High Country Beauty

 

Beautiful morning in the high country, about 9 a.m., 3/23/2024.

Passing storm evening view at about 6 p.m., 3/24/2024.

And still more snow this morning, 3/30/2024 (it even snowed on the valley floor).

Close to 5:30 p.m., 3/30/2024

Morning of 4/6/2024

Morning of 4/14/2024: the last snow of the season?

Morning of 5/5/2024....

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Waiting for Rain

 

Ocean Beach Esplanade

It's after 3 p.m., and I'm still waiting for our "80 percent chance of rain after 2 p.m." I do like the rain at times, especially if I've already enjoyed a long walk and a bike ride on the beautiful morning that precedes it. 

I probably should have set the Sutro Tower timelapse (below) to run while I was on my bike, but I thought I had more time before the clouds would blot out the blue sky. Between the time I snapped a photo of Golden Gate Park's newly rehabilitated Middle Lake slowing filling up with water from the adjacent casting pools, and the short time later that I snapped the beach view toward Mt. Tam above, the sky had mostly filled up with clouds.

Nevertheless, I captured a timelapse once I got home, in part to add an audio track using my new Fender Mustang Micro amp -- a guitar amplifier that is literally 1.5 inches by 3 inches in size (the sound only plays in your headphones). I also had to download free recording software called Audacity. 

It's a new world. I have not been keeping up with digital music devices over the years and am looking forward to exploring the possibilities.

Someone parked their zoo on 10th Avenue today.

Two years of construction is finally coming to an end at Middle Lake, and water is slowly filling it up. It's not open yet, and I only got this phone snap because a gate had been briefly left open and unattended. For scale, those are two Canada geese inside the red circle.

Rear Window Timelapse

(3/22/2024)

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Spring Hike

 

View from Mt. Tam's north side near Barth's Retreat, with Mt. Saint Helena in the distance.

My wife was able to get the day off for a true spring break, so we hiked a loop from Rock Spring: Cataract Trail to Mickey O'Brien Trail to Barth's Retreat to Portrero Meadows to Rifle Camp, then back along the Lagunitas-Rock Spring Road to the Benstein Trail and the Simmons Trail to close the loop back at the Cataract Trail.

The hike started out chilly, around 45 degrees just after 9 a.m., but warmed up by the time we reached Barth's Retreat, where I spotted a chickadee entering a nest cavity in a dead Douglas fir. I trained my camera on the hole, but I either picked the wrong one, or the sneaky devil came out a different hole. It appeared to have been carrying away a poop sack as it exited, but I missed the shot. 

The air was so fresh with spring that it was actually perfumed in places where the sun's warm rays volatilized aromatic molecules from the forest that graced our nasal passages with their tantalizing bouquets. We passed a raucous group of acorn woodpeckers that were chasing each other through the high branches and sometimes grappling, then twirling together as they fell, only to break it off well before they hit the ground. I also saw a pair of hummingbirds having a tussle very near the ground, but they flew away as I approached with my camera. Hopefully I interrupted fighting rather than mating.

We saw lots of calypso orchids in the woods, and shooting stars in the wet meadows, and a single star lily just beginning to bloom at Potrero Meadow. We also saw our first western fence lizards of the season.

I resisted pulling out my camera until we enountered this delicious backlight on some sedges and horsetails in Cataract Creek.

I often pass up the first few potential subjects, but once I do finally break out the camera I start shooting just about everything that catches my fancy, like this white slime mold (possibly Brefeldia maxima).

Tortoiseshell warming its tattered wings on a sunny trunk.

Zoomed-in view over green hills and remnants of fog, toward Mt. Saint Helena.

This is a cross-section of a redwood that had fallen across the trail at Potrero Meadow. I count about 30 rings.

The bee flies were buzzin' at Barth's Retreat. I was surprised to be able to catch one with the FZ80.

Star Lily in the Sun

Dried Sulfur Tufts

This was the most stout and vividly colored calypso orchid we saw all day.

It looks like this banana slug is interested in poop, but I think it's actually some  crapped-out poor-man's licorice.

