#Roses at the #SouthCoastBotanicGarden
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.
Maybe a cloudless sulphur? Whatever it is, these yellow ones hardly ever pause long enough for me to take a picture.
There were so. many. fritillaries.
Twisted tree and canopy
Twisted tree and canopy. The tipu trees near the old office never sprawled like this. Or didn’t have the chance to, more likely.
Shady path
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.
Western Fence Lizard
Red-Shouldered Hawk
I kept hearing this hawk screeching while a bunch of crows flew around. It flew around a couple of times, but I couldn’t see where it landed. I kept walking, and eventually spotted it in this tree, still screeching 15 minutes later.
Mourning Cloak (butterfly on pine tree, SCBG)
Finches
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
Garden Gnomes
The kids' event at the South Coast Botanic Garden this month(?) is a search for #gnomes that have been scattered around the grounds.
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
Caught in the act
I spotted this squirrel as it ran up to the trash can opening. Once it decided I wasn’t going to leave, it jumped down, then ran past the trash can and apparently found something to eat, though I couldn’t see what.
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.
Desert Cottontail
This rabbit was right next to the trail and darted out from cover as soon as I got too close to it. Then I tried to get a photo where you could actually see something of its head other than its ears, and waited, and waited, and waited until it finally ran off the rest of the way.
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
A few Covid-19 rules are still in place at this botanical garden, though it’s a lot more relaxed than it was last spring when they managed to stay open even through the early-pandemic lockdowns.
A few Covid-19 rules are still in place at this botanical garden, though it's a lot more relaxed than it was last spring when they managed to stay open even through the early-pandemic lockdowns.
Western Honey Bee (on white flowers)
California Towhee (pecking at the ground)
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.
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On Flickr
On iNaturalist
On iNaturalist