Saturday, May 5, 2012

Close to Home





On my recent hike to Boyle Ravine, only five minutes from my house, I was excited to find several invertebrates have woken up for the season: millipedes, cockroaches, various beetles, and termites.  I posted photos of some of these bugs, but now I want to call attention to other attractions that may be found within a few hundred yards of the large water tank just above the entrance to the Boyle Ravine nature trail.  Boyle Creek itself cascades beautifully through the forest, and the little waterfall pictured above is a site that's good for finding Wild Ginger, Leopard Lily, False Solomon's Seal (2nd photo above) among other flowers in season.  Currently there are lots of Sticky Current blooming (bottom photo) and lots of Red Larkspur almost ready to bloom.  Today I saw a few Scarlet Fritillary with buds, but no blooms. The mushrooms (3rd photo) growing under fallen logs always fascinate me as they grow outward from the undersides of the logs then immediately try to curve upward in defiance of gravity.  This makes for interesting curves of stems seen when the logs are rolled over.  Finally, the blooming Oregon Grape is plentiful all around.

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