Tag: Wildflowers

Whatever Weds. Super-bloom: Purple

Posted in California Wildflowers, Macro Photography, National Monuments, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , 31 Comments

Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Here and there throughout the Carrizo Plain were patches of purple flowers. The most prominent was the Great Valley Phacelia.

This particular genus is only found in California and Baja California. Per Plants.usda.gov site they can be found:

Phacelia ciliata is found only in California and Baja California in Mexico. Within California distribution includes the Northern
Coastal Ranges, the Sacramento Valley including Sutter Buttes, the San Joaquin Valley, the San Francisco Bay, the Southern
Coast Ranges and South West California, but excluding the Channel Islands. For current distribution, please consult the Plant
Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.
Habitat: Great Valley phacelia is found associated with Coastal Sage Scrub, Northern Oak Woodland, Foothill Woodland
and Valley Grassland.
Adaptation
Great Valley phacelia is drought tolerant and grows well in areas given 7 to 18 inches of annual precipitation. It grows on a
range of soil types from clays to sandy loams to gravelly slopes and tolerates moderate salinity. It is found at elevations from
seal level up to 5,000 feet (Calflora, 1997; Walden et al. 2013).

They’re considered one of the “blue” flowers and they’re a pollinator.

Patches of Great Valley Phacelia
Close up of the Great Valley Phacelia
Wide view of Great Valley Phacelia and Orange Fiddlenecks

I got a wee bit behind with posts due to a trip down to SoCal to visit Big Baby Boy, and the Dark Haired Beauty. We crammed a lot into a few days, but I’m home now and catching up.

I’ll be sharing more from our wildflower Super-bloom trip in the future.

Nikon Df w| Nikkor 105mm and 35mm lenses| PS CC 24.4.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Super-bloom 23-Yellows

Posted in California Wildflowers, National Monuments, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , 42 Comments

Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!

On Easter He-Man and I met our friend Gordon of https://undiscoverdimagesamongstus2.wordpress.com/

down in SoCal at the Carrizo Plain National Monument to photograph

the wildflowers in bloom…or Super-bloom 2023.

The Carrizo Plain has a lot of yellow flowers. Today we’ll focus on the Orange Fiddlenecks with an honorable mention of a few other yellow wildflowers.

Wide View of the Plain and mountains. Soda Lake.

Orange Fiddlenecks, Hillside Daisies, and Goldfields cover the distant mountains and the plain, and in the above image you can see front right a few Tidy Tips too.

Orange Fiddleneck
Orange Fiddlenecks

It was so beautiful and not too crowded being a holiday.

Next time I’ll share other views, and flowers that I saw while here.

Nikon D810 & Nikon Df w/ Nikkor 105mm macro lens & Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G| PS CC 24.3.0

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Butterflies

Posted in Butterflies, Fuji X-T3, Nature, Photography, WildflowersTagged , , , , , 62 Comments

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

A friend came up for the week-end and we birded, and admired wildflowers, and hiked. He-Man even joined us on the longest hike which was just over 6 miles, and we climbed 640ft in the Eastern Sierras.

We also had the pleasure of seeing several butterflies. Here are two.

I think this is a Fritillary maybe a Meadow Fritillary? If you know what it is I’d love to know for sure.

Fritillary? Wildflower?

This one I was able to identify as the Western White Butterfly.

Western White Butterfly

This one is a first for me!

The wildflowers in the high country are in full bloom and gorgeous, and I’ve picked up a few new to me birds! I’ll be sharing those in future posts…after I have nailed down their identities. I’m still not quite certain on two of them.

Merlin my bird app isn’t giving me a definitive answer so, I’m still trying to figure them out.

The smoke here seems to get better, then it gets worse. The Tamarack Fire is still burning and when I last checked it was still 0% contained and the winds in the afternoon have been very gusty not helping the fire crews at. all!

I am hopeful that fire crews will be able to get it under control sooner rather than later.

