More detailed pages for the May vacation have been constructed and added to a section named “Trips” at the end of the horizontal menu.

A direct link to the first (least interesting page) is here.

At the end of each page, there is a link to a Flickr “Slideshow” for all photos taken in that area. The Slideshows open up in a new window; when done just close window to get back to original page.

Below that link, is a link to the “Next in Series” page so that one does not have to go back to the “Trips” page to get to the next page.

Thanks to Nick Lethaby, Dave Compton, Mark Holmgren, Kyle Baunger for id assistance.

Do fire-followers only follow fires?

I frequently visit Marc Kummel’s “Fotolog” website because of the interesting photos he posts of flora and fauna of mostly East Camino Cielo, but also West Camino Cielo. Not only are the photos wonderful and very close-up, but the commentary provided with the photos is informative. After seeing photos of Yellow-throated Phacelia, Large-flowered Phacelia and Scarlet Larkspur on his site, I went to East Camino Cielo on June 16 to look for these plants. I was unsuccessful, but did find a new-to-me Monardella, and many butterflies both on East and West Camino Cielo.

(Rural Skipper on Monardella hypoleuca, East Camino Cielo)

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After a two week hiatus, I can happily return to blogging.

The “down days” were spent in a most worthwhile exercise, the construction / layout of the page content of an online newsletter for the UCSB Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration — because of the important work that is done by CCBER.

While there is much environmental degradation occurring every day, it is heartening and encouraging to see it being reversed in some places, such as the UCSB campus and other local areas. The newsletter can be seen here. The newsletter construction combines some favorite activities; nature education, visual creativity and web work.

To go with the post, a couple photos of an occasionally visited place in Santa Barbara, the UCSB campus lagoon, have been included — because of the many birds that can be seen there, with different species at different times of the year. A fair amount of restoration has been done around the lagoon, and more is being done. This can only help the bird and critter populations.

A brief post for some highlight pictures of the trip from May 24 to June 01. Separate, more detailed pages will be added later after as much plant id as possible has been done, and all pictures uploaded. This will take a few weeks, as the coming several days will be spent constructing an online newsletter.

(View from Coon Trail at Montana de Oro – click for larger image)

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