Come Visit the Sierra Foothills!

Today I thought that I would share with you some of the places that you can come and visit for yourselves up here in the Sierra Foothills Gold Country! There are many places and it is Highway 49 that will bring you to most of these places.

Let’s start with my town of Placerville. Known as “Hangtown” for the number of hangings that occurred here during the gold rush days, it was a hub of activity back in the 1800’s. It still is today!

Looking back down Main Street

I fell in love with the charming town of Murphys, which is just south of us. There are caverns that one can visit, and the main street there has a number of shops that just draw you in! Here is an old time photo of the old hotel which still stands today!

Murphys Hotel back in the day

Angels Camp is another place to visit! It is a center point for visiting Big Trees State Park, and a number of other towns in the area! This is where Mark Twain’s story “The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is set, and there are plaques all along the sidewalks of winning frogs in this contest, beginning with Mark Twain’s frog featured in his story!

Angels Camp, CA

One of the big trees in Big Trees State Park

Jackson is another spot to stop at! This is the location of the huge Kennedy Mine which is the deepest gold mine in North America!

Town of Jackson

Does this make you want to come and visit? It is well worth stopping at any of these places!

Have a wonderful day! Thank you for dropping by today, and be well! ^..^

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Nuptial Flight of the Queens

This morning I was very lucky to catch new queen ants taking flight! It is called the nuptial flight. The virgin queens meet up with males, mate and then start their own colony somewhere else! As this happens quickly I was lucky to catch these photos!

The queen ants and the males are kept separate in the colony until the time is right weather-wise for them to take off. Once the female is in flight she gives off pheromones that attract the male. Their mating is violent at best, and once he has fertilized the female he dies. She drops her wings and begins a new colony. Here are photos I was able to capture in the flight I saw this morning!

If you click on any of the photos you will notice how colorful the wings are, and you will see better detail!

This mass caught my eye.

Winged ants

More and more emerged!

Emerging from the nest

Look for the arrows in this next photo. They point out the ants just lifting off. They have two wings on each side!

Taking off

This next photo shows 12 ants in flight. Can you spot them all? Click on the photo to enlarge and you will see them really well!

Aloft

Here is one final shot of more that just emerged from the ground.

More

Needless to say, the birds were really happy! When I advanced on the area where these little gals were coming up, birds flew off. Our flycatcher birds were all around me!

Have a terrific Tuesday, and thank you for stopping by! Be well! ^..^

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My Tasty Garden!

Yes, I have a tasty garden! At least the deer seem to think so! 🙂 Because the deer like my garden so much, most of what I have planted are deer proof or deer resistant plants. There is a difference between the two. The deer proof plants they just will not touch, like my rosemary. The deer resistant plants are plants that the deer will not normally eat, but they will eat if they are hungry enough. I caught a few photos of one such deer who actually nibbled on the rosemary only to spit it out! So for today, I share with you photos of this lovely doe! The captions speak for themselves! Enjoy!

Coming to visit

A shake of her head

Licking her chops

She’s a beauty!

Turning to go

See you later!

So? What do you think? Isn’t she a beauty?

Have one heck of an amazing week and an excellent Monday! Thank you for dropping by! Be well! ^..^

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Squirrel Face Visits!

One of the most commonly seen critters here in the Sierra Foothills, and elsewhere, are squirrels. This year the squirrels are really packing it in! Could they be telling us that we are in for a rough winter? They have been very busy harvesting pine cones, and not only the brown ones, but the green ones as well! I captured one of these visitors in a series of photos. What caught my attention was him chirping and the continual tapping he was doing on the side of the tree! Let’s go check him out!

He hung in this spot for quite a bit, chirping often and doing that tapping thing. The turkeys were nearby. Maybe he was announcing his presence to them…

Coming to visit

Something catches his eye at the base of the tree…he moves closer to it!

Spying a pine cone

Here he is checking out the pine cone for its nuts.

Looking for the nut

He is hearing the camera shutter clicking, and looks up at me!

Are you looking at me?

Then he begins to eat. Notice all the pine cone debris around him.

Chowing on a pine cone

Having had his fill, he heads back up the tree…

Silhouette

I hope that you enjoyed this series of photos! Thank you for taking some time today to stop by for a visit! Be well! ^..^

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Return of the Mantis!

