Blog

Sporadic dispatches from the hinterlands.

Santa Cruz Island

Santa Cruz Island isn't near Santa Cruz, our town.

We stayed in the campground at Scorpion Landing, just a few minutes' walk from the ocean. The highlight of the campground is the foxes, members of a unique species found only on Santa Cruz Island. Nearly extinct a few decades ago, they have since recovered, and can be found wandering through the campground, searching for food.

The ocean is a little bit warmer in the Channel Islands than it is at home, and we took advantage of it with some snorkeling and kayaking.

Skipper

The flowers in our back yard have been attracting some bees, moths, and other pollinators. I think this moth is a fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus), in the skipper family of butterflies (Hesperiidae). These butterfies are distinctive because they rest with their forewings vertical and their hind wings flat. This one fluttered around the yard for quite a while, eventually coming to rest on a Salvia flower, with the white wall of our house in the background.. I grabbed a quick shot with the 100mm macro during the one second or so that she sat still (the color suggest that it's a female).

Point Reyes

We went up to Point Reyes for a weekend visit, August 11-13. It was a short trip, but we had some nice long walks, and got a chance to study some peeps (small shorebirds) as they start their migration season.

This time we stayed at The Hideaway, which is in Olema and associated with the Olema Cottages.

Rafting the South Fork

We went on a one-day rafting trip on the Sough Fork of the American River, organized by Krissy and accompanied by a bunch of friends from Santa Cruz.

We all had a great time, and this was a good year to enjoy the unusually high flow after years of drought. The trip was run by Adventure Connection, and the photos were taken by Hotshots. Thanks for organizing this, Krissy! More photos from Hotshots. More photos from Lee.