While driving in the San Jacinto Mountains, I stopped at Lake Fulmor, a small fishing lake. It was a weekday, and there were only a couple of other people there, so it was peaceful, with Violet-Green Swallows swooping over the lake, jays calling from the trees, and hummingbirds and butterflies were buzzing the wildflowers. Nature at its best! Note about yesterday's post, the Snow Plant: So many of you mentioned you had not seen or heard of the plant, so I checked my book, and it is in mountains, of course, but only from southern Oregon to southern California. So unless you happened to be in the right place, right time, it's no wonder! 6/1/21 www.sparhawkphotography.com
One of the interesting things along the nature trail at Idyllwild County Park, was this mortar stone, an artifact of early native peoples for grinding acorns. This site had clearly been used for some time, as the holes were about 6 inches deep--that's a lot of acorns ground up! On top of that, this was the place I managed to spot a White-headed Woodpecker, one of my target birds for the hike! And no, you can't see any of the very poor pics I got of that wily bird! ;-) 5/30/21 www.sparhawkphotography.com
This is a painterly version of the small island that is out in Seccombe Lake in San Bernardino, CA. I was there birding, but they were few and far between. As the park has been neglected and overrun, I wanted to focus on the nice reflections. Filtering it did improve the look of the park--I wish it were that easy to renovate the real thing! 1/21/21 www.sparhawkphotography.com
