I
had an absolutely delightful time on Monday, 10/17/22, enjoying the
blooms and happy sights that the wonderful monsoonal rain has given
us all along my drive and hike. The delights were not tempered
by bugs; there were just a few face gnats at Vallecito County Park
when I was changing my shoes. Nor were they tempered by hot
weather; the max temp was just 82 deg, and I was quite comfortable
hiking in the afternoon in full sun, probably because a lot of the
infrared (heat) rays were blocked by the moist atmosphere.
Highlights:
- Hillsides of Bahiopsis
parishii in full bloom, filled with yellow color, in many places.
Here are three examples along S2:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139304910
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139303972
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139304909
- Fields and Fields of yellow from Pectis nearly
everywhere:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139304313
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139276517
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139304312
- Some very happy plants of Tiquilia canescens,
some blooming, at a new location found by Fred and Carla on 10/3/22.
Their pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?geoprivacy=open&on=2022-10-03&place_id=any&taxon_geoprivacy=open&taxon_id=79364&user_id=efmer
- Lots of butterflies, caterpillars, milkweed bugs,
carpenter bees, etc. From my very first stop along S2 at the
Prunus fremontii hill, almost to the last bush that I saw while
hiking north of Vallecito, there were butterflies mobbing many of the
flowers. My pix of some of those insects (no guarantees on the
identifications!):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?iconic_taxa=Insecta&on=2022-10-17&place_id=any&user_id=tchester&verifiable=any
- Green, green, everywhere! Every ocotillo I
saw was fully leafed out. All the creosotes were a lush deep
green. Even the cheesebushes, which in most spring times just
have a topping of green above their bare stalks, were almost solid
green. Amazing!!!
Creosote green fields:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139482419
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139482416
Ocotillos:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139485005
Ambrosia salsola, cheesebush:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139482418
Details:
Since I was on my own, and
took well over 300 pix, I have not been able to post most of them at
iNat. But I did post almost all my pix from the car part of
this trip, and Fred and Carla posted a ton of pix from their hike on
10/3/22 in the same area that I hiked, so it is well documented at
iNat.
So far, I've posted 38 obs of 26 species from this
trip:
Map view, showing the locations I stopped at:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-10-17&place_id=any&subview=map&user_id=tchester
Observation view:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-10-17&place_id=any&user_id=tchester
Fred and Carla's posts for this area from 10/3/22,
134 obs of 55 species:
Map view:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-10-03&place_id=any&subview=map&user_id=efmer&geoprivacy=open&taxon_geoprivacy=open
Observation view:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?geoprivacy=open&on=2022-10-03&place_id=any&taxon_geoprivacy=open&user_id=efmer
I left my house at about 10:15 a.m., an hour later
than I usually leave when I'm meeting others, allowing me to get my
usual eight hours of sleep.
In Pauma
Valley,
the beautiful Tecoma stans display, and the gorgeous floss silk
blooms, are now a bit past peak bloom, with carpets of petals beneath
each, but both still beautiful.
I stopped first at
the "Red Gate Road" pullout on SR76 on the south side of
Palomar Mtn, and was surprised by the very large number of goldback
ferns there:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139459508
I enjoyed seeing the "pixie cups" on the
pixie cup lichens there:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139459505
The roadsides of SR76 had been cleared of
vegetation, all the way from before this pullout to its end at SR79
at Lake Henshaw. It looks like my favorite Ribes indecorum just
below this pullout was cleared, too. (:-(
Huge
areas east of SR79 in the Lake Henshaw area were red, from grazed
finishing Portulaca oleracea:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139275311
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139275312
Oddly, west of SR79 didn't seem to have a trace of red.
Amaranthus fimbriatus appeared along S2 just past
the S22 turnoff, and continued off and on throughout my trip:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139276518
There were clouds of Boerhavia in places as well.
I didn't see anything special along S2 at first, so
decided to stop at the "Prunus fremontii" hill. That
was a good decision, since there was a heavily-blooming Senecio
flaccidus mobbed with butterflies:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139274109
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139274108
Creosote was in bloom at Scissors Crossing and
beyond.
It was great to see all the hillsides of
Bahiopsis in bloom on my route. After my hike today, I had
planned to drive to Culp Valley to see the hillsides of it in bloom
there, found by Fred and Carla. But I didn't have to, since I
had my own here!
After all my stops along the way,
I finally got to Vallecito County Park at 1:45 p.m. While
walking the S2 roadside while eating a snack, I was surprised to find
at least 7 Podaxis plants, including one just pushing through the
soil:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139402646
I was able to do a 4.3 mile loop trip north of the
County Park, roughly following Fred and Carla's route, but trying to
explore off their track as much as possible. I mentioned the
Tiquilia canescens highlight above. Other highlights were to
see a number of Kallstroemia californica, a number of blooming and
fruiting plants of Funastrum hirtellum, seeing one Ayenia in good
fruit and in good bloom, and a number of beetle spurges.
Unfortunately I don't have time to post those pix yet.
I
downloaded Fred and Carla's plant list, and checked off 23 species
that I saw in bloom, plus a 24th, a single plant of Euphorbia
albomarginata that I was surprised to see here.
--
tom
chester