From a hike earlier. Unfortunately the hopper, one of the prettiest ones in my opinion, the eastern lubber grasshopper (Romalea guttata )was missing part of their front lower leg. But it will still be able to survive well. Unfortunately the wasp , not sure of the species, will have a harder time since the scales of one of its wings were messed up. I was wondering why it was crawling and hopping instead of flying and so I let it craw on to me in order to check it out. Did not get stung so that’s good. But I almost never do.
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Nice pic, Go Frogs!
Good to see the plant kingdom getting its props.
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And here is some more purple for you, a tall iris relative known as Brazillian Walking Iris. It is about four feet tall and this year there are four flowering stalks. They flower together every few days. This is the flowers on two of the stalks. The other two stalks have just one bloom each this time, and the only new stalk this year has its first flower open today. I probably posted these last year in their first bloom season with me.
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We get something like that Ghost Pipe put its red.
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We took the dog for a walk by the bay just before sunset and had quite a show in the sky. Looking from Pt. Isabel dog park west, toward Mt. Tamalpais north of San Francisco (but only visible in the second photo).
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Was too cool not to share. Possibly one of my favorite “happening upon” ever.
Even added in a morning glory flower for someone lol.
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I can’t tell what the first one is. Reminds me of the gem studded puffball, but if it is there would be several other ones around it and when cut it would have no mushroom shape unlike the egg/bulbous stage of the amanitas. Could be something else entirely though.
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Last week I watched a spider (the best guess I could come up with from Google is a yellow crab) dispose of a hoverfly carcass and then resume attack position on one of my black-eyes susans.
I’ve been trying for a couple years to attract monarchs to my garden and finally got enough milkweed this year that they’ve set up camp. We counted seven caterpillars a couple days ago, and this one looked pretty productive.
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Wow, you know a ton! I had trouble uploading and just added what the Seek app said they are
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Monarchs are really cool. Having to work host plants is definitely necessary to really draw them in. One thing that can help also is the type of milkweed. There are many species and the species native to where I live could be different from the ones there but often in stores you’ll see a wide range of species. Any milkweed can draw them in but it seems the ones native to a area tends to be the one that draws them in. Especially when laying eggs. I wonder sometimes if insects that use a genus with many species but some in this or that location tends to favor one or the other in the genus if it will result in subspecies one day.
The crab spiders can be difficult to tell apart. Especially males and females. That one could be the white banded crab spider as well. Sometimes I can’t tell without being really close to them and looking at their legs though often the angle and tightness of the V can be used but even then sometimes it’s iffy.
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That’s really cool. I did not know there was another stalked puffball. I thought the gem studded was the one one. I don’t think I’ve seen that species before, the peeling puffball, but if I did I may have mistook it for the studded gem.
Was reading a bit about it. It’s one of the few questionable edible puffballs when white and firm inside.
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Yeah, I found a pod of milkweed seeds from a local field, so I was hoping that would get them in. Then my neighbors planted a whole row of bright orange flowers that bees and butterflies love, so that may have helped them check out the area too.
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Came across what looked to be a newly fledged baby hummingbird, most likely an Anna’s.
On another front, I decided to bring the canine portion of our pack up to full strength. I’m a big fan of herders but have only had Australian shepherds and heeler crosses until now. This little 9 week old girl is a McNab, a border collie cross developed in California north of me. She is super affectionate but so far my 6 year old heeler cross isn’t at all interested. Hopefully when she figures out how he prefers to be approached and she gets a little bigger he’ll like her more.
I expect to get enough vaccines in her a week from today to be able to take her for walks and for socializing. But for now she is restricted to our yard.
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Cardinal flower (lobelia cardinals) on the banks of the Pere Marquette on a family kayak trip this week.
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Wow never saw it growing in the wild before. Love bold color.
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What a great pic of the hummingbird!
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