Summer Flowers in the Meadows

A warm, balmy day threatening rain all afternoon, but the scrub oak meadows were full of summer flowers, interesting lizards, new song birds … how better to spend the afternoon?

I left North TH around 11:15 and hiked Mt Pisgah via trails #3 and #4. Human traffic was seasonally low – almost none. The threatening rain kept them home perhaps. With the recent rains light as they were, the north side of the hill was as green as green can be

This Western Fence lizard (Wikipedia) was the only one who would sit still … all the other zipped into the grasses – they were heavy in the upper south-facing meadows. I didn’t know what it was …. they are fast! Look at the long toes

Over the 3.5 hours and 10 miles, it was the summer wildflowers that caught my camera.

Song birds per Merlin app changed from the south and north sides of the hill. The north side had greater diversity, and two new birds for the year: Wilson’s Warbler and Olive-sided Flycatcher. Strangely no raptors were in the sky until around 2pm … maybe the heavy moist air messed with the updrafts, but after 2pm a group of 6-10 turkey vultures filled the sky.

I’ve said it so many times that …. one does not have to drive far to find the ‘woods’. My total driving = <20 minutes. Mt Pisgah … ah!

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This was too short to include full Data Geek details … YTD: 137.25 carbon karma hours banked, and 604 miles hiked.