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| Accommodating Bluebird |
My wife had the day off so we headed out for a hike on Mt. Tam, leaving the city around 8 a.m. in surprisingly "Friday light" traffic. Yay.
Since I was there just yesterday I didn't really expect to see anything new, but as soon as we pulled into the Rock Spring parking lot we noticed that a huge branch had broken off one of the great old oaks near the picnic tables. Around the base of the tree we found numerous yellow-staining agarics, which seemed more than a little incriminating. Did these fungi have anything to do with the rotten limb? Are they guilty rotters, or just cute bystanders?
By the way, I got a good look from the Matt Davis Trail at the battered remains of the old iconic Douglas fir, which now appears to be completely dead.
One of the highlights of the hike was spotting a western bluebird that was very accommodating to a couple of shutterbugs. At first we stopped and just looked at him, figuring he'd fly away. He was right next to the trail. Then I finally said, "I know how to make him fly away. I'll get my camera out." But even that didn't work, and I snapped a photo. We took a few steps closer and snapped another photo. Then we took yet another few steps and took yet another photo. Amazing. Thanks, bluebird!
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| Panoramic Highway was still closed at Pantoll, even to bicyclists. |
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| The fallen limb at Rock Spring. |
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| Another view of the oak that lost a limb. |
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| Some of the many yellow-staining agarics (probably Agaricus xanthodermus) found suspciously near the base of the oak. |
Here's a quick comparison between the small waterfall we saw on the Matt Davis Trail on our
hike in the rain on Feb. 1, and today.
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| They say a "bluebird day" is a sky with no clouds, but I usually like a few clouds on my bluebird days (hence the nephophile moniker from a few days ago). We took in this view at right about high tide, which was supposed to be 6.9 feet, which is why Bolinas Lagoon looks like a bay with no mud flats. |
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| Heading north along the Coast Trail. |
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| A tiny bit of yellow slime mold along the Cataract Trail. |
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| This lichen was sporting a bunch of pale beige fruiting bodies. It's growing on the bark of a large Douglas fir. |
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