Olympus Camedia Digital 2001

My wife and I were reminiscing this afternoon. We don't do that often, but today it started with a discussion, "Which year, which western national park?"

Well, memory does fade - save for the images taken, and we ended up going over 20 years of photos from various trips. In the 20th Century, with and without kids, we managed seven national parks and, in those days, the parrs were in 35mm. I'm still digging.

Our first trip after moving to northern California was to Yosemite on Nov. 11, 1973. The other seven or eight visits are a bit of a blur until we come to 2001. We went to the back country, over Tioga Pass to Devil's Postpile, and back. We hiked to the edge of Sentinel Peak and then did the other three leading to Glacier Point. And we went to five waterfalls. All and all, I think we hiked more than 25 miles. We saw some wildlife, some deer, a couple of chipmunks or maybe they were ground squirrels, some wildflowers...and we had a blast. The park wasn't at all crowded. We even became tourists for a couple of hours and bought two walking sticks from Ansel Adams Gallery in the valley.

We determined to return, and we did. Four times where we spent at least four days, and three times on one-day round trips. I cannot describe the place to you. I can show you images, but I can't describe it. Is it our favorite park? I'm not sure ... which of the NPs is our favorite. Banff, Jasper, Denali, Lassen, Bryce, Zion, Death Valley, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Mt. Rainier, Olympic, Crater Lake (nine times) ... and another seven or eight I don't remember or that weren't national parks like Redwoods in 1964 when it was a national monument. We spent two nights there one the way back from our "honeymoon" (in quotes because we had to find an apartment in Eugene, register for classes, get my teaching assignment, and marvel are what a quaint little town it was then).

No decision. But you all know what the top three are. Whichever one comes out on top depends on the year(s), the wildlife, the weather (108 at Rainier was not pleasant, but my first Black Bear), the clouds, air and sky quality... They were so memorable that, other than the year(s) we made the visit(s), I can tell you what we did, what we saw, the circumstances on getting certain shots... Ah, there's the key: Nature photography! It made the years go by, and any negative happenings, blur behind such positive memories.

Note to Alfred, Jen, Jen, Jenn, Jan, Jeffer, James, and Bernie: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Don't put off a visit too long. You may want to return. Ask Tom.

No, this has not been sharpened. And yes, that is the color of the Valley and its trees on a clear day. On a clear day, you CAN see forever.

Tags:   Yosemite National Park Half Dome Yosemite Valley El Capital Sentinel Sierras Other national parks western U.S. Canada Where did 20 years go? 57 Has anyone seen Retina IV? My '64 Chevy II? '69 Dodge Coronet with cruise control If I didn't hate Cats so much I'd hum Memories right now Olympus Camedia Digital Camera first digital All images copyrighted rights reserved by Ethan A. Winning 1964-2001 perpetuity

© All Rights Reserved

A male (left) and a female Acorn Woodpecker on the lookout for something, probably another carrying an acorn to be pounded into that tree stump they're sitting on.

Tags:   Walnut Creek Open Space Ginder Gap Trail Old Borges Ranch Northern California Birds DailyNature-TNC13 DailyNature-TNC14 North America Avian Woodpeckers Acorn Winning Ethan

© All Rights Reserved

I had to get out the map for this one. (Scroll over the image to see the trails and other landmarks.) There are nine trails that can get you to where the most families of Acorn Woodpeckers flourish. I'll mark them on this photo. What you see here is maybe 5% of Mt. Diablo. It's Walnut Creek Open Space saved in bits and ad large tracts from development by the Save Mt. Diablo group. Ranchers donated and sold quite a bit of the land.

Probably 90% of the trees you see are Interior Live or Blue Oaks. They're the only trees that can stand a 13 year drought. Well, other than Yucca and cactuses - yes, cactuses. They're huge. They're the favorite trees for at least five species of woodpeckers, but the dominant one is the Acorn Woodpecker. Whatever you do, take plenty of water. I had heat stroke once while just doing three miles of bluebird nest boxes. It wasn't a pleasant experience. Fortunately, I literally passed out on a hay bale at the ranch where I used to park.

The main trail is the Costanoan which leads to Ginder Gap when the "Acorn Woodpecker Tree" is. I named it while it was still standing: it was easier than giving directions. Four trails intersect at Ginder Gap, and four trails can be taken to let you explore the flank of Mt. Diablo from 200 ft. above sea level to 850 ft. from which on a clear day you can see the Carquinez Strait where I get most of my shorebirds (11 miles), San Francisco (25 miles) where I rarely go, Sacramento Delta for raptors (75 miles), and behind where I'm standing, the Sierra Nevada mountain range which is ... or used to be a three to four hour drive. (You can find out all about the mountain by looking up "Mt. Diablo" on Wikipedia. I wish the map that I used for nine years was somewhere on line.

To my left is the Ridge Trail. Toward the end of my hiking days, the words you wanted to see least were "Ridge," "Vista," and "Ravine." Buckeye Ravine Trail (behind me) is less than half a mile taking you from Diablo Foothills Regional Park and Shell Ridge Trail to Castle Rock Park. It's not really a trail as much as it is a death trap. Starting at Castle Rock Park to the top of the trail (to get to wherever you parked at a trailhead) is a 1,000 foot rise. You can do it in the half-mile or, to extend your life span, six miles up Ridge Top Trail to Sugarloaf to Shell Ridge to car. (Btw, Buckeye Ravine is named for the beautiful Buckeye trees native to the area. The flowers are the sweetest smelling anywhere in North America. The problem is that the trees bloom for only 30 days, about the length of time to haul your sorry butt out after you still took the trail when I warned you.)

