A Little Too Early for Aspens

9 Oct 09: Returning to Carson Pass and heading down into Hope Valley, I had expected to find that last weekend's snow had knocked the aspen leaves to the ground. Hah! I was more than surprised to find that not only were the leaves still in place, the actual color change hadn't really started in any big way.

The scene shown here was from Hope Valley, typically where the local aspen color starts looking its best. It was a nice bright day with temps around 65°, so actually it felt more like early September. In some ways I was disappointed that it wasn't more autumnal, but I had a beautiful drive, returning via Luther Pass to Hwy 50. It was pretty nice to see some decent color down around the slide area near the St. Pauli Inn, so all in all, a great day.

Visit Floralore.com.

First Local Snow of 2009

3 October 09: A somewhat surprising Saturday with a decent first snowfall in the local mountains. I headed up Iron Mountain Road with a hope of getting to Carson Pass for some pictures of Round Top with snow.

It wasn't to be. I didn't even get to Leek Springs before the road was too slushy for me to feel comfortable in my little car with no snow tires.

I turned back, but stopped at a lower elevation to get a few pictures of the morning weather.

Does Anyone Want to Discuss Nature?

My particular interest is learning about native plants, but most any part of Nature that I see while wandering will also catch my interest. In the past two years I have added butterflies to my list of reasons to head out with my camera, and I have had some success in finding a number of local species.

With learning to recognize plant families, I have also had some fun helping others with identifying interesting plants that they ask about. Mostly flowers, but sometimes a tree or shrub, as long as a photo shows a reasonable amount of specific characteristics, it is often possible to put them into a correct family, and with a little Google searching for a geographic area, sometimes a good guess at a species.

So I'm hoping to turn this snoozer of a "discussion" area into a place where anyone can comment or ask about native plants (distinguished from nursury plants), bugs and butterflies (moths too!), or critters of the forest. Post a photo. Ask a question. California topics are what I would hope for but the West in general is acceptable.

To pump this up I will now start using this as a travel blog, adding reports from any day trip I make to go see what's happening in the local Sierra.

First Local Butterflies of 2009!

What fun. One of the butterflies I have wanted to find since seeing the images in my books is the Sonoran Blue (Philotes sonorensis). I was skeptical that I would see one in the Sierra foothills because the books suggest going to Anza-Borrego for an almost guaranteed sighting, but still, they are listed as showing up in a few spots this far north. These are early fliers and I held onto hope for a chance to find them.

Then I got a note that said many were flying near Auburn, specifically around where Hwy 49 crosses the North Fork of the American River. The note also said there were "a few" around Rock Creek Road on Hwy 193 near Chili Bar. I couldn't wait to go look. I drove out to the area, and while parking along the road for my first get-out-to-look stop, I saw a small blue bug flying by on the other side of the road. I grabbed my camera and walked over to wait for it to land, and when it did, I was staring at my first Sonoran Blue!

In fact I spend only half an hour walking around that same spot and saw many many of them. The air temp was probably around 65° and the day was perfect for flight. I was very pleased.

The only other species I saw yesterday were a few Propertius Duskywings (Erynnis propertius).

I had to go back today and look again. What a strange surprise! Today I saw only one Philotes but I saw many many of what I think were Lupine Blues (Plebejus lupini; they may have been Acmon...) and numerous Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui). Heck, I even watched three Sara Orange-tips (Anthocharis sara sara) fly by, but none would park for a photo. Add one sighting of a bright yellow bug going by fast and I'll suppose it was an Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) since there isn't anything else that color (at least commonly seen) that I can think of.

That makes a pretty good start for my year.

Visit the butterflie page at ElDoradoCNPS.org

Looking for Spring...

I'm sitting out the rain storms in NorCal and doing what I can to spruce up Floralore.com. With reports of several feet of snow higher up, and inches of rain here at 1700ft, I think it may bode well for a good start for seedlings and flowers. I drove down through Cameron Park today and noticed that the redbuds are starting to show faint signs of pink-tint buds. Another month or so and they will pop open.

I wonder if any butterflies will start to appear with the redbud? I don't expect anything around here for awhile, but I did get my first of the year while visiting Novato; a Mourning Cloak was visiting the pittesporum hedge in the backyard.

Rain predicted for the next solid week. I guess I'll catch up on some reading.