wet, drippy fog

Huckleberry Hill
July 19, 2010

Sometimes my camera simply does its own thing. Yes, this is a color photograph and has not been altered in any way. I was trying to get a habitat shot of the Monterey pines on Huckleberry Hill here in town. The fog was so thick and heavy up there that it sounded like it was raining.

Yadon's piperia ~ 07/19/10 ~ Huckleberry Hill

Yadon's rein-orchid

Piperia yadonii
CNPS 8th Edition Inventory
Orchidaceae

This is a federally endangered species. We visited Huckleberry Hill June 2, 2010 and the only evidence of this orchid at the time were numerous flags and signs. I don't know what the leaves look like, but I got down on my hands and knees and searched all around several flags for anything green. Really, the only things growing in this 30 yard stretch of path were rattlesnake grass (Briza maxima), an unidentified single-stem legume, bushes I believe are Eastwood's manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa), and Monterey pine (Pinus radiata). Thanks to Native Orchids flickr post of another Piperia, I suspected Yadon's might be blooming now and went on an orchid hunt instead of my usual early morning walk.

Bingo! It's not a very big plant, maybe 8-14" tall and would be very easy to overlook. My photos look nothing like a particular photo used on both Wikipedia and CalPhotos.

It was interesting to note that more than half the flags seemed to have blooming orchids nearby and a smaller number of blooms had no flag at all. I also found a couple orchids eaten down to the stems or pulled up from the roots.

I rarely go out looking for something this specific, but I'm glad I did. Vern Yadon (yes, the same for whom this orchid is named) states there are 14 orchid species, with 7 being Piperia, in Monterey County.

ps 08/26/11 - Ha! Looks like the picture used for both Wikipedia and CalPhotos was incorrectly identified. Phew! No wonder I was so confused when first looking at this orchid. I've already contacted the owner of the picture to see if he can get it placed properly online.

pss 12/30/13 - The California Department of Transportation has requested permission to use my first photo above on a vista viewpoint interpretive sign.  Cool!

things I don't see everyday

unidentified massive ship
Monterey Bay
June 26, 2010

I've been seeing some unusual things lately and figured I'd make a post of links for my records:

1) The reason why I remembered I had the photo above from last month is there's ANOTHER massive ship in Monterey Bay this weekend called the USS Mobile Bay. Funny thing is, I can't find any online information on the ship I saw above, which was definitely bigger than the comparatively small USS Mobile Bay.

2) In our Monterey Boatyard there's a cute, 2-person submarine sitting in the parking lot (if you saw it, you'd say it was "cute" too). Yeah, I know, who knew such things existed? I believe it's a yacht-class DeepFlight Super Falcon. I remember seeing a similar one here last year.

3) We drove out to Cachagua at the end of Carmel Valley yesterday and passed an unusual sign and very high fencing. I googled AT&T Jamesburg Earth Station and discovered its for sale or lease. Seriously, who knew you could buy such things? I didn't even know what an earth station was until I looked it up (it's a massive dish antenna with stuff to make it useful). Jamesburg's claim to fame is broadcasting man's first walk on the moon. Interestingly enough, it's only a couple million dollars... very cheap compared to some of our $16,000,000 local homes along the ocean... and look at what you get!?! Of course, it's out in the middle of nowhere in the hot, hot summer heat. As a coinkydink, we've been subjected to several days of jack hammering as AT&T installs new fiber optic cables along our street, which made the impressive dish less useful years ago.

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some recent awesome nature blog posts:
Jessica's Nature Blog - neonatal Risso's dolphin
Walk the Wilderness - Indian wild dogs
Tree in the Door's Fauna and Flora - backyard bobcat

giant western crane fly ~ 07/17/10 ~ at home

giant western crane fly
Holorusia hespera

Enormous might be a better common name descriptor for this crane fly. Powell and Hogue state this is one of the world's largest flies and I believe it. Compared to my uncertainty over my other crane fly post, I'm positive about this ID. The outdated name is H. rubiginosa. The larvae apparently get up to 2 1/2 inches in length - phew!

In an effort to capture a sense of scale with a ruler, I used the ol' fridge trick to get her to "calm down" enough to take a picture. That's how I was able to get a picture of her belly in the third pic. No worries, I let her go outside when I was done as evidenced with my last pic above... but only after I chased her around my living room ceiling with my wide-mouthed jar and a chair. I learned from my disastrous moth release = bird food episode and let this beauty go at night. Interesting to note, as she was warming up, her halteres started vibrating so rapidly that I couldn't see them. Then her 2 wings started going and she took flight. It reminded me of one of those high-tech military helicopters.

As a side comment, relative size is often a difficult thing to grasp in pictures when it's a solo or close-up shot... I particularly like these two blog posts that did a great job at showing size:
Norfolk Wildlife - marbled beauty
Ohio Birds and Biodiversity - ruby-throated hummingbird's nest (check out the 4th picture!!!)