Mt. Diablo, of which all of this is a part, has had a recorded high temperature of 114 degrees and a law of 22 degrees over the past century. But I've hiked these trails in 110 degrees and 40 degrees: all I can say is that it's extreme, beautiful, and I can think of no other place I'd rather be during a normal week of hiking. (For vacations, I'll take Sequoia, Mt. Rainier, the Sierras, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. Yes, Banff and Jasper, but my memories of those two are from 14 days in 1976, and I have a hunch that Banff is no longer a sleepy little town.)

So, let me get this posted so I can point out some of these spots. The main trail you see is Costonoan: above it and two other ways to Ginder Gap are Ridge Top and an unmarked Willow Spring - don't let the name fool you. Almost every one of the seven ponds have signs, "Do Not Drink The Water. Hazardous. No Fishing. No Swimming. No Kidding."

P.S. By the end of June, this will all be dead oak grass and the mountain will be golden.

Tags:   Coatonoan Trail to Ginder Gap Acorn Woodpeckers Ridge Trails Buckeye Hill Trail Mt. Diablo Foothills.

© All Rights Reserved

From 2003 to 2015, I walked and hiked the hills of Mt. Diablo four or five days a week. Sometimes, I was watching over Bluebird Restoration but it didn't matter: the diversity of wildlife on this 4,000 foot mountain four miles from my home consumed me. While checking a bluebird box, I saw a Southern Alligator Lizard (flic.kr/p/Wag7FT) and 20 minutes after that a Fork-tailed Bush Katydid Nymph (flic.kr/p/pqubtb), the most beautiful insect I think I've ever seen well, in part because that green metallic insect was perched smack-dab in the center of a California Poppy. Even on days when I saw nothing, the potential was always there, and I estimate that 100 of the 146 birds I found and photographed were on Mt. Diablo. I also saw North America's smallest snake, the Sharp-tailed Snake at 8 inches (flic.kr/p/woUiGG), and the continent's smallest toad (flic.kr/p/SfLq9H), The California toad. And don't forget the blue bullfrogs.

In 17 years, I hiked 6,000 miles of trails. I had rain, snow, 112 degree temperatures, but birds were the only "bug" that ever bit me. (This doesn't include 4,444* miles of biking the mountain or the ride to the summit every New Year's Day for 12 years. On the 12th year, on the way down at 52 mph, I was given five more IQ points and never did it again.) The mountain is partially responsible for my full retirement in 2010. I started writing about my exploits, about how Diablo had almost killed me - actually, that was my own stupidity; the mountain couldn't have cred less. But what happened was that I started telling the story in bits and pieces with every photo I uploaded. And in the process, I went back to teaching and writing, my other two "passions" in my life. September of 2020 marked my 60th year of combining photography, writing, and teaching and, in the process, learning and forgetting more than this old "C" student ever could.

*When my odometer read "4,444.44" in one year, I disconnected it.

Tags:   Mt. Diablo northern California Delta and Central Valley regions 6 000 miles in 18 years

© All Rights Reserved

Time to transition. As Dave pointed out to me, April, May and June are the flowering months for cacti. From what I saw at the Garden yesterday, it's certainly true. But, while the bloom is off the cactus, the same is not true for aloe and Echeveria (succulents) which I'll be concentrating on starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, as I was tiptoeing through the succulents nine days ago, I saw this! Startling to see a starfish in with succulents. I spotted the Curator, Brian, setting up for his video, "What's in Bloom" for July, and ran .. walked quickly to him. "Brian, what's that starfish-like cactus over there," waving in no particular direction like when I ask Sharon which was is east? And Brian told me, Stapelia hirsuta.

The rest was up to me. Stapelia hirsuta, common name starfish flower or carrion plant, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the family Apocynaceae. What should interest you is the "carrion" part.

This species is endemic to South Africa and southern Namibia. First it is commonly referred to as a cactus, but isn't at all related to them. It's a succulent. Now then, The flowers ripen to a rather horrifying odor after a couple of days. This reek is attractive to insects that seek out dead organic material. I saw this in action: when I went back, Western Fence Lizard was perched on the boulder behind this plant, picking off flies one after another. It's a lizard's buffet. It's been attractive to some peculiar species of people called botanists for over a hundred years who have travels around the world to smell this beauty.

Rather than going into detail, I suggest you google, "Largest flower in the world," and then you'll see some of its relatives. It's said that when it blooms, the odor of rotten meat can be smelled from two miles away, maybe 100 if the wind is right (I just made the 100 up, but wait till you see the flower that's 4 feet across!) There are also videos on YouTube showing one at Kew Garden in London where curators of the plant have always worn masks. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapelia_hirsuta

My understanding is that the plant may take 100 years to mature, then the flower opens for a very short period of time, and the plant dies intestate because it does not set seed. All I know is that a day after I took this shot, the flower had died. But not to worry, there were two more buds. One flowered two days later and died after 24 hours. I'm now waiting for the third, and last, bud to open. It's at the base of the lower right arm.

This species may not have a smell. I didn't smell anything, but insects (other than bees and butterflies) sure did. I did touch one of the arms. It's "hairy" and soft, but I had just gingerly touched one of the wilting arms.

Oddly, I was the only one excited by this find. Doesn't matter. Having been reduced for a non-docent to a willing, but unofficial volunteer, I volunteered the information to a number of people who passed by. After an hour, the five arms had folded, a candle lit at its ... feet, and it had gone to that great desert in the sky.

Nine days later, and I have shots of two of them, but have also discovered other plants that will be of photographic interest.

If anyone finds a 58mm lens cap near here, please return it. It has sentimental value to my lens.

Tags:   Stapelia gigantea carrion cactus starfish cactus member of the milkweed family known for the smell it emits when in bloom native to S. Africa taken at Ruth Bancroft Garden northern California Canon SX50 Copyright Ethan A. Winning

© All Rights Reserved