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

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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

New carnivorous mammal species discovered!

 
Here's the article and pics, to boot. Small, toothy creature, called Durrell's vontsira, cruises the wetlands of Madagascar. A VERY small area. Apparently there are other vontsira species around, but this one has clear differences so they are quite confident it's a new species.

This photo is from the Durrell Wildlife Conservancy Trust. 

As IF I've been to Madagascar--I wish! 

BTW they took some quick data on the few they caught, then released them.

Unfortunately, Madagascar and its wetlands are an ecological mess and there are many endangered and otherwise imperiled species there, including this one. They guess there's only a few dozen of these guys.

Drat.

Looks to me like the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust's involvement is why the creature was discovered, so if you're interested or motivated, I'd go to their site to learn more/donate.

However, it is exciting. At least they are now known, and that is good.

So, next scrabble game, try vontsira on 'em, and have your URL citation ready. That'll learn 'em to under estimate you, and the power of science!

=)

the county fair -- always a great day =)

     

 three amigos
 

blue ribbon winner in "most winsome" contest =)

presumed progeny of "most winsome," basking in those adorable genes...

Gorgeous black and white lady.

Had a nice chat with their owners, and met their son, who raised this cow. Nice work!

The conservation biologist (cb) in me says "hm...."

This exhibit won "most educational"; cb says "Really?"
Water conservation means very different things to different people.

 Verrrrry serious agriculture going on around here. MA-jor.

Not a good shot, but this is the auction arena. Very interesting insight into the world (about which I know NOTHING). LOVE to watch this. There's major money flinging around. And it seemed that the farm bureau (hope I have that right) bids on animals people weren't bidding on. And I think that's nice.

Oh, and I learned the signals for whether you want the animal that you just bought processed (hand chopping the neck move), or for resale (finger pointing towards sky and making a circle). Never saw the signal for "live pick up" but I imagined maybe you pretend you're driving a truck? =)

Anyhow, I noticed different kids would get VERY different prices (per pound) for what seemed to be equally healthy animals (to my exceedingly untrained eye). So, I asked a woman who was there what determines the price. She said a) if you call a number of buyers before, so they arrive and bid against each other, that's very helpful, and b) it's who you know.

I was guessing that (b) might be part of it, but then that it also made sense. If your best friend's kid is selling his sheep, why not bid heavy on it? Of course I hope if you're not super connected you can still get a decent price. Anyhow, that was all very interesting to me.

And God knows I love the cowboy hats, inside jokes (from the auctioneer), and most of all the animals and the 4-H kids handling and selling animals that outweigh them, shoveling out corrals, changing water bins, working REALLY hard. SO impressive. Love it.

 coltish
Look how LONG those legs are already vs. the adult! Oh, my.

Last Christmas we went to Mt. Vernon, then I got very interested 'cause GW was an a-MA-zing farmer. Super inventive, methodical, bold. SO impressive. His crops were on a 7 year rotation--jeepers! Read part of his biography when I got back. Such an interesting guy and SO deserved to be our 1st president. I had NO idea. I'm a TOTAL fan, now. =)

And last but not least, the winner of the most coveted and competitive award at the County Fair:

"Best Hair"

biobabbler