Gila Monster

On the second of May I resumed my big adventure, this time I will be traveling for 3 months before returning to the LA area.  My first stop was the Katherine’s Landing near Bullhead City, AZ. It is part of the Lake Mead Recreation Area I had been to before. But this time I was at the lower end on the opposite shore.  It was really just a stop over point since I was not driving more than 5 hours at a stretch and this seemed like a good spot. 

I checked in at the ranger station and found learned of a good hiking and birding location called Grapevine Canyon where there also happened to be pictrogrylphs.  So off I went early in the morning.  As I was parking my camper I spotted a Galia Monster crossing the parking lot. I was so excited I almost couldn’t get my camera turned.  As it saw me approaching it began to move a little faster but I did manage to take 5 photos before it hid in the bush.

When I returned to the ranger station I told them about seeing it and they were so excited and then almost hugged me when I told them I had photos.  It seems it isn’t officially documented unless you have photos.  They informed me that it is a rare sighting and I was extremely lucky since no one has reported seeing one in that area for a couple of years.  I gave them copies of the photos that were sent to the state biologist and now it is all official. I was glad to help.

I saw a few other lizards but I will save those for a later blog. But I do want to share the butterflies I found and oh yes the pictogrylphs.

I don’t know much about these butterflies but they are beautiful.

California Patch (Chlosyne californica)

Great Purple Hairstreak (Atlides halesus)    Isn’t this one beautiful and large for a hairstreak.

Marine Blue (Leptotes marina)

Gray Hairstrek (Strymon melinus)

Post Cards from Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park was spectacular!  What more can one say.  Most people are familiar with the history and the iconic photos so I have decided to tweak mine a little in Adobe Lightroom and give them an vintage post card and old 50's photo look.

Tunnel View

From my journal 18 April I wrote: I am at the end of the Happy Isles trail and I can hardly take my eyes away from the surrounding water long enough to write. Several times I have fought back tears of ecstasy while visiting this national treasure. Thank you John Muir for pointing out its beauty.

The water just keeps flowing and flowing by me down to the bridge where I found a pair of Water Ouzels. They are so amazing how they can hop into the water and walk around on the bottom. Earlier at the fen I saw a pair of Red-breasted Sapsuckers, a life bird for me. 

I am so glad I stayed the extra day. Next week will be the fullness of spring in the valley and the week after that I will be in the desert. I can't imagine being away for this flowing water. Oh, to live here in the spring.

I am constantly looking up to the granite mountains and tall redwoods. They draw my eyes to the heavens as though I am in a great cathedral, the rushing water my choir. How well we are adapted to this earth to find such beauty and peace in our surroundings. 

Yesterday I observed a ground squirrel siting and watching the river as I am now. How could it not stop every now and then from its daily chores to just sit and watch.

 

 

Half Dome

 

 

Upper and Lower Falls

 

Morel

 

 

 

 

Claremont Wilderness Park, California

The day was perfect and Cindy and I were on a bug safari in Claremont Wilderness Park when we spotted this Bee Fly.  I think it was a Conophorus fenestratus but perhaps it should have been called a “frustrateus” since it was so hard to identify. As you might recall Cindy is the creator of the blog BugSafari.

 

While looking for insects on dead logs I found a cup fungi. Don’t know what it is yet.  I wish I had more mushroom field guides with me, I only brought the small one.

 

On the log was one of my best finds of the day, a Liometopum occidentale (California velvety tree ant).  I had never seen an ant with marking like these but there were very hard to photograph.  They rushed about so much and eventually started biting me.  Cindy suggested we give them some water since we were in a dry area.  I wouldn’t have ever thought of that and it is something I will need to remember as I travel into more desert regions.  Well they just ignored that so she pulled out an energy bar and gave them something sweet.  I don’t think they ate any but they were curious and I was able to get this good photo of one checking it out. 

