Last Day of Vac

I got out about noonish and headed up the craggy way to the top, meandered west to the upper, then took the tadpole to the first dip. At 86 degrees, it was hotter than I was expecting. I need to stay off the tadpole in the heat. I was all dorked out with my fanny water pack, camera, pole, and C.

I knew when I arrived it was too hot for butterflies, and I found very little other photogenic critters.

A beautiful sight: hardly a car in the lot. And at least 2 of them had a man eating lunch inside

Some type of rosa something dotted the craggy path

More tiger beetles today, maybe this is the female

This was the only butterly I got, another hackberry emperor. Poor thing was missing most of its left hind wing

I watched this ant carrying a long something, maybe a queen of something or a damselfly?

I saw a roly poly near the ant, and sure enough they crossed paths. Just like the ant and nymph from yesterday, these each turned and boogied after the bump. Well, the ant boogied as much as it could while carrying its huge load

Just before starting up the last leg of the craggy trail, I noticed this. If you use your imagination, you can just about see a panda or ferret looking around from behind the trunk

Delicate little shrub flowers with a delicate little crap spider

The asiatic day flowers are now blooming out there, too

This year's version of the jayhawk, or rooster rock I put in a previous post. Rain, soil and rock movement have disquised its features

I cannot get a decent shot of a ladybug. I had to quit taking this when a biker came by, then couldn't find it again. I waited quite a while just to get this butt shot

Backyard Hikin'

"Issues" have kept me from hiking during the early morning hours the past 2 days, but I found somewhat noteworthy things in the backyard.

Teeny assassin bug nymphs (probably of the wheelbug) were all over the asiatic leaves and fence at the retaining wall. As far as I could tell there were two ages of them--the one in front was a bit larger than the others in this group

These 3 were playing "Follow the Leader" along a fence brace. There were other small groupings as well as singletons who somehow got separated in various areas. I was watching a couple in the leaves when I noticed a couple of rogue ants running around on the prowl. Sure enough, one ant made it over and around several leaves, like a child hopping on boulders, and ran smack into one of the nymphs. They each jumped in shock then turned and scurried in opposite directions... until the ant realized what he missed. The ant turned back around and began feverishly searching for the nymph, but the nymph had high-tailed it over far and wide to temporary safety. I went out several times later in the day, and the next, never seeing another nymph.

The asiatic day flowers finally started blooming this weekend. This one isn't crying or peeing, the drop of water just happened to be there

And the leaf beetles are back, both oulema and neolema. But what I really like is the ancient cave drawing of an animal over there on the other leaf!

2 Hikes, 1 Post

My cousin and I hiked Monday, with her camera and Eddie. There were lots of butterflies killing me because I didn't have my camera. So on Tuesday, while she visited other relatives, I hiked alone with my camera. It was a beautiful overcast day -- perfect for taking pics.

I took the craggy way to the top, then moseyed west to the upper. Just as I was going north on the tadpole it began sprinkling, and I didn't have my camera bag with me. I wrapped my camera in my baggy shirt-tail and high-tailed it down the mountain. If not for my camera, hiking in the gentle sprinkle/shower would have been wonderful.

I wandered through quite a few weedy areas off path to get some of the pics, and paid for it later. My lower legs are scratched up and I had two tick bites.

Some kind of bee on yarrow

Leaf beetle on same yarrow with the bee

Weird ant thing on the yarrow. Those 2 leaves sticking up are not part of the yarrow

Profile view of a hackberry emperor that my cousin shot on Monday

This hackberry emperor landed directly at my feet. They are so courageous and flew so close that they hit my clothing and head several times during the hike

A question mark? comma,

There were a few, but they were more flighty

Hatchling ring-necked snake appeared injured, maybe by a coon or bird. You can see the injury a bit behind it's necklace and at the bottom of the "U". Poor baby.

