True Nature Stories: Morning on the Mountain

Bolinas Ridge View

My wife took the day off yesterday to rejuvenate her spirit on Mt. Tam, so we took a short hike out to my trail cam location before heading out to find a good picnic spot to celebrate Beltane with bugs above Bolinas. While my wife painted watercolors in both locations, I poked around with the FZ80.

There were lots of California poppies in the neighborhood along the ridge, as well as numerous small black flies that were dancing in the air around us. They never seemed to alight on anything, so I couldn't get a picture of them. But while I was taking pictures of various insects among the poppies I might have caught one by accident, although it was being preyed upon by a flower spider.

I've posted a short video below from the Tam Cam's latest location, including an intimate view of a young buck browsing on manzanita leaves in the wild. One of the clips is mainly about the morning birdsong, so be sure to have your speakers on. Incidentally, the GBGB birds were singing like crazy up there yesterday.

This guy puts the "giant" in giant crane fly. It sailed toward us as we hiked up Lagunitas-Rock Spring Road, then veered away and bounced ungracefully through the jungle of trailside plants before settling to rest on this young madrone.

Blue-eyed grass contemplating its shadow.

I've always called these zygadene lilies, but it has since been placed in a new genus as Toxicoscordion fremontii. It's also known as death camas (as the new genus implies), although a 150-pound person would have to consume three to nine pounds of the plant to get a fatal dose.

We were in the neighborhood of the sickle-leaved onions, and although more were in bloom than I saw last time, there were still not very many. The critter-browsed leaves made them look even smaller.

As soon as I snapped the photo, the flower spider ducked behind the petals. At the time I hadn't even been able to tell what I'd just photographed.

I was surprised when I got home and saw that I'd caught a flower spider with some kind of fly in its grip. The fly looks like one of the many we experienced dancing in the air around us, but I can't say for sure.

A tussle of fluttering wings drew my attention to a pair of butterflies that presumably were mating. The pictures were blurry from the action, but they soon parted ways, leaving this one to cling peacefully to a stalk of grass while basking in the sun.

I caught this small beetle as it was exiting a poppy flower, presumably sated and ready to move on to its next adventure.

Only a tiny percentage of the poppies had insects in them, so I improvised with some non-native pinks.

Here's a pair of earwigs doing whatever earwigs do. The corolla looks pretty munched, so they might have started with the petals before moving down to the pollen and nectar. Although you can't tell from this shot, the other earwig did not appear to have horns (called forceps) on its hind end. This 1975 paper lists 10 species of earwig in California. Apparently they can fly, although thankfully they rarely do.

This little fella has pollen stuck all over itself.

Dual poppies with a duo of flies (one of which is airborne).

The darker fence lizard appeared to be the dominant reptile, but it only seemed to investigate its neighbor rather than tussle with it or give chase. Much of the time they shared the rock quite close to eachother.