The Spring Flight

    On 5/3, I took a walk in the Palo Alto Foothills with my mom starting at the large picnic area beside Wildhorse Valley. I searched for migrant warblers reported a week back but the only warbler found was the ubiquitous, year-round resident orange-crowned. The best birds seen were 2 brown creepers in the largest coast live oak of the area, hunting on the tree's bark. The little, brown birds are always a fun sight to see.

    We then preceded to hike for a bit in Wildhorse Valley. Birding was slow but butterflies abounded, filling the air with their fluttering, colorful wings in what I believe to be the peak of the season for most local species, with the vegetation still green but the temperature heating up. 

For some reason, every painted lady seen today was raggedy-winged. Perhaps it is near the end of their spring flight.

Northern checkerspot

The butterfly as it landed right by my feet with an unfortunate less-than-ideal angle. These butterflies were quite abundant in the area

Mylitta Crescent

Sachem Skipper

Western fence lizard seen on bridge between the sunny, grassy area and forests

Western columbine also seen from the bridge. This is one of my favorite native plants, with its lovely,  down-facing flowers of red and yellow.

Better vantage point of the lovely flower.

The shaded trail had plenty of the small and enchanting woodland stars, which were in full bloom.

First yearbird of the day: the Pacific-slope flycatcher. There were 2 hunting insects in an area of California laurel forest, perhaps a pair

Cute, little bird.

Gahhh should have used manual focus. Then again, the bird was flitting around way too quickly. At least I got a nicely focused thick branch. Kudos to every photographer who has managed to capture even semi-decent shots of flycatchers.

Clematis sp. I am fairly sure that it is lasiantha, the chaparral clematis, due to what appears to be only 1 flower in each flowerhead and the somewhat rounder-looking leaflets. However, my reference picture is not that great so it may be the very similar ligusticifolia.

    As we left Wildhorse Valley on the way out, a friendly ranger showed us some of her work with natives and some of the better wildflower patches. 

Badly focused picture of a wood mint which the ranger showed us. Apparently this particular plant is special in being actually from Wildhorse Valley rather than having hybridization with neighboring populations, as shown from genetic testing.

California poppies, sky lupine, and common fiddlehead. Also interspersed among them tons of invasive grasses.

This grass, however, is a native species. It is the state grass of California: the purple needlegrass. According to the ranger, gophers are a severe problem as their numbers increased from the invasive species and during the summer when the invasive species die back in the dryness, they target the slower growing needlegrasses. This plant is quite lovely, with tall, airy inflorescences that rustle gently in the breeze and create a purplish, hazy effect.

State flower and grass of California with close relative of state flower of Texas

Sara orangetip, one of my favorite native butterflies. Unfortunately, this species does not usually open its wings very wide when resting so it is hard to get nice pictures.

Visiting bumblebee

Another raggedy painted lady.

Chalcedon checkerspot. Although these stunning butterflies were very numerous this year, I remember a hike a few years back where these insects completely filled the wooded area I was in and practically covered a flowering California buckeye.

One of the many echo blues seen during the day but probably the only one that cooperated nicely by landing and opening its wings.

As we re-entered the picnic area and prepared to leave, this little beauty crawled out from beneath some leaves. It's a Western boxelder bug, separated from the Eastern boxelder by range (duh) and by the veins being colored red rather than black, thus creating the vivid contrast on the upper surface of the wings.

    At the picnic area right before I entered the car, I got my second year bird of the day: the warbling vireo. Unfortunately, the bird was too fast and flitted away before I could get my camera. We then went to Boranda Lake for a quick stop before ending the day. Before we arrived though, I asked to have a quick stop on a trail along the way where a few years back I had seen a sizeable patch of striped coralroot orchids. These amazing orchids are non-photosynthetic and have no leaves. They instead rely on symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi to provide essential nutrients for the roots. Because of this relationship, the plants are only seen above ground once a year when they flower and set seed. However, this trip gave me no plants. A few Epipactis gigantea plants, a much more common native orchid dotted the area instead along with various other undercover vegetation. Perhaps this patch petered out as the fungi died for some reason but I do not know. 

Also along the way to the lake were some white poppies.

Flame skimmer dragonfly

Cardinal meadowhawk dragonfly. The brilliant red color is almost too much to bear.

Song sparrow amidst the cattails. One of the few bird photos of the day.

Resting Pacific forktails on a lakeside rock. 

    Other butterflies seen but not photographed were the California sister, common ringlet, and pale swallowtail. Overall the day was pretty great and although few new birds were seen, plenty of insects were added to my insect year list. Pretty excited that school is almost over and I can start doing more stuff that I actually care about but there is one last stressful period with all the finals. Until then, love nature and enjoy life!