The Addiction Kicked In

 As I said in my previous post, I was not planning on going beyond my front yard.  But the forest across the driveway beckoned.  It was very hot, of course, and I was tired and grimy, but I just had to bring my camera up the hill a bit and see what I could see.  The first photo is of some Thimbleberries that were not quite ripe.  A tease.  Almost immediately, I realized I am more at ease in this forest than I am in my own front yard.  My next photo is of the Trail Plant.  The tiny flowers at the top of long stems, and barely noticeable, but when closely observed, they are obviously in the Daisy or Aster family.  The leaves are green on top and grey underneath.  When you walk through a dense patch of this plant, enough leaves are turned aside that you leave a visible trail for your return trip.  For s short time, that is.  They soon turn back and show only the green tops.

 I turned over a few large pieces of bark and found millipedes under a couple of them. 

 This cluster of berries of the False Solomon's Seal was looking shiny and healthy and before long they will turn bright red.

 The White-stemmed Raspberry was beginning to ripen.  This cheered me up and promised to quench my thirst.  However, despite the bright red look, they were much drier and seedier than last summer, so I spit them out.

 THe Oregon Grape is ripe and the leaves still look fresh and shiny.  They have a waxy coating so they retain moisture better than many of the other broad-leaf plants in the area.

 Like the Raspberry, the Thimbleberry in the sun looked very ripe and tasty, but they were even seedier than the Raspberries.  Photogenic, but not that palatable.

 When I got on the trail above my house, there was a nice view to the East where some thunderheads were gathering.  This view is looking over the roof of my house in the foreground and Quincy Elementary School a few blocks further away.  Argentine Ridge is in the distance.

 Another Oregon Grape caught my eye.  I wish they were as sweet as Blueberries.

 The Prince's Pine has gone to seed along the trail, but still looks somewhat like a flower.

 Despite the dry weather, there is apparently enough moisture under logs and pieces of bark to keep the termites alive.  A also saw a few ground beetles but they escapes before I could click the shutter. 

 I forgot the name of this cute little plant (below).  Most of them were wilted, but this one still looks fairy fresh.  I'll find the name again and insert it later. 

 Last, the currants are ripe and actually tasted reasonably sweet.  I went back to the house with my addiction satisfied.  Tomorrow is another day.  I'll wake up cool with my camera battery charged.

Front Yard Stuff

It has been so hot for several days that when I got home from work I didn't feel like walking anywhere.  That is, for about 10 minutes.  Then my addiction took over.  I just had to grab my camera and wander around to see what nature had to offer.  I figured I might find enough to interest me in my front yard, take a few photos of flowers and bugs, then get back in the shade of the house.  I started with a nice patch of Spanish Clover (above) that has brown up rapidly since I mowed the lawn a week ago.  Then I moved on to some Cinquefoil (below) but found no bugs.  It was still too hot.

I don't usually photograph cultivated flowers, but these lilies we planted a couple of summers ago were too beautiful to resist.  I don't know what kind they are, but they are hardy.  A little watering, and they've looked very fresh for over a week.

Then the Mountain Spiraea.  I see Douglas's Spiraea every day out at Oakland Camp and other places along Spanish Creek, but the Mountain Spiraea is more often cultivated for landscaping purposes.  It is very hardy.  With no special care at all, it blooms almost the entire summer.  As some of the flower clusters wilt and turn brown, other fresh ones keep on appearing, so there's some pink all the way into September.

Then a cultivated variety of Yarrow.  These must be the ones that reminded my friend Paul of ground fireworks.  I often photograph the wild yarrow in the woods, which is mostly white with little yellow disk flowers.  It is one of the great "bug magnets" and photographed many spiders, beetles, and skippers on it.  My domesticated version doesn't seem to attract bugs. Hmmmmm....

This lone Daisy in the shade of our birch tree seems pretty fresh while the ones in the sun are already wilting and going to seed.  No bugs on them today.  Too hot, I suppose.  Last summer I photographed a large variety of bugs on this same patch of Daisies.  Maybe my mowing over w eek ago scared them off.  The daisies came back really fast while the grass has only grown about an inch since then.

The last thing I photographed in my yard was this Plantain.  I had planned to retreat to the house quickly due to the heat, but, as I said, my addiction kicked in.  I ended up walking up the hill into Boyle Ravine and photographing some wild flowers.  Next post.

The Berry Creek Adventure

 Driving along Chandler road, euphoric about photographing the Red Milkweed Beetle and anticipating a nice hike toward Berry Creek, I decided I'd better check on the status of a large patch of Cow Parsnip that I hadn't checked for a while.  In their prime, the clusters of flowers on this member of the carrot family attract quite a variety of bug activity.  As soon as i got out of the car, I could tell they had pretty much gone to seed, so I drove on.