Due to the drought, we have not seen as many praying mantis here as we have in the past. While taking a break outside yesterday from sitting inside and housebound, I spied a praying mantis on the flag pole, shakily making its way towards the house. This one was brown! Normally when we see these they are green. So, I was excited to see a large brown one. When I took these photos, and I had a bit of a hard time due to shaking arms due to chemo, I noticed details that one does not see on the green ones. So let’s go check this little foothills insect out, shall we?

Here is the first shot of this amazing little guy that I captured. Notice the segmentation on his rump, and the red coloring on the front leg.

First shot of the mantis

There is dark brown banding on the back and the upper right leg. I have not seen this before on a mantis!

Dark brown patches

He has been watching me and actually turns around to really look at me!

He looks back at me!

As he moves out his pace is shaky at best. They do this so that they look like their surroundings moving in the breeze. Thing is he is moving along a solid piece of wood!

Moving away

One final shot…

Heading for parts unknown

What a thrill to find this little guy, who was not so little! He measured about 3″ long! The brown coloration is camouflage as he was near wood rather than plants where he would be the color green!

Have a terrific Saturday, and thank you for dropping by today! Be well! ^..^

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Ugly Bird Has Benefits!

Here in the Sierra Foothills we have one heck of an ugly bird that is actually one of the most beneficial creatures up here! It is the “Turkey Vulture.” We call it the “Turkey Buzzard.” What makes this ugly bird beneficial? Well, this bird cleans up after an accidental road kill, or the remains of what one of our various carnivores leaves behind. So what makes this bird ugly?

It is the red head. The head is small compared to the size of its body! Most times we see this bird flying around looking for its next meal, and I was able to catch some photos of one as a group of them flew over us. Check him out! You might want to click on the photo to see its red head!

The Turkey Buzzard

These birds are fairly large with a wing span of between 63 – 72 inches across.

Huge wing span!

The large wings enable this bird to fly smoothly as it floats along the thermals. The feet have blunt claws, and they are fairly weak. Its talons are not designed for grasping. Click on this photo so that you can see its feet tucked back against its body!

Can you see its feet?

The turkey buzzards are migratory birds. They appear here mid-spring and stay with us until the cold temperatures move in during the fall season. Then they head south for the latter part of fall and throughout the winter. Here is one last shot as this bird realized we were not easy pickings!

Heading out

I hope that you enjoyed the photos of this foothills critter!

I am heading out shortly for an early chemo treatment. Hopefully tomorrow, this being the second day of treatment, will be the last I will need!

Thank you for dropping in and be well! ^..^

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Stormy in the Foothills

We have been under a red flag warning since yesterday at 11:00 a.m. for fire. This continues on today until 11:00 a.m. The conditions yesterday and this morning are perfect for fire caused by dry lightning. What is dry lightning? It is lightning without any rain. There was a bit of rain and we could see it coming down in tight areas along with many bolts. I did try to catch some shots of the lightning bolts, which is pretty hard, and was unable to. However I did get some amazing photos yesterday during the storm that hit us, and have a few to share of our skies this morning! Ready?

In the front side of house the skies were clear. Here is what we found looking out back.

Storm clouds

There was a really dark band of clouds and it was between this and the lighter clouds behind where the bolts of lightning were coming down!

The upper dark band produced lightning

Rain came down in a column from one point in the clouds! It was pouring where ever this was falling!

A column of rain

I really enjoyed the contrast in colors of the clouds!

Contrasts

Here is another shot that shows an area of rain!

Rain

This next photo: Check out the clouds. There appears to be ripples in the clouds. You might want to click on the photo to see the details!

A pool in the clouds

This morning, here is what the sky looked like looking in the same direction of the previous shots.

The moon in the morning

Looking towards the east, the sun is starting to come up!

Good morning sunshine!

One final shot returning to the back and looking west…

Hiding behind the clouds

We are hoping that we do not have any lightning today! What you need to do to be safe in a storm:

* If there is a storm with lightning, do not take a shower! Lightning can travel through the metal pipes!
* If you hear thunder, move inside. You can be struck from lightning!
* If in your car during a lightning storm, do not touch any metal in the vehicle.
* Do not use a telephone with a cord during a storm. The lightning can travel through the lines.
* Do not use appliances during a lightning storm.
* Unplug your computers!

