about navigating within Nature ID

view from home of the Monterey Bay
October 23, 2011

I just finished revamping my labels and categorizing them... again. This will likely become an annual blog maintenance duty. As I post new IDs, I invariably end up with new categories.

At the bottom of every post, there's a series of highlighted labels near the share buttons and comment section. These link you to only Nature ID blog posts (unlike WordPress blogs) with the same label.

I've again added the grouped label lists in the sidebar. I have 4 basic groups:
~ shortcut
~ what
~ when (includes seasons, current weather, and hiking/observations dates)
~ where.

A nifty trick of hiking/observation dates (aka archives), is you can click on a year, a month, or a specific date to see all the posts for that time period. I publish entries in a specific order, with individual IDs first and then usually a step-back, look-around habitat post. I've found clicking on specific dates to be very helpful, e.g., Pinnacles on June 10, 2011, where the habitat is shown at the top of the page and specific IDs follow. Scroll down to see all the posts.

I prefer having grouped lists, because I often find it difficult to locate past posts for my own nature journal needs. I've included search widgets at the very top left of the blog and towards the bottom of the sidebar. They don't always effectively locate items. Until I figure out the coding to automatically update the grouped indices, they will often not be complete or have nonworking links. If you want to see the most updated list, check out my complete index to Nature ID page.

As I've said before repeatedly, Nature ID does not follow the usual blog format like a daily diary. I generally post to the date of the pictures, regardless of when I happen to be online to work on this blog. I'm still behind on backdating posts and haven't even completed July of this year. Until I get caught up (haha, nature keeps going even though I have other plans), there will be an occasional feature at the top of my blog titled "newest blog entry" that will link you to new posts that are backdated.

Also, I'm testing to see how LinkWithin works with thumbnail pictures shown towards the bottom of every post. I haven't decided yet whether it's a good thing for my blog or extraneous visual stuff.

Check it out. Thanks for following my blog.

ps - The coast Douglas-fir tree that I'm featuring in The Tree Year project can be seen with its brown cones in the lower left of the photo above. Dreamfalcon has kindly included me in her latest post.

http://thetreeyear.wordpress.com/tree-year-posts/around-the-tree/weather/

habitat ~ 10/02/11 ~ Monarch Grove Sanctuary

Pacific Grove's Monarch Grove Sanctuary
October 2, 2011

I don't have any pictures of monarchs here. We saw maybe 5, mostly clustered on one lone pride of Madeira bloom. We were told by the ever-active volunteer Tama O. that the majority of monarchs don't actually arrive until mid-November. Many tourists are a bit disappointed to see so few monarchs now, even though most everything about the Sanctuary states the butterflies start arriving by October. A lot has changed in the park since we last visited.

The pride and joy of Pacific Grove has been surrounded by death and controversy. Back in 2004, an elderly tourist was killed here by a tree that broke during a wind storm, hence the sign. My question is why would anyone go out looking for butterflies during a storm? The City settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $1 million. Since then, the City has done extensive tree removal and pruning, which raised the hackles of some monarch enthusiasts. Through private donations and some City funds, new trees were purchased and improvements made to this small 2.4 acre park. For more information about the Monarch Grove Sanctuary, check out the Pacific Grove Monarch Conservancy.

habitat ~ 10/02/11 ~ Pacific Grove Shoreline Park

Pacific Grove Shoreline Park
October 2, 2011

I often take for granted how beautiful it is here in town. This is pretty much the views we get while driving home from the grocery store, although this day we were walking and exploring. On one side is the Pacific Ocean and on the other is Point Pinos Lighthouse and the Pacific Grove Golf Links with Crespi Pond.