Lots of tiger beetles this time of year, and they are very flashy right now

Flower fly on yarrow

Best sample of spittle foam ever. It even has a drip at the bottom

Green bee fly thing on yarrow

Leaf-footed bug, like a giant agave bug, slurping bird poop

Leaf beetle family, calligrapha xx. It was shiny and pretty

Tickseed flower, aka cleoxxsomething

Very interesting. Spikey things on the central vein of elm leaves (I think elm.) I saw these only in two places. On Monday my cousin said some bug bored holes in the veins, laid eggs which are making these. We would love to see what they are. We broke off one and broke it open, but couldn't really detect anything. They are very hard

Humid Hike with Cousin

Tuesday was heavy with air moisture, and after the dog park (where there were 3 other dogs) we went to TM with a camera but no dogs. Sole purpose was to take some pics of the pretty wildflowers we saw on Saturday. That was the plan.

Between Saturday and Tuesday we had some severe weather in the area, and there were deathly tornadoes within a 100 mile radius. We hadn't realized the damage it would do to fragile tiny petals and such. We found one Indian paintbrush. One. The rosa multiflora were completely torn apart, and there were fewer wildflowers overall than just 3 days prior.

My biggest excitement was chasing my first giant swallowtail off-trail, trying to get a shot. I lost it in the vegetation, but it was fun. Here are just a few of the 76 pics, in hiking order:

I have studied the book, and now finally can ID the difference between yarrow and wild carrot (aka Queen Anne's Lace). This is yarrow on the trailhead area. The bigger plants up the tadpole are wild carrot

I haven't been able to ID this one yet; east side of trailhead in the lower meadow

    Indian Paintbrush in same meadow   

            

Don't know what, but it was tiny and cute

A very weathered painted lady in same meadow

Weathered variegated fritillary, same meadow

Milkweed, same meadow

Spongey fungi. Really. It was soft and pliant. I didn't like touching it; north of meadow

Spiderwort - my favorite flower on the mountain; north of meadow

When I realized the race for the giant swallowtail was in vain, I used my toe to turn over this camouflaged-wrapped plastic cup, and found this large scary-looking spider

Red-banded hairstreak I found in the same area where I took pics of one 3 years ago

Rosa multiflora was rain-beaten on the lower blue

Don't know what this beautiful dainty flower is; it was on the lower blue

Hiking With Dogs

My cousin nd her dog rolled into town Friday night, and on Saturday we took the dogs to the dog park and hiking at TM. They (we) had a fun time at both places.

At TM we took the blue to the upper, then went a ways on the tadpole and I looked for the jayhawk, but couldn't find it. I'm thinking a year of rains and dirt/sand shifting have changed the face of it enough that I don't recognize it. Then we retraced up the tadpole and headed east on the blue/yellow for a ways before heading down.

JayHawk rock on tadpole from May, 2009

Quite a few more wildflowers are blooming: Indian paintbrush, spiderwort, some yellow that I haven't IDd yet, and some purple, and a few others. My cuz found the little white ones that resemeble blackberry blooms are rosa multiflora. I didn't take my camera because I had Ed and my hiking pole. As soon as the wet weather allows we're going back out and I'm taking the camera.

For a beautiful Saturday, TM was relatively subdued although we did come across an extremely loud group of young teen girls on the lower blue meadow. They were nice and gave attention to the dogs, at least.

That evening, after so much activity, the dogs lazed around snoring and dreaming.

Hiking Without a Camera

Eddie and I took about a 50 minute hike today, up the blue across and down the yellow. It was a beautiful day and I couldn't believe the lack of folks on the trail.

I saw my first eastern tiger swallowtail (yellow and black variety) today and could have had some good pics. Dang. It was on the east side of the Yoshi pond, playing with the small white blooms on something. Blooms look similar to blackberry blooms, which are all over the place, but wasn't blackberry. I also saw a cute tiny black bug in the center of a blackberry bloom, so I missed two good ones. Other than the two kinds of white blooms and some little undergrowth that barely had any purple on it, I didn't notice any other flowery things.

I did see the oldest couple I have ever seen there, near the top meadowy area, so they had to hike UP to get there. I was impressed.

Later at home I found a tiny tick on me. This is a little early. I hope Ed didn't get any. He better not, because this year I'm using Frontline Plus, which is supposed to kill ticks. Products I used in the past did not include ticks, and the when Ed gets 2 ticks in one hike I stop taking him until October.

Tomorrow there's a Turkey Mt planning meeting at the park board, and I'll be going. It will be my first. I won't be speaking up, but I'll probably take notes, being the dork that I am.