Saturday, June 27, 2009

More Yosemite Natural History

We miss being in California, but enjoy being home again. There is so much we have here in North Carolina that California does not have. An example dragonflies I have more right here in our pond than all of what we saw in California, the ponds were fenced, rivers to swift or damed and the lakes were not very odonate freindly. Guess I enjoy sweating also.

California Sister (Adelpha bredowii) One of my favorite butterflies from this trip. I only saw them on this California Buckeye, Aesculus californica which seemed to be blooming everywhere!

Pale Swallowtail, Papilio eurymedon on Purple Milkweed Asclepias cordifolia

Jeffrey Shooting Star, Dodecatheon jeffreyi we saw lots of these in wet meadows inside Yosemite National Park. This is the larger of the shooting stars.

Narrow-leaf Milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis we found this in very dry canyons and hairstreak butterflies were found on it several places along with Monarchs flying about in the areas at each milkweed grouping.

Female Acmon Blue, Plebejus acmon laying eggs on this plant in a dry canyon.

Grappletail, Octogomphus specularis we found our first two of these on an old back road that had a tiny mostly dry creek, surprised to see any odes with so little water. There was an yellow marked one but it did not like me. These can be marked gray, gray or yellow, pretty cool huh? Then later in the day we stumbled into Anderson Creek and found maybe a dozen of these in the campground creek there. I loved that creek except for brushing into stinging nettles there.

8 comments:

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

I love your photos of the butterflies (and the dragonflies) that I don't always see. That Female Acmon Blue is very pretty. You have a good eye for catching all these little beauties.

sweetbay said...

The narrow-leaf milkweed is beautiful!

Town Mouse said...

That's it! I'm leaving for Yosemite today! (well, actually, we' planned the trip in March). Great photos, I'll point to them when I post mine I'm sure.

Cheryl said...

The photographs of the butterflies are stunning.....I love to see them, so different from ours....
They are lovely creatures...we have a lot in the garden at the moment but they will not settle long enough to allow me to photograph them.....

You have some very pretty wildflowers.....another one of my passions......

Meems said...

Really nice photos of the butterflies, Randy. So many I have never seen. I always adore the blues and you've captured that tiny little one very well. I'm always amazed at how well you know your dragon flies... they are marvelous creatures.

It's good to go away... but good to be home!
Meems @ Hoe and Shovel

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

You found lots of beauty there. Isn't Yosemite gorgeous? I just love it there. I'm always glad to get home too.

Victoria Williams said...

Nice photos. I've only been to Yosemite once but I loved it.

Barbara E said...

Great Calif. pictures. I have just returned from NY, Mass and PA. and am glad to be home in CA. It is always interesting to visit - and nice to return. I couldn't believe how green everything was - it rained nearly every day for at least part of the day. Nice to be back to the hot, dry weather I have become adapted to. Love your blog!