With the daytime weather fluctuating anywhere between the 60s and 70s, fickle Autumn has kept us guessing whether she's truly made her appearance or not. The warm sunlit days walking by giant sycamores with their now golden leaves gives us warmth enough to remind us we are Californians, and color enough to give us a taste of the seasons.
Trail-side there are persevering remnants of flowers bloomed long ago, reminding us that though the days are growing darker and shorter now, fresh new life will yet come again.
California Everlasting (Gnaphalium californicum) A must smell!
Deerweed blooms year round, but never as it does in Spring.
One common creekside plant we see is Cocklebur. Its little burs can be painful to the touch, but fun to stick to each other and on unsuspecting friends. Under close inspection, you can see that each spine is hooked. These burs carrying the plant's seeds can be carried long ways to propagate. Rumor has it these inspired the invention of velcro. When you play with them you can easily see the similarity.
Cocklebur (Xanthium)
These interesting scale-like bugs seemed to attach themselves along the veins of the leaves of this plant.
Unidentified Scale Bugs
Close up
The California Sycamore is beginning to change its dress and looks so beautiful in the open air contrasted with the blue, blue sky.
California Sycamore (Platanus racemosa)
Coyote brush is a very common sighting and it wasn't until years of passing it by that we noticed it is dioecius, meaning its male and female flowers are on different plants. Pictured below is a female.
Coyote Bush (Baccharis pilularis) Sunflower Family
Female coyote brush flower on the left, male on the right, leaves below, note the unique shape.
One of the plants that contribute a great deal of fall color to our landscape is the California Buckwheat. Its white and pink flowers of Springtime have turned a gorgeous rust brown now, crumbling at the touch. Hopes of bringing it home and preserving its beauty for a lovely fall centerpiece on the table are dashed when you find it sprinkled all over the inside of your car!
California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum)
I brought home a sampling of water from the creek with a bit of algae for the microsope and was amazed at what I saw. You can see for yourself on this video. The geometric form of the algae and the larva at the end are fascinating. I think it may be a midge fly larva.
October 9, 2013 was the first heavy rain of the season. The kids loved everything about it from the feel of the cool weather to the smell outside, hoping it would be like that for Christmas Eve "our white Christmas."
The following day in the partly sunny creek we found...
I once had one of the giant water bugs below, which I thought had died, dried out on a paper towel on the table to paint in my journal. After about 30 minutes, it started to walk off the table! It is capable of living out of the water for some time and is known at night to fly towards electric lights, which it must think is the moon, but why fly towards the moon? It is capable of eating creatures much larger than itself, even snakes. They have an extremely painful bite, but are not aggressive towards humans. They're also popular food in Thailand according to Wikipedia!
Giant Water Bug "Toebiter" (Belostomatidae) with its beak in a minnow
