Close-up side view of a blue, white, and gray scrub jay, perched on a mossy limb.
Resident California Scrub Jay posed nicely today for #Corvidae, #BirdOfTheDay. 💚 #Birds #NaturePhotos 📷
Thanks!
🤞- This garden has a lot of pipevine and large numbers of these butterflies. The salvia gets lots of attention from them and others! Good luck!
They really are! These shots were from March 2022, so I'm getting excited to go back to seek them out soon. :)
Close-up of black butterfly with orange and white spots, nectaring on a lavender-colored sage flower, with fuzzy green leaves in background.
California Pipevine Swallowtail nectaring on Purple Sage (Salvia leucophylla) in a local butterfly garden last weekend. S. leucophylla is an easy-to-grow, drought-tolerant SoCal native.💚
More plant info. here...
calscape.org/Salvia-leuco...
#CaliforniaNativePlants #Butterflies #NaturePhotos 📷🌱
Close-up of tall slender stem with narrow green opposite leaves, and two checkered orange to red bell-shaped, nodding lily blooms at top.
Close-up of tall green stem with narrow green leaves, and two whitish bell-shaped nodding lily flowers at top. This plant is in a field with more blurred blooms behind it.
Pairs of Scarlet Fritillary (Fritillaria recurva) and Fragrant Fritillary (Fritillaria liliacea) for #Twosday. F. liliacea has an imperiled conservation status.💚
Fritillaria info. here...
calscape.org/search/?plan...
#NativePlants #CaliforniaNativePlants #NaturePhotos #Wildflowers #iNat #Botany 📷🌱
Oh, look at you! Lovely shot. :)
Close-up of freshly emerging reddish oak leaves with light green margins, among many branches with bud-breaking leaves. Through the branches there is are blurred green hills.
Burst of California Black Oak (Quercus kelloggii) leaves, last week on Sonoma Mtn. 💚
Calscape plant info. here...
calscape.org/Quercus-kell...
#Trees #NativePlants #CaliforniaNativePlants #NaturePhotos #iNat 📷🌱
Excellent shots! I see why its a fave. Especially love seeing that basal leaf. Beautiful. 💚
Love these! :)
On the left is a large wave splashing, while a gull watches from on top of a large dark outcropping on the right.
#WeekJforJuxtaposition #AlphabetChallenge
#SideProfiles #BirdOfTheDay #NaturePhotos 💚
Close-up of bronze, black and white hummingbird perched, while looking back over its shoulder.
#Photogenic Rufous Hummingbird for #BirdOfTheDay. 💚
#Birds #NaturePhotos #iNat 📷
Bodies behave in mysterious ways sometimes. Hope you are skipping again soon. 🤗
Close-up of five-petaled pink flower above clover-shaped green leaves among Redwood duff.
Redwood Sorrel (Oxalis smalliana) blooming last week on Sonoma Mtn.💚
#NativePlants #CaliforniaNativePlants #NaturePhotos 📷
They are common and harmless, although they will release a funky musk sometimes if handled. I think they show their bright orange underside as a warning (we have newts who flip over in water to show their brightly colored bellies too). All fascinating. 💚
Small ring-necked snake showing off their orange coloring underneath by twirling their tail as they slide away.
Cool! Here’s my first one from a week ago. S/he was crossing my path, so didn’t alarm me. This is a young Ring-necked snake. 💚🐍
Yay! It’s a pretty wonderful learning experience & we need all the naturalists we can get! 💚
Macro of tiny five-petaled white flower with fuzzy green leaves, and with tiny black dance flies on petals.
Macro of tiny deep pink flower with golden yellow pollen.
Macro of light blue flower with darker blue veins, and a group of tiny black dance flies wandering inside petals.
Macros of sweet little #wildflowers last weekend on Sonoma Mtn. Those tiny insects are Dance Flies (Anthalia sp.).💚
White Nemophila (Nemophila heterophylla)
Red Maids (Calandrinia menziesii)
Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii)
#NativePlants #CaliforniaNativePlants #NaturePhotos #iNat #Botany 📷🌱
I've been out of commission this week with back issues (overdid it on yard work), but I'm _finally_ getting upright again. I can hear the wildflowers calling! Can't wait to get back out there. I'll put up a few macro shots from last week in a few minutes. Stand by... :)
You're remembering right! I've led naturalist hikes since 2000 at nature preserves. I'll be leading a couple wildflower hikes at Bouverie Preserve in April. :) I started by taking 3-5th graders out for ≈28 seasons, then tapered off to mostly leading adults/families nowadays. Fun stuff! 💚
Group of avocets resting on one leg in shallow bay water. There is also a Black-necked Stilt tucked in among them.
Mostly American Avocets #StandingInWater last month in San Francisco Bay.💚
#BirdOfTheDay #Birds #NaturePhotos 📷
Thanks! 💚
Thanks! I was thinking that they had given me a pin (those many years ago) but didn’t realize they had stuck it in some papers (which I just filed away). It is really tiny, so I’m not surprised that I missed it in the shuffle. Fun surprise! 🙏🏻
Stairsteps and rounded ledges of travertine deposits, ranging from white to golden to black. There is hot springs steam at the top and water flowing over down over the deposits.
Travertine terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.💚
#Flowing #BlueSkyArtShow #NaturePhotos #NationalParks 📷
Close-up of a tiny square pin with a butterfly and "California Naturalist" on it.
Just found my California Naturalist pin that I hadn't seen since I earned it six years ago. Yay! Pinning it on a hat now so I don't lose it again. :) 💚
Very cool! Thanks for sharing. 💚
So lovely. 💜
Good luck! I find them in mixed oak woodlands mostly. They are sweet. 💚
Macro of black, yellow and red Wild Forget-Me-Not moth caterpillar munching on stem of Pacific Houndstongue. There were many of them munching these plants along the path last weekend.
Margined White butterfly nectaring on Pacific Houndstongue bloom.
Close-up of mottled brown Propertius Duskywing butterfly nectaring on Pacific Houndstongue bloom.
Close-up of a few Dance Flies (Empis species) nectaring on pink to blue Houndstongue blooms.
Pacific Houndstongue (Adelinia grandis) was very popular with many #insects last weekend on Sonoma Mtn.!💚
Plant info. here...
calscape.org/Adelinia-gra...
#NativePlants #CaliforniaNativePlants #Pollinators #Butterflies #Moths #NaturePhotos #Bloomscrolling #iNat #Wildflowers 📷🌱
