Lara Hartley has set up a new Flickr group for photos of California wildflowers - it is another resource for flower identification. There is an older Flickr group, CaliFlora, of which the new group can be regarded as a subset. The required tags allow one to search for a flower whose name is unknown, based on flower color and petals, and flower family if one is able to deduce that from the plant. From the group guidelines:

A companion group to CaliFlora, but with a few more TAGGING GUILDELINES.
A group to create an online wildflower field guide of flowering plants native (or naturalized) in california. No trees or ferns.

Each flower posted must have the following tags:

___* Common Name – Of course each species has many local and common names. Please include at least the one you know it by.
___* Binomial Name - Genus species
___* Genus Name separately
___* Flower color(s) – Primary color and any variations from this list: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, red, pink or white. When questionable or in doubt, add all applicable colors.
___* Flower shape(s) – Primary shape of the flower from the following list: 2petals, 3petals, 4petals, 5petals, 6petals, manypetals, longcluster, roundcluster or oddshaped
___* Family Name - the taxonomic family (usually ending in “aceae.”)
___* County.

Additionally, it will be helpful to also tag:
___*Location - general is good enough

(Example)

Links

• Guide to California Wildflowers Group (Flickr)
  

Now that the Los Padres National Forest has re-opened, plant seed-pod and fruit photography was continued this weekend. The brilliant buckwheat display seen in the small window between National Forest closures at the beginning of October was greatly muted, and I was very happy to have seen and photographed it at that time - it was quite spectacular.

(In spring, this area is very colorful with Poppies, Goldfields, Mariposa Lilies, etc)

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I was invited to attend and to take photos of a special reception at CCBER on Thursday, November 8, 2007. The invitation read:

“The Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration is hosting a reception to highlight recent developments at the Center including two new displays—“The John Bleck Seed Collection” and “Mirabilia Naturae” (wonders of nature), a collaborative project with CCBER, the University Art Museum, and Dr. Mark Meadow.”

The reception began at 3pm, and in addition to existing displays, there were three new featured cases, as well as new single-display panels and stand-alone boards for the reception.

(Reception entry)

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Since my “project” to photograph fall plant colors and seeds was abruptly terminated by the closure of Los Padres National Forest, I decided instead to pursue photos of bird species that I did not have.

I had thought I had read (was mistaken) that there were Ring-necked Ducks on Lake Los Carneros, so that is where I went on October 30th. The ducks tend to keep to the middle of the lake during the day — too far away for photos, so I returned to LLC a number of times to see if they were closer at different times of the day. On each of these trips, I was surprised at the large variety and numbers of other birds, some of which I was able to photograph.

(Hutton’s Vireo - Lake Los Carneros - October 30, 2007)

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