Tag: SouthCoastBotanicGarden

Some butterflies spotted the other day while hiking.

Some #butterflies spotted the other day while hiking. A gulf fritillary (orange), some kind of blue, possibly a marine blue (tiny with brown wings and a blue body), and possibly a cloudless sulphur (yellow).

The blues are always hard to spot because they’re so small, and the sulphurs just don’t want to pause most of the time. But the fritillaries are more willing to stop, and there were SO MANY of them at the gardens on Monday.

#nature #photo #butterfly

A yellow butterfly with a few dark spots perched on a small red flower with its wings closed.

A bright orange butterfly with narrow black stripes and a few white spots outlined in black, perched on wide green leaves with its wings open.

A very small butterfly with brown wings and blue body perched on a plant with crinkly green leaves.

On Photog.Social

Maybe a cloudless sulphur? Whatever it is, these yellow ones hardly ever pause long enough for me to take a picture.

Sulphur? on iNaturalist

There were so. many. fritillaries.

Fritillary on iNaturalist (tighter crop)

Blue on iNaturalist (tighter crop)

Some butterflies from an exhibit, including a banded orange, a postman, an two morphos…

Some #butterflies from an exhibit, including a banded orange, a postman, an two morphos (they had SO many morphos)…

one of which decided to land on my leg and stay there. They had made it clear that we were not to touch the butterflies so as not to damage the wings with skin oils, so when it still hadn’t left after a couple of minutes, I asked a staff member to remove it, and they coaxed it away with a sponge brush soaked in gatorade.

#photo #nature

On Photog.Social

Some florespondence from last weekend’s walk at the botanic gardens.

Some #florespondence from last weekend’s walk at the botanic gardens.

I didn’t write down what the yellow flower is, but iNat suggests it’s Senna didymobotrya, a cassia native to Africa.

The magnolia was a popular nectar spot: every single flower that I could see had multiple bees crawling around in it.

#flowers #plants #nature #photo

Stalk with bright yellow flowers against a blurry background of green shrubs with red flowers, trees and sky.

Closeup of a large white bowl-like flower with at least three bees in it, and broad green leaves.

On Photog.Social

Sculpture at the garden. There are a half dozen pieces scattered around the grounds of …

Sculpture at the garden. There are a half dozen pieces scattered around the grounds of this botanical garden. Pictured here are Fuller (as in Buckminster) by Doris Sung and Trace by Nancy Graves.

Fuller is near the entrance, so I see it most times I go walking there, but Trace is waaaaay on the other side.

#sphere #photo #art #buckyball #outdoor #sculpture

A blue-and-silver lattice sphere outside in a patch of light green ground cover, with brighter green trees and blue sky in the background.

Leaves frame a view of a grassy lawn, trees and sky in the distance, with a blue-aqua-and-orange curving sculpture.

On Photog.Social

Some birds spotted on a hike yesterday morning: a California Towhee and…

Some birds spotted on a hike yesterday morning: a California Towhee (the mature one perched on top of a bush) and a bushtit (looking very birb-like). A whole lot of the latter were flying back and forth between the trees on either side of the path, barely stopping long enough for me to point the camera in the right direction.

#photo #birds #nature #birb

A smallish brown bird, sparrow-like, with a short narrow sharp beak, perched on top of some plant with very small leaves, against a mottled green background.

A small round gray and white bird with a very short, narrow beak, perched on a twig with oblong leaves and clusters of some sort of small red fruit.

On Photog.Social

Towhee on iNaturalist (alt)
Bushtit on iNaturalist (crop)

I saw several monarch butterflies at the botanic gardens up in the hills yesterday

I saw several monarch butterflies at the botanic gardens up in the hills yesterday, but no more than about three at a time. Numbers have dropped drastically over the last few years.

#photo #butterfly #MonarchButterfly #nature

Monarch

Monarch

On Photog.Social
On iNaturalist (crop of first photo only)

A couple of Black Phoebes spotted in the cherry grove.

A couple of Black Phoebes spotted in the cherry grove.

Some days I spot a lot of birds at these gardens, some days (like on this one) I mostly just hear them. Though I was at least able to *see* some red-tailed hawks circling way up in the sky, even though I couldn’t get any photos of them.

#birds #photo #nature

On Photog.Social
On Flickr
On Flickr
On iNaturalist
On iNaturalist

Cherry blossoms are coming in at the local botanic gardens

Cherry blossoms are coming in at the local botanic gardens. They have a grove with multiple different cherry trees in various stages of waking up for spring (some with a few flowers, some with more flowers and leaves, some still bare), and a few scattered trees elsewhere in the garden – some of which are already covered. But the tree in the fourth shot isn’t even in full bloom yet!

#nature #trees #photo #sakura #cherryblossoms #garden

On Photog.Social