I FINALLY planted milkweed seed. WOOT! =)

Did some work in the a.m., then in the afternoon felt unwell.

DH prescribed gardening.

Who am I to question him? =)

So, planting milkweed seed was priority one.

I weeded this iris plot (protected fm. gophers via that wire mesh)

and got to work.

I took photos 'cause I've learned that where I plant X Y and Z

stays in my brain about 15 minutes.

Next day, it's gone.

SO, I made these! =)

And here's the details, re: the seed packets.

I'd researched it in the past to find spp. native to California

and which help monarchs specifically, butterflies in general.

Note the one above likes to be over 1,000 feet in elevation: we're 3500, so we're a go!

Note: "packed for 2014" means I shoulda planted them 2 falls ago,

but, whatever.

Planted is better than not planted.

Part of learning to garden is learning to quash the perfectionist.

Just. Do. Something.

Also, I paid for these (& a bunch of to-be-planted-in-spring kinds)

versus looking for a free source. 

My priority was get the right spp. for our area & bugs.

Didn't cost much, anyhow. =)

Next, I had to protect our seeds from the HOARDS of hungry seed-eating birds:

Before I learned this trick, I'd plant seed mixes and get almost nothing.

I concluded I was a crap gardener.

Turns out, dark-eyed juncos (& friends) kick through & eat seeds on & under the ground.

So, I protected newly planted areas in the above manner

and suddenly I had LOTS of BABY PLANTS! Total miracle.

=)

Next I need to attach that wire mesh to wood so it's safe for wildlife.

But, now, having followed my husband's recommended cure,

I am now well, AND I've got 3 species of milkweed planted in our garden.

Some of which can grow to 5 feet. SWEET!!

One of the best things about gardening is it gives you things to look forward to.

Like stunning, fabulous flowers attracting stunning, fabulous insect life

that I then get to ogle and PHOTOGRAPH.

Woot!

xoxooxxobb

life, art, biology, repeat: quick East Coast flash, bug question & a question answered

During our trip back east,

I pigged out at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

So yum.

What follows: a biological subset of the delicious repast.

Images Caveat

I looked for but didn't find "can't share these" on nga.gov,

I only took photos of those we were allowed to (w/o flash, of course),

& given that many can be downloaded for free here,

& many are >100 y.o., I'm thinking it's ok to share them here. =)

End Caveat

Gorgeous data bank

Painting style that makes the nature noodle in me drool...

Still Life with Flowers and Fruit

Jan Van Huysum, oil on panel, circa 1715, Dutch

Stunning, excruciatingly detailed work that seems like a

great way to preserve data re: living things (if accurate).

Can't imagine any pressed botanical specimen

having color like after 200 years

(tho' obviously natural history museum collections

can be staggeringly valuable to science).

Seems like you could ID many of these species,

if you knew where they were collected. Maybe. =)

And the bugs are the kicker.

Detail of Still Life with Flowers and Fruit

I bet $$ that's a (300 yr old) tiger beetle. =)

Can any bug people confirm or deny my tiger beetle guess?

Pretty please do, in comments, below. I'd be MOST grateful. =)

Fly, ants & butterfly (or moth?), same painting:

I think it'd be fun to review the flora and fauna

of paintings like these to see if they were accurately depicted.

Not your "Great British Bake Off"...

Still Life with Peacock Pie

Pieter Claesz

oil on panel, 1627, Dutch

This made me think of the amazing creations

that Great British Bake Off contestants try to emulate.

But, the first thing I thought of

when I saw the above was the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. =)

I'm pretty sure peacocks aren't covered by it (not native to US, etc.),

but part of my job is to look for such violations, so my brain sent up a RED FLAG. =)

Also, by now the bird's been dead for close to 400 years...

Among NGA's amazing display of lush American-made furniture,

this table leg caught my eye, for obvious reasons. =) 

RAWR! =)

I'll post more images & thoughts later,

but for now, I'll address what many have asked:

Why don't you spend more time at the Natural History Museum?

Because that stuff is what I've been studying

my WHOLE LIFE (or there abouts).

I want to look at different things,

unfamiliar things,

things I may not understand.

I want to explore other worlds when I'm on vacay.

And, apparently, art makes me happy.

Really happy.

=)

Plus, there's LOADS of overlap between nature and art

which I'll continue to explore in further posts.

And I believe nature can explain much of why that overlap exists.

We're just another mammal, after all.

=) 

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

Charming insects, upcoming adventures, Yosemite-as-homework & braving the fair...

'Round the Property

This young grasshopper nymph TOTALLY stole my heart. SO TINY.

European honeybee descending into a California poppy

This year I noticed California poppies' first appearances in the morning.

I'd never noticed them undressing like this, before. Super cool.

Upcoming Adventures

I'll be doing fieldwork regularly starting next week. Here's the new job site.

Technically that is across the street fm. the "action area"

but that means it's beautiful and will stay that way.

So, I will be out and about pretty much every week,

so hopefully will get lotsa fun photos phor you. =)

Took a side route home fm. the 1st job site visit so I could check out

BLM's Red Hills Area of Critical Environmental Concern. 

That SUPER DRY, pale blue & green & grey stuff on the hill is very Red Hills-y.

Lots of clarkia were blooming their HEARTS out.

I believe this is Clarkia biloba.

And this during a multi-year drought.

I have so much respect for how tough clarkia are.

Homework

So, to prep for upcoming fieldwork, I did some nature-study in Yosemite last weekend.

It was rough, as you might expect. =)

The western azalea is blooming in Yosemite Valley, and it smells AMAZING.

And we saw cobalt milkweed beetles that day, too.

Absolutely STUNNING insects. Photos can't do their shining magnificence justice.

Photo Phrenzy

Just turned in photos to a nearby county fair,

so I'll def. post about how that went,

EVEN if I win absolutely nothing. =)

This is the post on the results of my 1st fair photo entries,

but that was for our county.

What I entered just now is a nearby county's fair.

And it's MUCH bigger.

So I could definitely get NOTHING.

But, it's just a great opportunity to ogle other people's work,

and to force myself to print and mount some of my images.

And thanks to Shelly at MObugs for getting me blogging again.

=)

Mwa!

xoxobb

Snapshots of spring

 This hymenopteran (tiny bee? wasp?) was DOA, discovered while I was weeding.

It is SO TINY I had to carry it on a saucer

with a glass over it to keep it from blowing away. 

The irises are blooming, now. Not all of 'em, but this one is going at it. =)

See the TEENY tiny thrip?

An extremely small insect

living in an impossibly beautiful place.

Western fence lizard watching me photograph irises.

I'm not sure that's an approving gaze... 

The "beard" in bearded irises reminds me SO strongly of nudibranchs.

I'm JUST in love with irises. And the ones I have smell amazing, too. That's a requirement. =)

A local native, golden brodiaea. Beautiful buttery yellow faces beaming up at you.

Even with the drought, they're making a good showing.

They're just shorter than usual, if I remember correctly.

Yay, natives! 

An extremely tiny spider (crab spider) atop a pale owl's clover flower.

For a sense of how tiny thrips are, look at the pale part of the bloom,

center left edge. 

Zooming WAY in, there's a few thrips.

Can you find this tiny section in the previous photo?

One last moody gaze from a still-unfurling iris, this year's very first.

A great thing about irises, since I am clearly deeply in love with them,

is that they love OUR climate.

They don't need summer water.

They just sit there, high and dry, through the drought,

waiting for the rainy season to return.

Lovely, since my standards for the drought tolerance

of plants I'll allow in our garden is rising every year.

I hope your spring (or fall) is progressing beautifully.

xoxobb