And this was the most unusual inflorescence of calypsos that we saw.

And how about the most laid-back acorn woodpecker ever. I couldn't believe it let me get so close, and it never did fly away.

A blue-belly takes in the sun...

...and shows off with some burly push-ups.

The following are just some recent shots from local walks.

Purple pistil, golden anthers, and cloud-white petals at Strybing Arboretum.

Spring color at Strybing Arboretum.

Spring growth always creates a tunnel of plants on this set of stairs, but the bonus was the Echium coming into bloom and beginning to hum with visiting bees.

At the top of the stairs I spotted this juvenile red-tailed hawk. I could tell it was a juvenile in part because it didn't fly away, as the adults usually do. Also, its breast feathers were not as white as an adult's.

In addition to red-tails, there was a red house over yonder.

"It's spring!" exclaimed the man on horseback.
Sorry, I couldn't resist. ThisTricholoma equestre was actually photographed many years ago, in January, near Barth's Retreat.

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Carrizo Plain in March Past

 

The Yellow Carpet (3/10/2010)

Back in the days before social media took off, you could have Carrizo Plain pretty much to yourself, especially in March before the peak bloom. Back then I usually couldn't get time off from work at the optimum times, so I'd go when I could. Last year was the first time I was able to time my trip, passing through once with my wife on our way to San Diego, then returning on my own later in the month. I'm still undecided as to whether I'll go down this year, but in the meantime I thought I'd share some March scenes from the olden days....

This was the view toward the Caliente Range from Soda Lake Road...

...and this was the view in the other direction, toward the Temblor Range (both 3/3/2005).

Not that I've been out there a lot, but I used to reliably see pronghorn before the big solar farms were built. I thought for sure I'd see some last year with so much forage available, but nope. (Photo from 3/3/05).

This is from 3/10/2010, and I don't believe the sign is still there. 

Meadowlarks: the sound of Carrizo Plain in March (3/3/05).

The fiddleneck back when I shot this (3/3/05) was heavy around Soda Lake, but not elsewhere on the plain. Last year I was surprised to see how far and wide it had spread.

Fiddleneck sunrise (3/11/2004).

Back then (3/3/05) it felt like I had arrived at peak bloom. I'd never seen such a large-scale profusion of wildflowers before.

I like to see what I still own after so many years. The Jeep is long gone, but that cooler was already about 11 years old back then (3/3/05), and I still have it. I also still have the Marmot jacket, but the camp chair broke just last year while camping at Sonora Pass.

Is "Cheerful as a Daisy" a thing (3/10/2010)?

* * *

Wind Blown

 

Abbotts Lagoon Sunrise

After all those windy days I was eager to get out to the dunes around Abbotts Lagoon to see if I could find any of the Pt. Reyes Wallflowers (Erysimum concinnum) that I photographed back in March 2010. I'd checked my Windy app and saw that it wasn't going to be dead calm, which was unfortunate. But I was still disappointed when I arrived at the parking lot and heard the wind howling just a little bit in the pre-dawn darkness. 

As it turned out, I need not have concerned myself about the wind since there weren't any wildflowers to photograph anyway. The bright spot of my morning turned out to be watching a family of river otters swim by as they moved from the seaward part of the lagoon to the inland part. They spooked a great blue heron into flight as it was hunting near the bridge. The heron had not spooked earlier when I crossed the bridge, but a GBH does not mess around with a family of voracious otters.

The freshly wind-scoured sand dunes already had several sets of animal tracks crossing here and there. One disturbance looked like it might have been made by a bird landing and sweeping the sand with its wings, as if it had been going after prey. Nearby was a tiny dead mole lying on top of the sand. I wondered why it hadn't been eaten.

Point Reyes Wallflower on a calm morning at Abbotts Lagoon in March 2010.

The otters swam underwater as they approached and passed beneath the bridge, but finally showed themselves at least briefly.

I hoped they would get out on the dunes and play, but they did not. There are five otters in this shot.

Moocows in the Morning

Composite shot of a flicker that took off from its coyote brush perch.

Lots of spotted towhees were belting out their sunrise songs.

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