elegant piperia ~ 09/29/12 ~ Rocky Creek

elegant rein orchid
Piperia elegans ssp. elegans
Orchidaceae

It's funny how once you notice something, you start seeing it all over the place.  We weren't expecting to see any orchids this late in the year, then I found a small cluster of five of these elegant rein orchids.  On our return hike back down a 3.4 mile road, we ended up seeing them in numerous places, all on north-facing slopes.  The one dated record I could quickly find for the region, linked from Jepson eFlora, was made by Ivar Tidestrom on October 11, 1893 at Point Lobos. 1893!?!  Very cool.  I love how records are increasingly available online.

ps 10/02/12 - I stopped by Skyline Forest Drive this evening to see if any elegants were blooming. When we were on a Yadon's piperia hunt back in the summer of 2010, I checked the progress of a small area of elegants here on July 25, August 4, August 9, and August 27.  Today there was nothing, zip, nada.  The only herbaceous greenery I found were one bunch of sedges near a storm drain and pockets of heavily browsed and browning Asteraceae.  I couldn't even find evidence of any seed pods for elegant or Yadon's.  I wonder if the extremely dry year kept them from coming up.

pss 10/06/12 - I'm always amazed at the e-mail conversations I get into when I start searching for information. While looking for links to other pictures for this post, I came across an outlier on CalPhotos.  I e-mailed the photographer to query him about the accuracy of his ID.  Come to find out he's a retired ranger for Henry Coe State Park.  In his 30 years of experience there and knowing other botanists who ID'd piperias at Coe Park spanning the same amount of time, he agreed with me that the reported and photographed elegant piperia is actually Piperia elongata. I don't consider myself a botanist in any regard, so I take a breath before questioning 30 years of reported information. I do think access to online records makes double-checking IDs that much easier.

habitat ~ 09/23/12 ~ Toro County Park

Toro County Park

September 23, 2012

Well, I finally did it.  I hiked at Toro County Park.  This would not have been my preferred time of year to visit this park for the first time, but once again I was a tagalong while Andy volunteered and ran the half marathon organized by Inside Trail Racing.  Everything was extremely dry. Even the poison-oak, monkeyflower, chamise, coyote brush, and black sage could not feign green, let alone in some cases having leaves at all.  My hike reflected the melancholy mood I've had the past few months.  I was so absorbed in thoughts and a desire to turn around to go get some breakfast (we rushed out the door by 6:30am so Andy could help set-up) that I barely noticed I had walked up 1600 feet. The elevation at the park is deceptive.  Before I knew it I was looking down on a marine layer over the Monterey Bay and through the Salinas Valley, Corral de Tierra, and Fort Ord.  I've posted pictures of Toro Park from a distance in various habitat posts for Fort Ord, which is situated right across Hwy. 68.  The middle vertical picture above of runners is from a trail that can be seen from a considerable distance, like in the last photo of this May 11, 2012 post.  I would like to return to Toro Park when its bright spring green like it was on March 14, 2009. Hopefully, in the coming days I'll backpost specific IDs of things I did notice.

crappy photos no more?

blue-eyed darner

Rhionaeshna multicolor

posted 10/09/12 - Here on Nature ID, I've joked about my crappy photos.  It's okay.  I'm good with it.  I'm practically proud, even.  While I sometimes get slightly green around the edges with envy over other bloggers' fantastic photographs taken with great skill and fancy equipment, the fact of the matter is I have little desire to grow in that direction myself.

Our trusty 8-year-old Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50 point-and-shoot has served us well.  It's lightweight, fits in my front shirt pocket or Andy's running belt pocket, old enough that I don't care if it gets a few raindrops or specks of pollen on it, and meets most of our wants most of the time. I'm someone who begrudgingly carries water and won't even take my smallest pair of binoculars on a hike because it doesn't easily fit into a pocket... well, you get the picture.  Or don't you?

As with all electronic gadgets nowadays, things break or become obsolete for whatever reason. Hey, I was "forced" to replace my 10-year-old computer, not because it broke, but because technology and my desire to be online left it in the dust.  Sigh, it's time to start thinking about a replacement camera. Andy came across reviews for Lytro.  I'm not crazy about the awkward shape.  However, capturing an entire light field to create a "living picture" with the capability to refocus after the fact?  Anyone hear of it?  Does anyone know if these active focus pictures can be embedded in blogger, yet?  If so, could you please send me a link to your blogspot?  Any other recommendations?  Granted, like with my computer this may be a 2-year process before I purchase, and by then this new consumer technology will very likely be even better and cheaper.

nest box for western bluebird ~ 09/23/12 ~ Toro Park

nest box for western bluebird
nest box for Sialia mexicana

Packed clearly in my memory from some childhood book's chapter heading is a subtly shaded pencil sketch of a bird house, with a gabled roof and dowel perch, sitting sweetly atop a square peg post with flowers blooming at the base and butterflies fluttering about.  It's a charming and cozy iconic visual, but I rarely give nest boxes a second thought while out hiking.  The dilapidated state of this one stopped me in my tracks long enough to ponder some questions and provided a reason to look up information.

Is it merely semantics that distinguishes a bird house from a nest box?  Are nest boxes like this one placed specifically for bluebirds?  Why do bluebird nest boxes have a flat roof?  Why don't I see boxes with pegs for perching?  How come there aren't more different style nest boxes around?  What happened to this box?  With our weather incredibly mild since the spring of 2011, I doubt this damage was due to any storm.  Did a raccoon tear this box apart?  Did unknowing humans vandalize this box?  Are these the remains of a bluebird nest or of some other bird?

I know there are different styles of nest boxes for different kinds of birds, even though this medium-sized one with a flat roof is the type I most often see in parks around here.  While I don't normally link to commercial sites, this bird house supplier has a nice page of various man-made structures (they're not all boxes!) built to attract nesting birds.  I've seen owl boxes at Elkhorn Slough, wood duck boxes at various places I can't recall offhand, and numerous bluebird boxes, including one lone bluebird nest box at Fort Ord in memory of Chuck Haugen, which ironically is one of two places I've ever actually seen a western bluebird, with the other place being Pinnacles.

With the question of which birds also utilize nest boxes placed out for bluebirds, I continued to search.  Tree swallows have used them at Hastings Reserve.  European starlings and house sparrows compete with bluebirds for nesting sites.  Violet-green swallows and mountain chickadees use cammed bluebird nest boxes at James Reserve in SoCal.  Are there other birds, too?  I'll have to keep looking.

Steve at Blue Jay Barrens has a nice series of posts for bird box, eastern bluebird nest (Sialia sialis), and tree swallow nest.  Keeping nest boxes takes dedication and regular maintenance.