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.

THE BURNING OF LAKE COUNTY

By early August, 2018, the Los Angeles Times would report that during the past five years over 53% of Lake County had been charred by wildfires.

 At that date the Mendocino Complex Fires (the River Fire and the Ranch Fire) were still raging across the rugged country west and north of Clear Lake. The fires had both started on July 27 in Mendocino County. Within a couple of days, the more southerly River Fire had swept over the Mayacamas Range and took out many ancient oaks all the way down the canyons to Big Valley in Lake County. The Ranch Fire, meanwhile, raged, uncontrolled, in Mendocino National Forest, burning completely across the breadth of the county and on into Colusa and Glenn Counties. By now, the Mendocino Complex Fires had been identified as the biggest ever recored in California.

Maps show the foot print of the fires in tan and the actively burning areas in yellow, orange and red.

The ranch fire subsequently continued burning much further to the north and east than shown on the map.

The roadside scenes below are along the Hopland Grade, Rte 175 on the eastern slope of the Mayacamas Range.

  

 Mop-up crews cut down many charred oaks along the road.

The marks made by the chain saw obscured more than half of  the annual growth rings on this Valley Oak, but I still managed to count more than 300. The circumference of the stump is twenty-three feet.

This beloved tree stood as a landmark, the Guardian of the Western Gate of Lake County.

As a sentinel spirit, it thrived for probably six centuries before man's destructive ways finally caught up with it.

A scorched manzanita is adapted to sprout again from the roots.

Scorched ridges of the Mayacamas Range, and dense haze over the lake from the still-burning Ranch Fire.

EQUINOX: SPRING & FALL

Two pictures seemed to encapsulate the mood and light of last year's Spring and Fall Equinox.

Last Spring, the trail camera caught jack rabbit on a visit to the ranch meadow.

With the flush of new grass of March, things are good for the March hares. They appear more frisky than usual. It's probably sex, rather than madness, that inspires their playful antics.

Last Fall, Jim Leonardis caught this picture of starlings massing on his walnut ranch in Big Valley.

At this time of year, seemingly in anticipation of cold, hard times, the birds merge into a defensive super organism.  Thousands synchronize fantastic undulations as they come to roost en masse in the tule beds of Boggs Lake. Hawks, falcons and eagles are strafing them in the gloaming.

24 HOURS IN THE MEADOW

In frosty mid-winter the meadow is an arena for creatures going about their purposeful errands.

Daytime residents and sojourners, and creatures of the night triggered the trail camera over the span of twenty-four hours. 

Scrub jays, the neighbors' cat, black tailed jack rabbits, raccoons, gray foxes, California quail, western gray squirrels, and spotted towhees were the main players.