'PECKER PANTRY

In Park Sierra, Coarsegold, CA, there are more Acorn Woodpeckers than people, squirrels and golf carts combined.  They peck and peck and drill and peck and store acorns EVERYWHERE:  woodsheds, utility poles, benches, awnings, radiators -- just about anywhere they can poke their little beaks!  This oak tree is a favorite of the ubiquitous  red-headed 'Peckers, and one of their most visible acorn pantries. The tree has so many holes and had actually become such a hazard that some limbs have had to be removed.  Here's what one limb looked like last Fall.

Some branches have been drilled so frequently, so thoroughly, and by so many 'Pecker generations that you can see daylight right through them!  

MADE IN THE USA

At least most of our fresh food is still grown "locally."

 Peas?  Beans?

Whatever -- they are just getting started in sunny Western Idaho.  Yum!

MY HEROES!

Here it Comes!

There it Goes!

~~~~~~~~~~

When you see a fire engine, they are mostly seen whizzing right on by as you slow down and pull over to the curb -- to the rescue, right?  It's a rare occasion, for me anyway, to see the insides of one up close and personal.  More dials and gauges than on the dashboard of my Lazy Daze, f'sure!  And spotless, shiny and mirror bright.

When you think of a fireman doing his/her "job," maybe what you visualize is someone in  knee-high galoshes and a rubber suit, hose in hand, spraying water on something burning.

This engine was called to the scene of a drifting dock, stacked to the rafters with rentable kayaks, that had lost its mooring and knocked into other boats in a Morro Bay marina as the tsunami roared in, not like a lion. 

Maybe this wasn't a call to a life-threatening situation, but just imagine the skill, training and mastery involved in manipulating those gauges, operating those dials, and engineering a dock rescue!  These guys deserve pay raises, not cuts.  

I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE!

Especially during wildflower season!

NOT RELATED

I love finding and photographing wild flowers, especially "new finds" where I have to dig into reference books and the Web to learn its name.  But what truly stumps me is finding similarities in a wildflower (a native) and a commercially grown non native.

The first photo below is a wild Prickly Poppy indigenous to the high desert biome on the Eastern slopes of the Sierras.  These were photographed at the height of their blooming period, July, 2010.

In March, 2011, I came across this amazing, cultivated look-alike.  It is a Camellia that thrives in foggy, moist Pacific Coastal zones.  At first I thought it was a "Katie Wootton."  Alas..."Katie Wootton," while similar in appearance, is a double Japonica Camellia; the name of this one, photographed in Morro Bay, remains a mystery.

While their crepe-paper petals appear almost identical, each flower's leaves, pistils and stamens are decidedly unique.  You can see the differences easier when you click to enlarge the photos.

YES, OF COURSE WE'RE RELATED!

OH...THERE you are!

I'm on my way -- finally!
XXXOOOOOUUUU

THE BIG ISLAND, THE BIG KAHUNA, THE REAL DEAL

THE FLORA

I've never seen anything like this plant; it's almost primordial.  And it's well worth clicking on the center of the photo to see the amazing detail of this complex, unique flower.

THE FISH

(Yellow Tang in Swimming Pool-Clear Water)

PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU

(A Place of Refuge)

THE FAUNA
Directing volunteers on how to clear out scavenger fish from the Place of Refuge ponds -- the old fashioned way!

ALOHA!