An autumn bicycle ride through light and shadow of a Santa Rosa Vineyard.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Edward Abbey

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

John Muir

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

Henry David Thoreau

Every day brings new choices.

Martha Beck

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

George Eliot

He is richest who is content with the least. 

For content is the wealth of nature.

Socrates

What is the good of your stars and trees, 

your sunrise and the wind, 

if they do not enter into our daily lives?

"E. M Forster

Nature was my 

kindergarten.

William Christopher Handy

Sequoia Grove: Walking Amongst the Canes of Giants

Hello folks,

I recently made a walk through some giant Sequoias in Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. I decided to post some famous authors to go along with the photographs I took whilst on my walk. Enjoy!

What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.

John Muir

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!

Edward Abbey

Life isn't about finding yourself. 

Life is about creating yourself.

George Bernard Shaw

We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.

 

Charles Darwin

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Henry David Thoreau

Wildlife in Isla Negra, Chile

   Hello folks, I have not blogged in quite some time but I finally felt motivated to show some of my local photography covering the local wildlife here in Isla Negra, Chile I shot this past couple of weeks. First off, California Quail were introduced into Chile in 1864 as poultry and over the decades the plump colorful birds have spread throughout many parts of Chile including here in Isla Negra. 

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The quail are very shy and when they took a break from their grazing they headed into a shady area with the lookouts keeping in eye out for predators. 

Like most game birds, these quail are very timid and I imagine having to put up with packs of roving homeless dogs constantly flushing them out of their hiding places and the feral cats waiting to ponce upon them at any moment has a lot to do with their shyness. I actually witnessed a feral cat attempting to sneak up on this covey this morning and disrupted its intended assault.

 

  

   Our little little house sits just a few feet away from a steep incline leading down into a wooded canyon of giant Eucalyptus, Cypress and Pine trees and the Green-backed Firecrown Hummingbird feeds on nectar from a variety of native and introduced flowering plants, favoring those of genera Abutilon, Embothrium and Fuchsia. There is even a couple that nest right above my house on a tree branch. 

They are very difficult to photograph as they are either zooming about and when they land they tend to stay in the shade. 

 Sometimes, the Green-backed Firecrown perches on flowers to feed rather than hover and are able to recall not only nectar locations among less rewarding flowers, they are intensely territorial and have been noted to chase birds as large as caracaras away. 

                                 Green-backed Firecrown  

Quintral plant

The Quintral plant(Tristerix tetrandus) also known as the 'Popular quintral' is a parasitic plant that the Green-backed Firecrown likes to hang out and eat from and one sits right next to our house so I was able to photograph them at will.

Along with the bird life in the area interesting insects also migrate out of the canyon and come onto our property like this Acanthinodera beetle, the Peach beetle and the Chilean Rose Tarantula.

Chile 

Acanthinodera beetle

The beetle was about half the size of my fist and moving pretty fast when I photographed it and then flicked it back to whence it came down into the canyon.

   There are large Chilean Rose Tarantula that reside in our area and this poor thing was ran over by my car tire as I was parking. 

Chilean Rose Tarantula

Chilean rose tara

I was introduced to the The Chilean Rose Tarantula(Grammostola rosea) also known as the rose hair tarantula, the Chilean fire tarantula, or the Chilean red-haired tarantula, when I came across a giant in the old house we tore down on the property. The beast was as big as a small plate and this species is one of the most common species of tarantula in the United States and Europe where they vend them in the pet trade. The Chilean locals call them, "Arana pollito(chicken spider) because they are very timid and would rather run they stick around to fight.

Peach Beetle on the move.

This funny looking Peach Weevil came climbing across the gravel on its way to our front door when I put photographed it. 

We also have a family of Chilean Hawks that reside in the large Cypress tree in our front yard and they are a funny bird as when they come in to roost at the end of the day they take turns buzzing other nests in the neighboring trees and then get buzzed back by the other hawks as well.

Chilean Hawks roosting in Cypress Tree Isla Negra, Chile

Chilean Hawks roosting in Cypress Tree Isla Negra, Chile

We have a lot of lizards on our property with a very lovely Blue-green Smooth- throated Lizard which hangs out in the sun and the, what I 'think' is a Curico' Smooth-throated Lizard that runs along the wood fence.

Curicó Smooth-throated Lizard

And of course, there are feral dogs everywhere and this box of puppies was spotted at the local feria where they sale everything from fruit and vegetables to tools and hardware supplies really cheap. I call it the "off of the back of the truck market".

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

 Hello folks,

I am now back down in Chile and am waiting for the summer to come full force. This would be the eight summer I have had without a winter as I go back and forth between California and Chile during both of their summers. I just finished a six month tour working for the National Park Service in Yosemite National Park and I have a lot of images to share. I will start where I finished when my wife came to visit me and we visited the wonderful Mariposa Grove of the giant Sequoia trees.

Enjoy!

This is a little video college that I slapped together with my wife Lidice as the hostess.