habitat ~ 04/29/14 ~ Pinnacles National Park - west

Pinnacles National Park - west entrance

April 29, 2014

The forecast from the National Weather Service was 95°F and increasing to over 100°F for the rest of the week.  This is April, right?  Oh my.  Here we go.  What I've been dreading.  Hot, hot, hot.  It hit a high of 92°F.  The heat drained me of energy and turned my stomach through the next day.  Do I really want to do this?  Crazily enough, yes.

Thankfully, there was about a half inch of rain from the previous Friday, which was enough to keep things from drying out, save for the creek along the butterfly highway that had already stopped running the previous week.  In fact, the grass had now grown tall enough that many of the colorful flowers were hidden from view.  This week seemed to show a shift in the dominant flower color from yellow to deep purple, from spring to the beginning of summer.  That was a quick transition.

It was a bit distracting looking for different kinds of butterflies when hundreds of painted ladies were moving through.  The ringlets and Saras were going gangbusters at over 40-50 individuals each.  I saw a couple new butterflies and skippers for the season and will post IDs soon... I hope.  I need a better way to track all my notes (handwritten and electronic) and photos.  It's starting to accumulate  from my multiple excursions in a way that's not easy to remember, let alone retrieve.  How do other people do it?