Loving Wildflower Season

Alas, looks like the fungi are done for the year.  But I'm not in despair, as the wildflowers are starting to go nuts again.  I found these last weekend on a little hike uphill a ways, in the lee of a big rock pile.  I don't remember having seen these before and it took a while to figure out what they are:  Caterpillar Scorpionweed, Phacelia cicutaria var. hispida.

More Fungi. No Apologies for It, Either

Some may not know that yours truly is a bit obsessed with fungi, with a sub-interest in slime molds.  In spite of the fact that I am really sick of this particular rainy season (acknowledging that is a very un-Californian type of thing to say), I cannot escape the fact that Rain = Fungi. 

Therefore, I am foisting off yet another lovely group photo of these little numbers found just below the shop building area.

And, and what about these?  Growing on the side of a tree.  From a distance, they look like noses.  Close up, like a weird mouth thing.  And the color - a friend who saw this shot thought they looked like the color of old lady support hose.

New Bird! Number 87!

All of Dino's raptor runs with the Audubon group (not to mention extensive studying of field marks) are really paying off in raptor identification.  Today, he saw a Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) on his daily walk - that's a new species for us here.  Excitement plus!

I made it into town today through a bit of mushy snow only to find that there was No Power.  Drat.  Makes it hard to work on a computer in that situation.  Another aspect of the general discomfort:  building only has electrical heat, ergo, 53 degrees in the office.  I layered, indeed I did and toughed it out till noon, then decided that I'd had enough and headed home.  Dino headed out to work on the shop building, deferring to my need for quiet so I could get some paying work done, and I plugged away on the much slower connection.  The PG&E web site does not give much hope for tomorrow either, not to complain about days off which are always nice, but I'd rather not burn my personal days for this.  Ah well, make hay and all that - oh wait, the sun's not shining. 

Here's a fungus pic for your trouble.  I found these beauties on Saturday afternoon in an area I don't usually explore, in a spring on the area we call the Northwest Territory.  I had a heck of a time wedging myself and my gear under a willow trunk where I'd decided to go for a nice view of the spring and the water flowing downstream.  I was delighted to be rewarded by finding this mini-forest in a hollowed area of stump.

Rain to Celebrate Spring

Being stuck inside is prompting lots of sitting around, plus some vigorous reading and now!  Actual writing!  Good thing we both got out and about yesterday - Dino off on a birdwatching trip to Bass Lake and yours truly on some photo-ing.

One of my favorites for this time of year: the amazing green of the freshly minted buckeyes.  I've had my eye on this specimen for the last week or so on my way uphill to work.

You'll be happy to learn that I did not wield the camera for one of the more intimate moments so far witnessed among the turkeys that come to visit our front yard.  I can say that wild turkeys seem to have more fun than the mere couple of wing flaps and wiggle of the doves - although I did observe that instead of enjoying a post-fun cuddle and smoke, the male stood on the female's back for nigh on ten minutes before he decided to let her stand up again.

More Yosemite

One of my most faithful readers was alarmed at my reaction to Yosemite. I say no no, I will chose a blase attitude about a lot of things, a crusty even cynical attitude about others, but when it comes to flinging myself off the cliff of honest response to THIS beauty, I'll choose the fall. Look at those rock walls, the size of it all - that granite doesn't give a toss about my ridiculous little ego and its prattling.


And that is real liberation.

Our lunch view the other day.

A Lovely Day Trip

Recently, we were honored to host a friend of mine who was visiting from Moses Lake, Washington.  This was her first trip to California and since we are so close, we decided to visit Yosemite, truly a world-class destination.

I've decided that yes, Yosemite is best in the winter. Seeing that place again - so many times I felt like falling to the ground in wonder. I felt whacked about the head and shoulders with it all, my heart broke again and again.

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Birds Birds Birds

Over the last several weeks, Dino has become active in the Mariposa chapter of the Yosemite Area Audubon Society.  He's participated in several "raptor runs", where a group of interested birders follow a prescribed route and count the individuals of each species of raptor identified. 

A couple of weekends ago, as Dino was relating his interesting day raptor-watching, he suggested that we should do some birdwatching of our own "some time soon".  I suggested that since all I had on my agenda for the next day was some yucky housecleaning, perhaps that would be a good day to go birding and leave the kitchen floor to fester.  (Hyperbole there - hard encrustations don't actually fester, they merely stick and lurk.)

Come the next morning, we gathered up all our gear, filled up a lunch box and headed off.  It was a great day, with a good 30 plus species identified (not counting our usuals here at home of course), and a couple of instances of "we know that's a Scaup but don't know Lesser or Greater" so we couldn't count it. I also saw a few new species that I'd never seen before. Of course, since none of the birds we saw are uncommon, I may have seen them but just didn't know what I was seeing. I know it's a form of bird geekiness to keep lists, but we do anyway. And it's not really the listing that's fun it's the watching. Totally different terrains from where our place is too, just beautiful California interior valley grasslands with many ponds and vernal pools that attract water birds.

We took quite a few record shots of birds we weren't sure about identifying at the time in hopes that we could identify them later based on the photos.  I'll share just one of these with you, it's the best of the bird ones. A Northern Mockingbird: