Roof's Back - Mama Too (A Bird's Nest)

Weeding - Just Cleaning

Mama Bird Went Out For Worms

Roofs Back - Mama Too

Sweetly Sleeping Snakes (Steinhardt Aquarium)

They don't come cuter

Black Headed Pythons

Steinhardt Aquarium

CA Academy of Sciences

Golden Gate Park

Davenport Dreams - Santa Cruz County Coastline

Jasper has his own ideas about the best way to spend a winter's day in California

Davenport Landing Beach is about twenty minutes north of the town of Santa Cruz

Slow Travel: Taking in Turtles at New York's Bronx Zoo

I thought it would be easy to figure out the type of turtles we saw on our trip to the wonderful Bronx Zoo, after I'd returned home to California - But the zoo has an extensive reptile collection! Should have looked more closely when I went. 

I wonder if these are the same variety of turtle that lives in the turtle pond at Central Park, just below Belvedere Castle? We had a very lovely picnic there one evening in late August.

This zoo not only has great extensive natural habitats for it's non-human animal inhabitants, it also has wonderful landscaping that made our hot summer day very pleasant. Their are many varied eateries too, which is handy if you didn't bring along a peanut butter sandwich like I did!

Riding the zoo monorail was an especially nice treat as you look down on many endangered animals not viewable from the main zoo. I've long been partial to wild Mongolian Przwalski's Horses who live in the monorail-only area.

Pismo Beach Monarchs

Monarch Butterflies clustering in a grove of Eucalyptus in Pismo Beach

Monarch Butterflies

Overwinter along West Coast

California!

* Pismo Beach - famous for clams - is in San Luis Obispo County

* This Monarch grove is right on HI 1

*During the year, these butterflies only live about six weeks, but the fall generation overwinter in clusters - entering into diapause, not eating and flying very little. When the weather warms up, about six months later, they'll fly off and live a normal six week life

Where to See Overwintering Monarchs: http://www.monarchwatch.org/download/pdf/where.pdf

Butterfly Survival http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Survival%20Strategies%209.htm

Halloween Trouble Doesn't Come Cuter!

The raccoon tribe have been slipping through the pet door flap again lately. Heard that the kits (baby raccoons) are likely growing up and becoming more demanding of their Ma. So perhaps that's why Mama has been chancing it coming to visit us early, before we block the door for the night. 

Making Trouble in California - We call it Highway Ice Plant

Don't we all just love those good old succulents? How about this rather pretty little plant,  Carpobrotus edulis, also known as Highway Iceplant? It's been planted generously round many parts of California  since the early 1900's, up until citizens in the 1970's finally spoke up and said it was a really bad idea. 

Unfortunately Carpobrotus edulis is a really bad neighbor, moving in from lands afar and then taking over. It's a coloniser, yah know how that is, right? Those folks come with beads (or in this case seeds!) in hand, and the next thing you know there's no room for the old folks to roam. You'll find large mats, like the one above at lovely local beach sites, along highways, and old railroad tracks - where it was planted to keep our soils from rolling down hill. It did do that, but it also spread, spread, spread. And it just keeps on spreading.

You can read more about highway ice plant invasion problems at this Invasive Plants of California Wildlands site.

Palo Alto Baylands

Relaxing walking

At Palo Alto Baylands

Wildlife Sanctuary

Hiking Edgewood:Western Bluebird Succeeds

 Before the 1940's, Western Bluebirds were a common sight in places like Edgewood .

After WWII, large-scale building development seriously impacted the ability of these avians to reproduce. Back in the 1960's and 1970's, it was rare to spot a bluebird around here.

 In the 1970's people across the western United States, began efforts to bring bluebirds back. Edgewood is one of a number of places where nesting boxes help this effort. There are currently twenty three nesting boxes for Western Bluebirds in the area of Edgewood Preserve. Bluebirds nests are monitored by Friends of Edgewood volunteers in conjunction with the Sequoia Audobon Society. In 2013, 77 baby bluebirds were born in nests their parents built in park bluebird boxes. 

~ ~ ~

 Wikipedia: Western Bluebird - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Bluebird 

       

      

Hiking Edgewood: A Mule Deer Strolls Past

Click on the illustration above to enjoy more details

Though a common sight,

My heart stands still, when mule deer

Stroll across my path.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Edgewood: http://www.friendsofedgewood.org

Black Tail, Mule Deer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-tailed_deer 

Hiking Edgewood: Cottontail Brush Rabbit - If I sit really still....

Sylvilagus bachmani is the scientific name for the
Western Brush Rabbit , a species of cottontail 

If I sit really

Still, then she won't know I'm here.

You smart cottontail!

~ ~ ~

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brush_rabbit

http://www.friendsofedgewood.org

Field Trip: Santa Cruz Monarch Butterflies (haiku)

This Danaus plexippus is vacationing in a valley of
Eucalyptus trees at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz

Monarch Butterfly

Just a flew months, then you fly

Off to make babies

Monarch butterflies generally leave the Rocky Mountains to visit us in the fall and stay on until February, at which time they return home to their stomping grounds in the Rockies.  You can see them at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz, as well as Pacific Grove, Carmel, and a few scattered locations that people might tell you about, if you're lucky enough to be let in on the secret.

Another reason to always be nice and friendly!

~ ~ ~

Resources

Natural Bridges State Beach: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=541

Monarch Butterfly Migration: http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/monarch-migration.html

Drought: Deerweed for New Years (Hiking Edgewood)

Lotus scoparius is commonly known as deer weed
(click on the illustration for more fiery detail)

Hot, dry, New Years Day

Oh! Lotus scoparius 

Keeps Edgewood aflame

Oh Baby, it's a Wild World

We all gotta come to terms with it. 

Sometimes the world is a little wilder than others.