Quote For Tough Times

DON'T FIND FAULT, IMPROVE THE PROCESS!

Spiders Butterflies and the Cycle of Life (or what's left of a lizard)

Here's a real common member of our grasslands locally. It's a wolf spider. This one was really big, and cooperative, so I snapped a few shots. They live in the grass under rotting logs and running through the grass in search of their next meal. really good eyesight helps them as hunters.

This is another one you might see locally flying around in the grasslands. Its a common buckeye butterfly. A beautifully colored medium sized butterfly.

This last one is the cycle of life as illustrated by the partially eaten alligator lizard being finished off by a group of small ants. I saw a king snake in the same situation later this day being fed on by flies. It may be gruesome or grotesque, but it's all part of the cycle of life.

Sand Verbena

There are these low growing plants in the dunes that we call sand verbena. They are in the Nyctaginaceae family and locally we have three different versions. Pink sand verbena or Abronia umbellata, red sand verbena or Abronia maritima, and coastal sand verbena or Abronia latifolia.

The first two pictures show pink sand verbena and the color variation that can occur in it. It grows in the rear dunes and is usually the first sand verbena you see when you traverse the dunes from east to west.

This next picture is red sand verbena which is the darkest in color and grows closest to the water. Viable seeds of this plant are very difficult to find and most of the seed pods will contain no seeds.

These last two pictures of coastal sand verbena show the color variation that occurs in it. A. latifolia is usually yellow in appearance but occasionally takes on this peachy color that I really like (I guess that is the horticulturalist in me coming out). It grows in between the other two sometimes mixed with one or the other.

Nature Blog

Okay, this is not about my job or the parks or the central coast directly, but I stumbled across this blog and I think they describe it best. You can really get lost in this one.

"Welcome to the Nature Blog Network, a nexus for the very best nature blogs on the net. If you're looking for outstanding blogging about birds, bugs, plants,herps, hiking, oceans, ecosystems, or any other natural topic -- or if you blog on those topics yourself -- this is the place for you!"

http://natureblognetwork.com/

I added it as a link as well.