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Will Ericson found an endangered butterfly, a Behren’s Silverspot.

He wrote, “Here is the endangered Speyeria zerene behrensii, seen on the coastal prairie bluffs near Point Arena, it’s host is Viola adunca.” The common name for the host plant is Western Dog Violet. Here's a photo of the host plant, taken a while ago by Margaret Lindgren.

Will also photographed Dogface Butterflies.

He wrote, “The male has a dark egg yolk color with a metallic purple sheen on the forewing that the females do not have. I’ve never seen so many Dogface Butterflies as I have this year.” Will is seeing these colorful beauties in the Annapolis area. I have never seen one on the immediate coast. Let me know if you have.

More butterflies are appearing and gracing us with their presence.

Thanks to Will and Marg for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

It's cooler today due to our coastal air conditioning, ie the fog. It's sunny in Anchor Bay and in the low 70s. Perfect!

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Rozanne Rapozo photographed the evolving sky as a low-pressure system swept across the Mendonoma Coast. It brought thunder and lightning, and virga - rain that evaporates before hitting the ground. The colors in the sky were amazing.

The first photo is pre-sunset.

Then the sunset - those streaks are virga.

And finally post-sunset, which really shows off the virga.

What a spectacular show we had that evening!

Thanks to Rozanne for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

It's cooler today, sunny and quite breezy.

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Paul Brewer photographed virga, rain evaporating before it hits the ground, or in this case, hits the Pacific Ocean!

There were rare evening rainbows, which Paul also photographed.

I have many more photos of last Sunday's event and I'll share some more tomorrow.

Thanks to Paul for allowing me to share his photos with you here. Many of Paul's nature photos are on display at the Dolphin Gallery in Gualala. It's directly across from Trinks restaurant.

Mild and quite windy on the bluffs today, warm when you get away from the ocean.

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Last month Laura Baker found a Black-tailed Bumblebee with a nice yellow pollen packet.

Laura wrote, "Here's a photo of a Black-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus melanopygus) on Cow Parsnip. This is a female worker with pollen packed into the corbicula along her hind leg which she'll take back to her colony.  I've seen many of these bees this spring - they are some of the earliest bumblebees to appear.”

These Bumblebees love Ceanothus too. Another of our native pollinators, gathering pollen from various flowers.

Thanks to Laura for allowing me to share her photo with you here.

No fog today - it's warm, even close to the ocean. At my place, it's hot today!

 

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The most common bumblebee seen here is the hard-working Yellow-faced Bumblebee, Bombus vosnesenskii. Judith Fisher saw one of these important pollinators gathering pollen on Lupine at Gualala Point Regional Park.

Judith’s photo shows that the Yellow-faced Bumblebee has a nice packet of orange pollen in one of her corbiculae,  aka pollen basket, which are grooves in her hind legs. Inside the corbiculae are specialized branched hairs called scopae.

I wondered which flowers provided her with orange pollen. The most likely suspects are the Lupine Judith observed the bumblebee feeding on, an obvious clue. Also California Poppies, which are blooming in abundance, offer orange pollen to our native pollinators.

It’s interesting and fun to know that the color of the pollen varies from flower to flower. Black pollen is rare, but I read Beekeepers always know when Oriental poppies are in flower, because homecoming bees are dusted with black pollen.

Thanks to Judith for allowing me to share her photo with you here.

It's sunny and warm here today. Lots of visitors here, escaping the inland heat!