Moods of Carrizo

When I first heard of Carrizo Plain in a botany class at Santa Barbara City College back in maybe 1983-84, the professor's description imbued it with an almost mythical quality, as if it existed on another planet, a secret garden of treasure known only to a select few. 

Something of that mythic quality lives on despite the fact that it's become a social media darling, the scene of cars parked bumper-to-bumper along its dirt roads. 

I've actually never been there during one of the so-called super blooms, but I've seen fantastic carpets of wildflowers, had close encounters with pronghorn (much closer than shown above!), and walked alone among the pictographs of Painted Rock when I had it, and virtually the whole plain, to myself.

Luckily there isn't enough oil under the plain to make it worth drilling for, or all of this would look the same as it does on the other side of the Temblor Range, a vast plain of pumpjacks instead of fiddleneck and goldfields, tidy tips and phacelia.

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Anza Borrego

Cactus Garden (Anza Borrego in March)

Sphinx Moth and Chuparosa

Camouflage (Banded Rock Lizard)

Palm Oasis

Chorus Frog at Palm Oasis

Passing Storm With Barrel Cactus

Passing Storm With Barrel Cactus (looking the other direction).

Henderson Canyon Wildflowers

Cactus Wren on Ocotillo

Black-Throated Sparrow

Palm Oasis Sunset.

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Changing Times

I'm glad to see the trap is still picking up a bobcat, keeping my hopes alive that I'll eventually capture a couple of bobkittens tagging along. The time on all of these is still PST since I didn't get around to updating them to PDT until today.

Big-Eyed Mouse.

I have a video clip of the mouse coming in from the right side of the frame, and it looks almost as big as an American pika.

Leaping into the manzanita.

Another leaping rodent.

Spotted Towhee.

I hadn't caught a Band-Tailed Pigeon since back when the traps were set down by a creek-bed pool.

So my wife and I looked over these manzanita plants this morning and could not find sign of deer-browsing on the leafy stems. I had wondered if they could simply be eating the flowers, and am pretty sure that's what they're doing. In some clips, the deer press into the brush to reach farther back, even though there are plenty of leaves right up front. I've gotta think they are reaching for fresh bunches of flowers.

The fox has been paying the camera no mind.

I've started picking up a jackrabbit in the area also.

And several turkeys pass through once in a while. We heard quite a bit of gobbling on the mountain this morning.

The buck deer are already beginning to grow back their antlers.

We were surprised by how few people were on the mountain. Even by the time we headed back to San Francisco, only a dozen or so cars were parked at Rock Spring.  

Ironically, the only person we saw in the woods, despite the fact that we were on regular trails quite a bit, was a guy walking a deer trail through the chaparral and heading right for the manzanita camera trap. I'd already collected the SD card, so I guess I'll find out next week if he spotted the cam. 

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Death Valley

Death Valley.

March 2005.

A good year.

For desert sunflower.

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Far Away

These scenes of Mono Lake, warm and cool, are far away in space as well as time. Theoretically I could get in my car and be there well before today's sunset, but I'll settle for looking at the pictures and imagine I'm there already.

My recollection of the visit when I made these pictures on a presumably chilly morning in March, thirty-two years ago, is pretty hazy, if it even qualifies for that much distinction. Yet I've been there enough times over the years that my imagination feels very present on the tufa-strewn shore.

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Sleeping in Dew

Sleeping Bee in Dew, Pt. Reyes

I'm just going through some shots I haven't posted here before, photos taken in the month of March in past years, like this bee and caterpillar who seem to have been caught by cold temperatures that forced them to sit tight through the night.

Dewy Caterpillar, Pt. Reyes

Having to sit tight has suddenly become something we can all relate to. And maybe we can all just take it in stride like a humble honeybee or wooly bear caterpillar, and carry on when the sun warms us back to life.

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Diversions

Tahoe Cams

Tiburon Cam

Yosemite Cam

Lassen Cam

Waikiki Cam

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March Bobcat

Hard to believe this encounter happened in Tennessee Valley nine years ago. It was such a singular event, it seems like yesterday.

Sleeping.

Preening.

Leaping.

Feeding.

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Manzanita Munchers

Besides the several hundred empty frames fired off by insects or flitting birds at this trap over the last couple of weeks, the only thing I noticed that hadn't shown up in the last batch was the deer browsing manzanita. Maybe new leaves are coming out that are just tender enough to be palatable. The manzanita have also come into bloom, which might explain the sudden and major increase of empty frames set off by flying insects, of which only the butterflies were big enough to notice.

Young buck about to nosh on manzanita.

Bewick's Wren

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Cloudscapes

Enjoying the cloud views from our apartment yesterday. A few people out on Twin Peaks, and a lone jet taking people where they need to go.

A little later....

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