The prickly pear’s in fruit.
opuntia
Tag: santa monica mountains
heteromeles arbutifolia
The toyon berries are putting on a good show right now. This is the shrub for which Hollywood is named, though it’s not a type of holly at all. Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) is a prominent component of the coastal sage scrub plant community, and a part of drought-adapted chaparral and mixed oak woodland habitats. It is the sole species in the genus Heteromeles.
Butterflies, bees and hummingbirds love the summer flowers, and the autumn berries are devoured by a large variety of birds, including cedar waxwings, quail, towhees, Western bluebirds, robins, and mockingbirds.
sharing the love
Twenty 7-12 year olds (and their parents) now know the difference between a valley oak and a coast live oak, though hopefully that’s not the only thing they gained from our time together 🌿💚
procambarus clarkii
Call me up next time there’s a Procambarus clarkii removal day in our watershed; I’d love to participate.
fossil ridge trail
nary a newt
We looked for newts in the pools where Annette and I had found them last week, but nary a newt was seen today.
pictographs
I got to see something very special today.
bench
Top of Red Rock Canyon, looking west.
hollyleaf redberry
Well how about that. It turns out that honeybees eat fruit. Amazing what you can learn when you pay attention!
oak glade
I slipped into a part of the State Park I hadn’t visited before, and followed a deer trail under overhanging boughs, to discover this secluded open glade within a circle of coast live oaks. I lay down on the thick bedding of dry, prickly leaves, my sketching bag as a pillow, and watched the dappled light dance above me.
For a few minutes, I stopped thinking about what the US Supreme Court did yesterday. I just breathed.
hashiworks 