One week left in the archery turkey season and I haven’t loosed an arrow. Actually I haven’t hunted since opening day. Last year’s turkey crop was below par and only one gobler is living on our ranch where we generally hunt. However, there are still turkeys in the area and with this spring’s rain promoting good [...]
Archive for the ‘butterflies’ Category
Turkey Season Almost Over, Butterflys Abundant and Deer Hunting on the Horizon
Posted in Deer hunting, birds of prey, butterflies, turkey, wildflowers, wildlife, tagged checkerspot butterfly on May 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Reptile Survey
Posted in birds, butterflies, deer, photography, snakes, wildlife, tagged checkerspot butterfly, wildlife survey on April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One of our management practices on the ranch is to monitor for reptiles and amphibians. May is reptile month as the snakes respond to warm weather. Today was my day to survey for whipsnakes.
Although I didn’t find any whipsnakes, a few other critters found the eye of my camera.
The weather was cool and mostly sunny. [...]
Nature Quiz
Posted in butterflies, wildflowers, tagged butterflies, wildflowers on March 15, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Took a little trip to the ranch this week and came home with photos of a few early spring wildflowers. They’re not your run of the mill favorites and I didn’t know for sure the names of any of them. Nor did I know the name of the only butterfly species I found.
Therefore you can [...]
Callippe Silverspot Butterfly
Posted in Ecology, Endangered species, Wildlife habitat, butterflies, outdoors on June 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Another Bay Area endangered butterfly is the callippe silverspot. The reason for its decline is clear. Its habitat is grasslands in San Francisco and other cities surrounding San Francisco Bay.
In the Livermore Hills we find a variety of callippe butterfly that is similar. As with the callippe silverspot, this callippe butterfly is associated with violets [...]
The Checkerspot Butterfly
Posted in Endangered species, Land Ownership, Wildlife habitat, butterflies, tagged butterlies, threatened species on June 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is a photo of a chalcedon checkerspot butterfy. The photo was taken by Rob Fletcher on May 28, 2008 in the hills south of Livermore.
May is the time when the butterflies are out at the ranch. A different (from the one in the photo) species of checkerspot, the bay checkerspot, is closely associated with serpentine soils. Some soils [...]
