THE WILDS OF BOGGS LAKE

BOGGS LAKE in Summer resembles Tuolumne Meadows in the Yosemite High Country.

It is surrounded by ponderosa pine, black oak and madrone forests. The pines were hard hit by the drought years. It is a wild land supporting bobcats, black tail deer, coyotes, bald eagles, pileated woodpeckers, Pacific pond turtles, Northern Pacific rattlesnakes, California king snakes, Pacific chorus frogs, mountain lions and black bears. 

 Madrone with Ponderosa Pine.

 Great mullein.

Black bear at Boggs Lake.

FROM THE HAMMOCK

On the ranch, verbena blooms attract butterflies and bees.

Stephen's dogs express perfect joy exploring the territory.

The nine great oaks which embower the ranch house form the heart of a grove of thirteen, two of which are just across the road and two at Shady Rock Ranch next door. They are a world unto themselves supporting an array of life including cynipid wasps and more than two hundred other types of insects, which cause the tree to form galls in reaction to the insects' egg-laying in the tissues of the tree. The great trees are patrolled by swarms of  guardian ants. Acorn woodpeckers, scrub jays, oak tit mice, white breasted nuthatches, California quail, Bullock's orioles, black headed grosbeaks,  California towhees, spotted towhees, ravens, crows, red shouldered hawks, barn owls, wood ducks, European starlings and Western gray squirrels are among the nesters in the grove.

The oaks.

"Thrones have crumbled and new empires arisen; great ideas have been born and great pictures painted, and the world revolutionized by science and invention; and still no man can say how many centuries this oak will endure or what nations and creeds it may outlive..."

Peattie's Natural Histories 

 Pear ladder and Mount Konocti.

 Fence lizard, like a griffon from a medieval bestiary.

 White peaches on July 21.

 Stock tank with decoys.

Wild grape.

THE CREEK & THE TOWN

I walked along the creek to town. Still flowing in mid-July, the lingering waters have enabled hitch fry and tadpoles to flourish. Toadlets and froglets hop in the grassy verge.

Hitch fry in shallow water.

 The view north with vineyard, packing shed, and buckeye.

The one mile stretch between the ranch and Main Street is lined with vineyards

A street in town in the morning light.

RESURGENT LIFE

Nine and ten months after the Mendocino Complex Fires of July 27, 2018 passed.

Haiku of Spring 

Resilient life  

Charred fence posts framed green pastures

Formerly ash black. 

Charcoal branches of

Chamise and manzanita

Sprouting from the roots

After the wildfire

 the Mayacamas Mountains

superb wildflowers   

California poppy, Eschscholzia californica

Diogenes' lantern, Calochortus amabilis

Red ribbons, Clarkia concinna

Fringed Indian Pink, Silene laciniata with Red ribbons, Clarkia cocinna

Diogenes' lantern, Calochortus amabilis

Ookow, Dichellostemma capitatum

Seep monkeyflower, Erythranthe arvensis

Ithuriel's Spear, Triteleia laxa

Wild onion, Allium amplectens

Scarlet larkspur, Delphinium nudicaule in front of poison oak

Chinese houses, Collinsia heterophylla

Ithurel's Spear, Triteleia laxa

Chinese houses, Collinsia heterophylla

Walking the canyon

pink, purple and white wildflowers

after the wildfire.

Wild onion, Allium amplectens

Red ribbons, Clarkia cocinna

Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis

Red Penstemon Barbatus

Dead by the roadside

Having survived the wildfire

A kangaroo rat.

fuchsia-flowering gooseberry, Ribes speciosum 

The bluebird nestlings

huddled closely in their warmth

A young gopher snake.

Twittering swallows

Diving toward the nest boxes

Suddenly upward.

Beneath spreading cloud

Distant thunder on June 2.

An osprey cheeping.

Last year's mullein heads 

protected by the Land Trust

at the vernal pool.

A pond turtle's shell

In the grassy vernal pool

A raccoon's dinner.

Trillium grandflorum

Japanese quince, Chaenomeles japonica

     

 Flowing to the lake

The creek cuts into its bank

roots of cottonwood.

California buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum

Farewell-to-Spring, Clarkia amoena

Yarrow, Achillea millefolium

Something yellow

Something else yellow

Scarlet scalp flashing

A woodpecker's mating flight

Struck down by a car.