Shoreline Park is a designation that the City of Pacific Grove calls public access coastal areas not otherwise designated as city parks. For the purposes of this blog and location labels, I consider all the unpaved path around the peninsula as Pacific Grove Shoreline Park, starting from Lover's Point (not Hopkins Marine Station) and ending where Asilomar State Beach begins. Ocean View Blvd. transitions to Sunset Dr. next to this unpaved path. I've called this the "poor man's 17-Mile Drive" previously on my blog. It's usually a great place to explore tide pools.

sunset ~ 02/12/11 ~ Asilomar State Beach

sunset from Asilomar
February 12, 2011

This was one of the last warm and calm days before the storms hit. I should mention those dogs are not ours. Asilomar to Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach is a dog friendly beach. If you go past the State Beach boundary signs, you can also have a beach fire. I've always wanted to do this, however, the thought of lugging piles of wood over sand and having to haul everything back out after dark has kept me from going for it. It's one of those things you want to do with a group of friends. Getting people's schedules coordinated with last-minute nicer weather is another thing entirely.

habitat ~ 11/25/10 ~ Monterey Bay Recreational Trail

Turkey Trot
November 25, 2010

It was beautiful here for Thanksgiving this year. Andy took these pictures as he ran to the start at Lover's Point for the decidedly unofficial, annual Turkey Trot. As I understand it, the goal is to run towards Asilomar and back within 1 hour exactly. Whoever returns closest to the 1 hour mark gets an ugly trophy to hold and keep safe until next year. We have several pictures of friends and I'm still figuring out if sending pics as an e-mail attachment is couth.

pics from my hometown

Pacific Grove, California

May 9, 2010

With all the wind we had last week in the late-afternoon, it sure is nice to enjoy a calm evening stroll by the water. You can see the squid boats heading out in the second pic. I really do think they take the weekend off since we didn't see them Friday or Saturday nights. You can see a photographer with his tripod and assistant on the beach in the first pic; this is a very common sight around here. I told my husband to slug me if I ever start talking about acquiring a large tripod and massive lens. He just grinned at me. These pictures were taken from Lover's Point.

sunset in Pacific Grove

March 2, 2010

It's been a rough several months for us, so it's nice to stop and reflect on what has passed and look forward to tomorrow.

ps - If anyone wants to hear my opinion of home infusion therapy, vancomycin, or ertapenem, please contact me through comments.

habitat ~ 02/13/10 ~ Pacific Grove Shoreline Park

Pacific Grove Shoreline Park
February 13, 2010

It's difficult to capture a sense of scale in photos without an obvious reference such as a person or a hand. We had unusually humongous waves this past week (especially considering there hasn't been a storm system in our area for over a week) and it was incredibly noisy at night. In fact, a tourist drowned at nearby Carmel Beach today (which incidentally makes me think twice about volunteering this coming season for grunion greeting... at night with no lights, at high tide, at Carmel Beach with strong rip currents... hmm?). Also, further north at the infamous Maverick Surf Contest in Half Moon Bay, several spectators were severely injured by rogue waves. Gotta have a healthy respect for Mother Nature!

habitat ~ 02/05/10 ~ Monterey Bay Recreation Trail

Monterey Bay Recreation Trail
February 2, 2010

I was attempting to capture all 3 flowers in one pic to show what's blooming right now. The bright orange flower is definitely a California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) because of the red ring at the base of the encased bud. The seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus) is in the back with the spoon-shaped leaves. And the bright yellow Bermuda buttercup (Oxalis pres-caprae) is the non-native flower in the mix.

habitat ~ 01/20/10 ~ Pacific Grove Shoreline Park

Pacific Grove Shoreline Park
January 20, 2010

It felt very stormy. The gulls were all aflutter with the crashing waves and took shelter on the pond near the lighthouse. I couldn't believe there were fellas surfing in this!

Pacific Grove sunrise from Rec Trail
February 24, 2009

I love these pics of the sunrise. It had rained in the early morning hours and I was down on the trail to check out the filming of an AT&T commercial. The irony is if you have AT&T cell service, you get very poor reception at this location on the trail and your calls drop.