 

We stopped doing battle with the ants and continued on up the hill where I found a familiar fern, well it was not really familiar but it was a polypodium species and we have them in West Virginia.  This was a Polypodium califomicum (California Polypody).

 

One of the seepage area had a couple nice insects. First was Erynnis propertius (Propertius Duskywing).

 

And later a Ischnura denticollis (Black-fronted Forktail). Both were new to me.  At first we only caught a glimpse of the forktail but there are so territorial I knew it would come back later so we went on and sure enough it was there when we came back by.

On my big adventure I have been enthralled by lizards, even with the most common Western Fence Lizard. Isn’t it handsome and very cooperative?  There tendency is to freeze when spotted so they make good photo subjects, not even twitching. But then they dash off at lightning speed.

 

One of the most beautiful creatures we found was a Limenitis lorquini (Lorquin's Admiral).

 

Cindy has an uncanny ability to spot the tiniest insect on a leaf of grass and I was getting so frustrated and not finding much, even though I can spot insects equally as well.  Then I realized that I was not familiar with the leaves and grasses we were seeing so the odd insect on a leaf doesn’t pop out. She likened it to a proofreader who is so familiar with the shapes of words that when a word is misspelled it almost pops off the page.  So as we continued back to the car she casually says, “There is a red spider over there”.  Well….it WAS on her side, and like I said she has an eye for insect spotting. Was I jealous?  Sure wouldn't you be. She is a generous teacher and I really learned a lot from her on this outing.

Phidippus johnsoni (Red backed jumping sipder)

We sort of ended on a sad note when we found this baby rattler tossed to the side of the trail.  Besides being a walking trail it is also a bike trail and it looks like this one had the marks of a tire track across its’ body.  You can see it has one button, the start of a rattle.

 

It was belly up but so we turned it over for a better look.

 

We both touched it and it touched us as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

North Etiwanda Preserve, California

I joined the Pomona Valley Audubon Society for a trip to North Etiwanda Preserve in San Bernardino Co., California. 

 

It was a very good day for birding, the sky was blue and the air was perfect.  The high light for me birding wise was seeing a Black Chinned Sparrow, a life bird for me.  It was too far away for me to get a good photo but take my word for it, it was pretty cool. As we were looking for the the Black Chinned we spotted these Mule Deer in the distance.

The preserve is typical chaparral habitat.  I see plants that are native to chaparrals but this was the first time I had actually visited a true chaparral.  There were so many different sages but this one that someone pointed out to me was like an old friend.  It is often used in Native American rituals to purify places and yourself.  I burned in my house when I first moved in to remove the energy of the people who lived there before me. 

Everywhere I saw this beautiful purple bush, Chaparral Whitethorn (Ceanothus leucodermis).

Another beautiful purple flower was Mojave lupine (Lupinus sparsiflorus). 

One of the other birders pointed out the unique characteristic of lupine leaves that are like a flower themselves.

These little California Sun Cups (Camissoniopsis bistorta) reminded me of the buttercups I find in my yard in West Virginia.

I thought this Fiddleneck (Amsickia intermedia) was beautiful.

Here is another plant that has bladder like pods on it but I haven’t found the name yet.

Besides the life bird the other exciting species I found was a Bramble Hairstreak (Callophrys dumetorum-perflexa).  I have seen green moths but this was my first truly green butterfly.  Isn’t it wonderful?

Another beautiful day in Southern California.

 

 

Slender Salamander

Recently I met the creator of Bugsafari and she has shown me some interesting creatures in Southern California.  Before driving to the tide pools in my last blog she lifted up her garbage can and showed me her resident California Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus).   Like many of the salamanders in my home state of West Virginia this one is in the Plethodontidae family of lungless salamanders.  Mostly they are found more north of here but there are records for Orange County.

 

Slender salamanders are noted for having only four toes on their hind feet.

Its face has an alien quality about it, perhaps it is related to the star of the movie Paul, it does live near Hollywood after all.