Visitors 73
Modified 9-Apr-24
Created 9-Apr-24
63 photos
Are we there yet? “Peak” bloom is hard to define: blossoms come in waves, early spring to early summer, each wave with its own charms. That said, Goldfields are pretty spectacular on Jasper Ridge right now, probably close to *their* peak for the year. A docent brush-up walk is a good time to carry my cameras (as always) out of Escobar Gate and through the serpentine grasslands. The serpentine curves of the road are lined with Goldfields, growing in serpentine soil. (No snakes in the grass appear, however.) Owl’s-clover joins the Goldfields at first; farther on, California Plantain, the host plant of the locally-extinct Bay Checkerspot Butterfly. Then California Poppies join the show. A few Tidy Tips venture out, none quite photogenic – wait for the next wave. California Buttercups keep to themselves, not joining in the general orgy. Coast Suncups peek out along the road. Along Trail 15, a riot of Leptosiphon; they are closed against the cold cloudy morning when we pass them along Road F. We do see butterflies, and some even deign to pose. A Variable Checkerspot Butterfly, related to the Bay Checkerspot, opens its wings. Further along, a caterpillar of the same species, some of each active in this in-between time. A camouflaged skipper butterfly, Prepertius Duskywing, rests in the grassland, the first one I have noticed. Other insects are out for the blossoms: a spotted green beetle munching on a Suncups flower, and a Western Honeybee gathering from a Goldfields blossom. Processing my photos, I notice another butterfly, also new to me: two of them hanging out on an Owl’s-clover not far from Escobar Gate, in the middle of the splash of Owl’s-clover and Goldfields. Beautiful: a striped pattern in pink, brown, deep crimson, and skyblue. Does anyone know them? As usual, please leave a comment on a photo if you know more. (And some of these plants have several species in the same genus, hard for me to distinguish from a photo.) An instructive morning with good people.
Dan Quinn