Visitors 60
Modified 21-Dec-23
Created 16-Jul-21
84 photos
6/22/2021: the first day that docents are allowed back on Jasper Ridge as docents. We can't lead tours of non-docents, but are finally allowed to visit, ourselves. Masked. This first day, Helen and I, with another docent wishing to remain unnamed, open Escobar Gate at 8 am. It feels good to be back.
Basically, the Ridge is recognizable from our last June visit, in 2019. It does feel a little dry for June [and has continued to bake in the month since]. Many late-spring flowers remain; the carpets of Tarweed have not yet spread. We missed the spring Goldfields, if there were any, for the second year in a row.
Harvester Ants (Veromessor andrei), now with a new genus name splitting them off from their Old-world cousins (Messor spp.), diligently bring the harvest back to their nests. We see several nests of these industrious ants. My companions generously allow me space and time to catch them from close to ground level. Some are hauling seeds, larger than they are, across obstacle-strewn pathways. One nest has separate areas near the entrance, the wider one for discarded seed husks, the closer one, kept clear of plant material, full of insect parts, evidence of victorious battles fighting invaders.
Looking at the wider world and the broad sweep of history, I am sometimes anxious, sensing looming dangers. Here, I try to document one place, one time, which seems to be thriving still, at least on the surface.
