Favoritos de hkibak

I’ve had the privilege of petting three whales in the past two days. . . a truly magical and spiritual experience!

A highlight today was petting/scratching the jaw of a baby gray whale. It had white whiskers and no visible barnacles, as do the adults. The skin feels velvety smooth where there are no barnacles. Yesterday I was leaning over the boat railing looking down and the whale came up sideways and looked me in the eye with his/her eye. Magical! Spiritual!

The gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding grounds in the Artic and breeding grounds in the lagoons of Baja California, yearly. It reaches a length of 14.9 meters (49 ft), a weight of 36 tons, and lives between 55 and 70 years. The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin.

The hunting/slaughter of these gentle giants was banned along the Eastern Pacific coast in 1946. Populations have rebounded. It’s amazing that they trust human beings enough to approach our small boats and allow themselves to be touched. The hunting and slaughter of these beautiful creatures continues today on the Western Pacific coast.

Young stage: Columnar cap almost completely covers the stipe to the ground. Covered in white and brown scales. Growing in grassy previously mowed area. Edible and tasty but must be cooked quickly before the caps turn to ink.
Mature stage: Liquefying gills distinguish this species. The cap just shrivels up leaving a black inky rim. Great photo of the different stages in:

Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fungi of Coastal Northern California, N. Siegel and C. Schwarz, 2016, p. 92-93.

https://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Coprinus_comatus.html

Link to young stage observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/104009596

Four adults were reared from Ericameria stem galls that were collected on 14 March 2021. A pupa emerged and fell to the bottom of the rearing container on 22 March 2021 and the imago emerged on 20 April 2021. The other three adults emerged in the same approximate time period on 10-13 April 202.

I was photographing a large Redberry Buckthorn shrub when I heard a thump, thump, thumping coming down the hill towards me. I look around the shrub and it's a large buck. He was as surprised to to see me as I him!

Columbian Black-tailed Deer is a subspecies of Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus). They have sometimes been treated as a species, but virtually all recent authorities maintain they are subspecies, commonly seen on the Monterey Peninsula.

O. h. columbianus has a fully black outer tail.
Bucks have antlers, which they shed, does do not have antlers. Shed antlers can be found when you get off the beaten track.

Link to Shed Antler observation--same location, different individual: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/103288192

We counted 30+ young alligators. Mother was 5’ away. Alligator eggs are laid in a nest of vegetation, sticks, leaves, and mud in a sheltered spot in or near the water. Young are born with yellow bands around their bodies and are protected by their mother for up to one year.

I have never seen Jeffrey pine grow together so well before. The poorer quality images is because of the lighting. The cone is closed up because it rained the night before and water shrinks cones down.

A Native shrub with shiny green leaves that resembles holly but is less prickly. Clusters of small yellow flowers. Peak bloom time: Feb-March.

Monterey County Wildflowers: a Field Guide, Yeager and Mitchell, p. 331.

Plants of Monterey County: an Illustrated Field Key, 2nd edition, Matthews and Mitchell, 2015, p. 87.

Location obscured because fairly close to civilization and cacti are quite susceptible to poaching. Stopped counting at 90 plants. Quite a population spread over an area the size of a basketball court.