 With a couple of campers, I headed down the Oakland Camp entrance road toward Berry Creek.  One of the first notable sights was a newly blooming Brewer's Angelica that was playing host to a nice little ecosystem - a "herd" of aphids being tended by a half dozen ants that feed on their excrement.  Click on the photo for a closer view.  There was no apparent damage to the plant, and the busy ants were quite interesting to watch.

 Near the beginning of the dirt road up to the "oasis" where Berry Creek emerges from a culvert under the railroad tracks, we found a larger cluster of Angelica in which was hiding a white phase of the Goldenrod Crab Spider.  At first sighting, this one blended in quite well and it was not eating.  On our return a half hour later, it was eating a tiny black beetle.

 When we approached the pool, we spotted a large Crimson Columbine whose blooms I had photographed several times this past week.  Today it was a seed capsule that caught my eye.

 When we entered the shady of the large White Alders surrounding the pool, the large number of blooming Leopard Lilies were the most dramatic sight.  I took photos from several different angles and noted how all parts of the plant are photogenic in their own ways, although it is hard to take one's eyes off the flowers.

 In the vicinity there was lots of Self-heal blooming, as well as St John's Wort, Mugwort,  and Pennyroyal.  An herbalist's heaven I should think.

 The Pennyroyal was being visited by many Checkerspot Butterflies.  I keep looking for the amazing Red-shouldered Ctenucha moth that likes Pennyroyal, but it seems they haven't yet arrived this season.

 There's a nice patch of Showy Milkweed at this site, and there were some impressive Carpenter Bees visiting, but I've never seen the Red Milkweed Beetle here.  Maybe next year.

 Another blooming Angelica was swarming with tiny black beetles, a few Checkered Clerids, and a couple of Longhorn Beetles.  Click on this photo for an inside look.  Tomorrow's exploring will include looking under things.  I hope to find centipedes, millipedes, termites, and Jerusalem Crickets.

Preview of a Berry Creek Adventure

 As you may have guessed,  this animal has made a big impression on me.  I have been following the Red Milkweed Beetle, Tetraopes basalis, every summer since since I found my first one four years ago at the edge of Lee Road in Quincy.  Until this morning, I had never seen them mating.  I know I have seen the preliminaries often.  In fact I posted some courtship photos a few days ago.  But, this morning on my way to work, while day dreaming about the Goldenrod Crab Spider I hoped to find at Berry Creek, I decided to check the lone Showy Milkweed on the western end of Chandler Road that survived the recent visit by the road department's weed eaters.  I could actually see the red dots before I got out of the car.  On close inspection, I found one pair mating, another pair courting, and a fifth individual on the sidelines, probably wondering how to get in on the action.  For a short while, I was no longer thinking about the crab spider.  

 I think I've posted these photos in a slightly different order than they entered my camera.  When I first got close, it appeared that the male had just landed and his antennae were still spread skyward.  Over the next few minutes, he seemed to be communicating with his antennae and they gradually assumed the position shown in the top photo, namely "attached" at the base of the female's antennae.

 They remained in this positions for at least five minutes.  After taking photos from several different angles, I had to get to work.  I look forward to checking in on them again tomorrow morning.

 This next photo is of the pair that were not yet mating.  They were definitely communicating via their antennae.  Maybe "sword" fighting, or maybe flirting.  I really don't know.  Fun to watch though.

 Here's the original mating pair again from a different perspective.  I might have disturbed them by now as the antennae are a bit flayed and they seemed restless.

Onward to Berry Creek and the search for Crab Spiders.

The Tuesday Tollgate Creek Adventure

Preface to a Tollgate Creek Adventure

 On the announcements board, I posted a photo of a Goldenrod Crab Spider devouring a Checkspot Butterfly and a brief description of the Tollgate Creek Trail.  A certain enthusiasm was building, and I began to worry that maybe I was expected to produce a repeat of this scene.  But first, we had to check out a rumor of a very large beetle in one of the ladies' restrooms.  From the descriptions I was given, I figured it must have been a member of the family of longhorn beetles, Cerambycidae.  When the coast was clear, our little group went in and explored the restroom.  Didn't find the beetle, but we did find a great variety of beautiful moths. See the following several photos.

Before I gathered my guests for the hike, I went to the veranda of the main building to check on the progress of a wasp nest that I've been following for a couple of weeks. As you can see in the above photo, someone removed the nest.  The attachment points for two such nests are still visible in the photo if you click on it for a close-up.

 After our restroom visit, we crossed the railroad track to begin our Tollgate Creek hike.  One of the hikers noticed this beautiful paper wasp nest hanging from the eave of a metal building containing railroad communications equipment.  I hope that one is allowed to last the season so future hikers can see it.  It will probably get quite large.  I've seen ones bigger than a basketball.

 During a heat wave such as we are experiencing, the whole landscape seems to be turning gray and brown.  We're always on alert for spotting colorful things - the few remaining flowers in bloom, rose hops, apple galls on willow leaves, and so on.  So, I'm including here one such source of color for inspiration, a trio of ripe Gooseberries.