May.


I'd love to hear about your gardening experiences and plans. How do the ecological conditions where you live play into it all?

biobabbler