Annaphila depicta ~ 03/04/11 ~ Pinnacles

a day-flying moth nectaring on California milkmaids
Annaphila depicta ssp. morula nectaring on Cardamine californica
Brassicaceae

When the first few Lepidoptera flew by me with their flashes of orange, I got excited believing I was seeing my first copper butterflies since returning to CA. Nope. It's a day flying moth! The official Pinnacles National Monument website is now including moths, instead of just butterflies. Great... except, as the PDF states, it's a work in progress. The only Annaphila they list is A. decia.

Here's a dirty little secret from my past life, I suck at identifying moths without a reference collection. So, I sent a picture to Chris Grinter of The Skeptical Moth this morning around 6:30am - gotta appreciate fellow bloggers who are up before the sun comes up. He promptly replied the following, "Love to see the moth photos. This is absolutely in the genus Annaphila (Noctuidae), and I'm comfortable calling it A. depicta. I could even take a stab at this being the subspecies 'morula' based on that pronounced brown bar on the forewing!" After comparing the very few photographs available online of Annaphila, I agree with his expert ID. Thank you, Chris!

I should mention these small moths were relatively abundant in what I affectionately term the "butterfly highway" at Pinnacles.

Plus, milkmaids were definitely the predominant blooming herbaceous perennials everywhere we hiked. Some looked more mustardy than milky. It looks like there are two varieties of C. californica (var. californica and var. cuneata) recorded from Pinnacles, but I wouldn't be able to tell you which is which or the difference.

ps - If you look closely at the second picture, there's a cute little beetle. Based on my other pictures of milkmaids, these beetles are quite abundant on this flower. However, I'm done with IDs for today.

pss 04/06/11 - Before I forget, Chris encouraged me to contact Paul Johnson of NPS. Paul and I had a couple of e-mail exchanges between March 6-9, 2011. He says he has 3 or 4 Annaphila on his Pinnacles moth list, but it's not updated and available to the public. Whether due to my e-mails or not, he did manage to catch a moth similar to the one shown above on March 7, 2011.

shootingstar ~ 03/04/11 ~ Pinnacles

lowland shootingstar
Dodecatheon clevelandii ssp. patulum
Primulaceae

I've spent an enjoyable evening looking up padre's shootingstars, which has four subspecies. I should mention that I'm starting to rely on location-based published plant lists for any particular flower ID, because I figure the folks who did the studies know a heck of a lot more than I do. Botanical descriptions and subspecies aside, these simply looked bolder and more intense than other shootingstars I've seen previously closer to home in Monterey County. Recently I read about a local seasoned botanist who distinguished species of wildflowers based on every smile. There's something to be said for familiarity and recognition, even with flowers, that is beyond words and fancy descriptors.

acorn woodpecker ~ 02/22/11 ~ J's place

acorn woodpecker
Melanerpes formicivorus

Whenever I go visit a friend across town on the ocean side of the peninsula, I make sure to put my point-and-shoot camera in my pocket. I often see birds there that I never see at home, even though we only live a few miles apart. She has birdbaths, feeders galore, and a bird watching station facing a picture window next to her kitchen, instead of the traditional dining room table, complete with a comfy chair, binoculars, nature journal, a pile of bird books, and a huge camera that definitely would not fit in anyone's pocket. Gotta love her! I took these pictures behind her house. It looks like these acorn woodpeckers are making a granary tree out of this dead Monterey pine. They're the funniest looking birds. As I was searching for information this morning, I discovered the distinctive laugh of one of my childhood favorite cartoons, Woody the Woodpecker, was modeled after the the acorn woodpecker (click on the scientific name above to hear its call). Fellow blogger Julie Zickefoose wrote an NPR article about this. There you go, a tidbit of information.

ps 08/07/11 - For another blogger who writes about the famous cartoon inspiration, check out Shooting My Universe.

habitat ~ 02/20/11 ~ Garland Ranch Regional Park

Garland Ranch Regional Park
February 20, 2011

So often Nature ID posts are of specific things, getting as close as my point-and-shoot will allow for a positive ID. However, I do like to take a step back and look at the larger picture. I hope I can convey in my habitat shots what any location is like throughout the year. While my blog is not a hiking blog (there are much better ones, like Way Points and Bay Area Hiker), I believe people may be able to get a sense of if and when they'd like to hike at the many locations shown here. All locations are labeled with an 'x' and grouped to the right of my blog towards the bottom.

In the 2nd picture above, there is indeed snow on the hill tops. To the left is the Sierra de Salinas range and to the right is the better known Santa Lucia Range. By Saturday after these pictures were taken, we had snow here at sea level along the Monterey Bay.