late afternoon
Mather field vernal pools
no pools in sight at first...
warm, slight breeze - out with Shannon - long wet spring has left it still pretty wet - looking at little special vernal pool flowers - redwing blackbirds fly by and call back - swallows come & scoop insects from the surface of the pool - dragonflies buzz around -
Hawkbit flower
Not sure how my old Polaroid T55 film will hold up, so I'm shooting a bunch with my new little Nikon P90, too - learning how it works as I go along - Shannon points out several vernal pool flowers and tells me each of their names.
White navarretia
Heard a western meadowlark...
Two horned downingia with little purple horns in center of flower
Yellow flowers here are vernal pool goldfields
Field owl's clover
Vernal pool brodiaea
White meadowfoam - cultivated in Oregon for seed oil used in cosmetics!
Shannon says soon the pools will be dry and all these tiny little flowers will dry up blow away with the wind!
Saw a tiny Pacific chorus frog (formerly known as a tree frog...) I found the frog while walking, watching my feet, and noticed what seemed like a big bug - I juggled my two cameras and let Shannon catch the frog - I'm using my new little digital to back up my aging Polaroid film - hopefully the negs will be better than the positive prints - but I'm backing everything up with digital just in case.
The unusual weather patterns this year - more rain, late cool storms - has changed the normal vernal patterns - the fact that there are still pools this late in the season is unusual, and the flowers aren't blooming all at once like normal but more in fits and spurts.
We stop and squat down while I process film, swap out cameras & write in my journal - then talk about how rare these vernal pools are, only 5% of original pools remain here in California - overall a very tiny percentage of our environment with very specialized plants and animals, many of which live nowhere else. Yet here we are on one of the nicest days of the year so far, enjoying it...
Coyote thistle spurs a discussion about the real danger coyotes are to even large breed domestic dogs.
Pretty but invasive medusa head grass
White hyacinth in invasive medusa head grass
Redwing blackbird shows off his patches for us
Used the P90's panoramic assist to shoot this - I'm pretty pleased with the result, it will likely find it's way into a final artwork -
