Visitors 39
Modified 29-Aug-26
Created 29-Aug-26
27 photos
When many flowering plants have disappeared underground, no evidence we can see – annual native Hayfields Tarweeds spring to life, providing color (if white is a color) for observers and sustenance for pollinators. White flowers stand out from the season’s predominate colors: muted green of Coast Live Oak; tan of dry annual grasses; blue of sky. Brick-red Poison Oak comes into its own. A softer accent: red tail on the eponymous hawk, trailing the black and tan feathers of the soaring predator.
More patterns: twisted dark branches beneath dark green canopy of Coast Live Oak. Crack-riddled serpentine rock, circles of light-green lichen over rust-red. Twisted branches of old Valley Oak snag, peeling bark, riddled with acorn-ready cavities. Even in visible light, Hayfields Tarweed presents a bullseye, pinkish-veined white petals guiding gathering insects to the central target of pollen-laden tiny flowers; I wonder, how does this pattern appear to a bee’s infrared vision?
Sounds? Hawk calls, pigeons too – but no sign of their interaction. (My fellow birders hear more birdcalls.) Soft breeze, a touch more than a whisper.
Aroma of tarweed pervades the air.
August birding transect out of Escobar Gate.
More patterns: twisted dark branches beneath dark green canopy of Coast Live Oak. Crack-riddled serpentine rock, circles of light-green lichen over rust-red. Twisted branches of old Valley Oak snag, peeling bark, riddled with acorn-ready cavities. Even in visible light, Hayfields Tarweed presents a bullseye, pinkish-veined white petals guiding gathering insects to the central target of pollen-laden tiny flowers; I wonder, how does this pattern appear to a bee’s infrared vision?
Sounds? Hawk calls, pigeons too – but no sign of their interaction. (My fellow birders hear more birdcalls.) Soft breeze, a touch more than a whisper.
Aroma of tarweed pervades the air.
August birding transect out of Escobar Gate.
Dan Quinn