Fawn Season

 

After riding through the fog-drip that started just below Pantoll I had to pedal up past Rock Spring toward East Peak to finally reach the sunshine. Stonecrop and monkey flower were growing from crevices on this lichen-crusted boulder, and the gray-green oak in the foreground was in full flower.

Iconic summer weather, with fog still high on the mountain even in the late morning.

A couple of fawns hang out at the new trail camera location. It's too bad GardePro's information strip is overlayed on the image instead of placed below it.

I approached the new trail camera location prepared to find zero animal activations. They've only been up there a week, so even if it had been zero I'd have left them there another week. As it happened, the cams captured a few deer, a single gray fox, a couple of squirrels and steller's jays -- and a hiker. I don't know why I'm still surprised that hikers show up on off-trail cams. People roam all over Mt. Tamalpais. 

As I was about to ride back down into the fog at Rock Spring I saw this pale swallowtail butterfly (with still-pristine wings) fluttering around the chaparral pea and yerba santa flowers across the road. I kept hoping it would land and feed on the nectar of one of them, but it eventually sailed high into this oak to spread its wings and gather warmth.

A little later I saw it (or another one) fluttering around the chaparral pea again. It kept appearing to land but then it would flutter away before I could get a clean photo. It was only when I got home and viewed this image on a large screen that I noticed it appears to be ovi-positing on the pea's leaves. 

Riding back down toward Rock Spring I had just passed the Mountain Theater entrance when my bike spooked a pair of fawns that I hadn't even noticed, and then their mother. 

I was tempted to enter the woods to try to get a better view of them but realized it would be hopeless, even with the benefit of damp leaves that wouldn't crackle and crunch under my feet.

Fog still lingered over the meadow at Rock Spring when I arrived. I checked the area where I'd seen the hen turkey appearing to make a nest last week. The depression was still there, all the leaves and other detritus cleared down to bare dirt, but the turkey was long gone, there were no eggs, and a deer had unceremoniously deposited a generous ball of pellets at its edge. As I prepared to lock my bike to a tree before hiking to the trail cams, I realized the key to the lock had fallen off the keyring and was nowhere to be found. I left the bike unlocked and under the protection of the mountain gods and people's better natures.

There were many more yellow mariposa lilies in bloom this week, and insects were already taking advantage. I'm a little bit in awe of the fact that insects and flowers have their appointed times in each others' life cycles. The flower holds fast through its non-flowering season by bulb or seed, and I guess insects can be dormant as eggs (or the insects harvest from different sources throughout the year). But what about crab spiders, aka flower spiders, who can't fly? How do they spring into action and find their way to the mariposa lilies where their color gives them perfect camouflage?

The obvious answer to how they find their way seems to be that the females lay their eggs on or near the flowers, which are likely to grow again in the same place the following year. Apparently the spiders can alter their color somewhat when they molt, depending on the color of their host flower.

If you look closely at this photo (click to view larger) you'll see there's a carnivore also taking advantage of this mariposa lily. The skipper stopped by to sip sweet nectar, but was soon spooked away by a flower spider laying in wait.

I walked by this colorful patch of checker bloom once without taking a picture but succumbed to the temptation when I passed it again on my way back to my bike (which thankfully was still there). You can see some dogtail grass in there as well, and I noticed that a large patch of it that I'd photographed before in that general area has been overtaken by other grasses this year. 

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