Home»Jasper Ridge Galleries»A Day at a Time: Individual Visits»7/19/2023 Rare Orchid, Tarweed with Beefly, and Colorful Northern Flicker

Fragrant Tarweed fills the meadows, visited by beeflies and bees. A Northern Flicker poses in a window in the old snag Valley Oak at the top of a ridge, the “Phainopepla Tree”, now bare of Phainopepla-beloved mistletoe. Then it flies off, revealing shocking orange underfeathers. Clay Mariposa Lilies and other late-spring wildflowers blossom on into the hot dry summer. A fellow birder points out a (locally) rare orchid, deep in the chaparral shade, protected from the hot sunlight.

The July birding transect out of Escobar Gate.