Have a terrific Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by today! See you tomorrow? I hope so! Be well! ^..^

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Skilton’s Skink

One of the visitors that we have in our yard, aside from the deer, turkey, snakes and frogs, are lizards. I discovered an unusual one in our yard, and with the help of Gary Nafis at CaliforniaHerps.com we have identification! This little fellow is the Skilton’s Skink!

Skilton’s Skink

This Skink is the most common in the western U.S. These little guys hang out around fallen leaves and vegetation. At our house this fellow hangs out around our night blooming jasmine, darting in and out of it! They like to munch on spiders, pill bugs and sometimes will eat a small invertebrate. Notice the red coloring on the head? This means it is mating season!

Notice the red head

Now check out the tail! Their tails break off if they are threatened, and the broken bit moves from side to side giving this critter the chance to get away from the threat! The reason for the pinkish colored tail is that this is a new tail!

A new tail

The scales on this little guy are really shiny too!

Shiny!

Now let us take a look at a side view!

Side view

Isn’t this a handsome fellow?

Thank you for taking a moment to stop by today! Have a terrific Tuesday! Be well! ^..^

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Wild Turkey

You might remember an older post that featured wild turkey: Two hens and 9 chicks. Well, we have now been visited by another group and this one was made up of two Toms and two hens! The Toms are significantly larger than the hens, and there are other differences too! Let’s go check it out!

You can see the size difference in this shot. The Toms are on the left.

Two Toms, Two Hens

Now let us take a closer look at the Toms. First of all, they have caruncles on the top of their beak which the females do not. Their throats are also red compared to the female which is more of a gray color. Check out this Tom!

A Tom turkey

They look a bit peckish to me! 🙂

A bit peckish!

When they speak they make a noise that sounds like “Bloop, bloop.”

Speaking out

These birds are always on alert too! They watch us closely and watch the area around them too!

On alert

The dominant male starts to head out, and the others taking a bit of time do follow eventually. One other difference between the Tom and the hen is the tuft of feathers. You can see them better in this photo. They hang down off the center of the breast.

Tom crossing the driveway

Cool, aren’t they?

I hope that you enjoyed today’s post! Thank you for dropping in today, and have a terrific Tuesday!

Be well! ^..^

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Fire in the Sierra Foothills

Last night my husband and I were sharing cocktails on our front deck and I went in to feed the dog. When I came back out there was a noticeable difference in the colors outside. Last year when this happened there was a fire and we were seeing evidence of a fire again yesterday. Today I wanted to share photos that I took from our area. We are approximately 17 air miles north of this fire.

Here is a photo taken when we first saw smoke.

Seeing smoke

Here is another shot from a different angle.

Smoke rising

As we watch the smoke thickens.

The smoke thickens

Heading inside we turn on the news. KCRA 3 in Sacramento did a fine job of covering the fire for all of us. The next series of photos is from their news broadcast.

From the air

A house starts to burn. One thing to notice about this place is that they did not create defensible space around their home, which is one of the reasons this went up so fast. The trees are too close to this house.

A house starts to burn

A few minutes later, here is the same house.

The house a few minutes later

Here is a property with the fire approaching a fruit orchard. These folks prepared and have defensible space.

Defensible space

One more shot from KCRA 3. This is of one of the airplanes dropping retardant on the fire. The shot is from their helicopter.

Plane dropping retardant

Heading back outside and looking up, what you see are not clouds but smoke.

Smoke not clouds

Here is a shot as the sun sets…

As the sun sets

As I sat outside, I thought I should take a photo that shows ash fall. It was coming down in our area like a very light snow. The first shot is when I first sat down; the second is only a few minutes later.

My pants

My pants 3 minutes later

This fire went from 30 acres to 1300 in no time. It is only, as I write, 20% contained. So far this morning we do not see any smoke as the wind is blowing from east to west. We have not yet been told about the cause of this fire.

Where ever you are, we hope that you are safe. And, as Smokey says, “Only you can prevent forest fires!”

Thank you for dropping in and be well!

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