Tag: MadronaMarsh
Spiky Flowering Plants
I see these needle-like flowers on whatever type of grass this is all the time, but I’ve never found out what it’s called.
Desert Cottontail (Madrona, greenery)
Desert Cottontail (Madrona, in grass)
Canada Goose walking through the grass
Fly away!
Photo taken at: Madrona Marsh Preserve and Nature Center
Fly away! This crane egret was standing on the road around #MadronaMarsh, swaying back and forth and looking upward like it was dancing or something, until it finally decided to fly off.
#EarthDay #birds #nature #wings #california #marsh
On Instagram
On PixelFed.Social
On iNaturalist (alternate shot)
We’ve had a wet winter, so the seasonal marsh has actually filled up a lot …
We’ve had a wet winter, so the seasonal marsh has actually filled up a lot more than it has for the last few years. In addition to the full ponds (including two on either side of a road that was still muddy) I saw a lot of birds, including a crane that was swaying back and forth until it took flight, lots of ducks and geese.
A few more photos on Flickr if you’re interested
#marsh #nature #birds #photography
I went back to the same marsh I’d visited in early December, after a few …
I went back to the same marsh I’d visited in early December, after a few more rainstorms. The ponds had spread, covering trails I’d walked along just a few weeks earlier. Ducks and geese had arrived in force.
I could also swear I heard a frog, but I couldn’t see it, and even with the weird southern California seasons, I don’t think it’s the right time for frogs to be out. I should’ve asked at the visitor center.
#photography, #nature #geese #marsh #pond
Last weekend I went for a hike at a local marsh. The lower areas are …
Last weekend I went for a hike at a local marsh. The lower areas are filling with water again now that we’ve had a few rainstorms.
I made a point of going late in the afternoon to catch some golden hour light, which didn’t work out quite as well as I was hoping, but I think this shot came out reasonably interesting.
Not sure, but I think I walked through this pond last time I was here and it was all dry ground.
#photography #marsh #woods #pond
Ducks feeding in a marsh pond. The last time I was here, the entire marsh …
Ducks feeding in a marsh pond. The last time I was here, the entire marsh had dried out for summer. After a couple of fall rainstorms (which, if they’d come sooner, night have at least cut down on the massive wildfires last month), parts of the marsh have flooded again for winter.
I was halfway there before I realized I hadn’t brought the film camera, but I at least had the Canon, which has a more powerful zoom anyway.
#ducks #pond #marsh #photography
Finally got around to curating my photos from an August hike at Madrona Marsh in …
Finally got around to curating my photos from an August hike at Madrona Marsh in Torrance, California. This was the first time I’d ever been to the marsh that there was *no standing water left*. Usually the lowest part of the preserve still has some ponds even into fall, but this summer, it had all dried up.
Full album (12 items) on Flickr
#photography #marsh #summer #dry #nature #flowers #fungus #spiderwebs
Brush fire reported at the marsh preserve where I took the last photo I posted …
Brush fire reported at the marsh preserve where I took the last photo I posted here. It’s not a very big preserve – basically a large city block, in the middle of suburbia. (There’s literally a Target across the street.)
Here’s hoping they manage to stomp it down quickly, before it does too much damage.
Got a follow-up alert that the fire’s been put out. The word “small” was included, which is a good sign. Next time I hike there, I’ll have to ask about it.
Some sort of flowering scrub brush
Some sort of flowering scrub brush in the dry part of Madrona Marsh preserve. Some parts of the preserve have ponds year-round, some collect rain in winter and spring, and some are always dry land with grass or chaparral.
New photo set: Madrona Marsh in March
I went for a hike at the nearby marsh this afternoon. The rain over the last few weeks has finally flooded some of the seasonal pools, and birds are making their homes (or migratory pit stops) here. I spotted several types of ducks, geese, some red-winged black birds that sound like a smoke detector battery alert, and what I think is a snowy egret.
21 photos of birds, plants and ponds here:
Birds of Madrona Marsh
Birds of Madrona Marsh in Torrance, California.
It’s a seasonal marsh, where the low-lying parts stay wet most of the year, but the rest dries out ever summer and floods during winter rains.
I spotted ducks, doves, geese, these black birds with bright red wings that sound like a smoke detector battery alert, this white bird that looked like it was fishing, plus dragonflies, a huge bee, and I heard (but didn’t see) frogs.
Full album (21 pics) on Flickr
Actually the croaking frogs might have been quacking ducks in the distance, now that I think about it.
I think the white bird might be a snowy egret, and that red-winged black bird turns out to be… a red-winged blackbird. š
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_egret
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_blackbird
Last water standing. Madrona Marsh is seasonal, flooding during winter and spring rains…
Photo taken at: Madrona Marsh Preserve and Nature Center
Last water standing. Madrona Marsh is seasonal, flooding during winter and spring rains and drying out over summer. When I hiked there last weekend, this was the only part I saw that was still underwater.
Ducks swimming through the pond scum
Don’t follow the lights!
Found some green!
Photo taken at: Madrona Marsh Preserve and Nature Center
Found some green!
Seasonal Wetlands: Summer vs Spring
Seasonal Wetlands: Summer vs Spring by Kelson Vibber
It finally occurred to me to put together a side-by-side image of the one spot I managed to take photos of on both hikes!
On the right: May in Madrona Marsh, after winter and spring rains filled up the low-lying areas of the preserve.
On the left: Late August in the same spot, after summer had dried up the pools. Despite the drought, and helped along by a couple of freak summer storms, the ground is still holding onto enough moisture that the floor of the vernal pool is covered with low greenery instead of dry grass.
I know, itās always better to put ābeforeā on the left, and I tried it with that layout, but it ended up looking better this way.