That’s about it from here. I hope your week is going well.

Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 22.4.2

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Lifers 3, 4, & 5 for 2021

Posted in Bird Photography, Hiking, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 49 Comments

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

At the end of May He-Man and I went for a hike on a new to us trail called Deadman’s Creek Trail. It’s a nice short trail just a wee bit over a mile up and 280 foot elevation gain with a wonderful payoff at the end. There’s a lovely gazebo at the top of the hill, and the view is gorgeous.

Washoe Lake with Slide Mountain in the background
Washoe Lake Reflecting Slide Mountain

To top this off being a nice hike it was an even better hike because I saw three new to me birds on this trail!!

Number 3 new bird for the year was the Rock Wren. It posed for me nicely. Later it sang for us too.

Rock Wren

On the way down I saw the next two. First was the Female Lazuli Bunting. It’s not a great image as she was out of range of my lens, but it was a good enough look to get her identified. I’ve seen the male before but, not the female so I was excited to have now seen both the male and female of the species.

Lazuli Bunting Female

The last new to me bird was the Black-throated Sparrow. I’ve been back to try to get a better image of it twice, but I haven’t seen it again.

Black-throated Sparrow

All I know of how the trail got its name is back in the 1860’s a man bought a ranch near here and grew produce to sell to the miners in the valley. In 1864 he sold half his ranch to another man who became his business partner, but in 1865 the two ranchers were found shot dead. It was first thought they were murdered, but later they changed the thinking to a murder suicide situation. It’s a story true to the Wild West tales that’s for sure.

On a happier note there were wildflowers in bloom along the trail too. I put together a Contact Sheet with several thumbnail images of the highlights of the hike to share.

Deadman’s Creek Trail, Washoe County, Nevada

We’ve had #1 Grandson with us for 11 days and Big Baby Boy flew up for a short visit too. We’ve been going to the lake to beat the heat and paddle on my SUP board. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen some of my images and videos of that so I won’t repeat that here.

Big Baby Boy left Tuesday, and Baby Girl, The Handsome Surveyor, and Littlest are arriving this evening for a short overnight stay and take #1 Grandson home tomorrow. The visits went by too fast!! That catches you up on my doings. What’s new with you?

I hope you’re all having a lovely week, and you have a great week-end!

Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| iPhone 7Plus| Photoshop CC 22.4.2

more to come…

Whatever Weds. San Clemente Pier Plus 1 more…

Posted in California Wildflowers, Fuji X-T3, Photography, Travel Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , 38 Comments

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

He-Man and I have been traveling between our children’s homes in April which has been fun, and wonderful. Our latest trip we went to see our son in SoCal for several days. One evening we went down to the pier hoping for a good sunset. It wasn’t bad, but the company was perfect.

San Clemente Pier at Sunset

We dined out in restaurants and it was grand! Really. I missed dining out. We ate in places that we don’t have at home like Thai, Greek, and fresh Seafood. I was bad and didn’t take any images of the food at these places. Sorry!

We took after dinner hikes up in the canyon near Big Baby Boy’s and The Dark Haired Beauty’s place, and it was lovely. Spring wildflowers were in bloom.

Here’s a Sweet Pea of some sort- Sandy Beach or Chaparral? They are the largest flowers in the Pea family I’ve ever seen before.

I only took my Fuji X-T3 and my newest lens for it the Fujinon XF 16-80mm.

I’ve had the lens a couple of months now and really haven’t used it all that much, but this trip it got some love. I think it did a good job and its small, as well as light weight so it made a great travel kit.

There’s a nesting Red-tailed Hawk in a tree at the Golf Course where we live. I am hoping to get some good images of the chick and the parents bringing in food. So far I’ve not been lucky.

I hope you’re all having a good week so far. What’s new with you?

Fuji X-T3| Fuji 16-80mm| PS CC 22.3.0

more to come…