Saturday, July 18, 2015

The Tigers are Loose

and all the other Sierra wildflowers
By Jim and Shirley White

Wandering our seceret Sierra wild places yesterday, enjoying our Sierra wildflower, the flower that really starts the summer are the Tiger Lilies. Yes we love the others too. The Colimbine, the Cow Parsnip, Qween Ann's Lace, the Sierra Primrose and all the others. But it is the "Tiger" that rules the mountains in July. What more need be said. The pictures tell it all.






Sunday, July 5, 2015

Nature-izing along the Culbertson road

The Culbertson road that runs from the Drum forbay to Bear Valley, Nevada Co. is one of our favorite early July roads to Nature-ize and do our wildlife-flower photography. This 4th of July weekend was one of the best ever. It is best the start the trip along the road by 8 AM and plan on finishing by 11 AM because the hill-side the road follows has a north aspect and the light is great in the mornings but poor in the evenings. There are at least three springs along the road and butterflys, hummingbirds, bumble bees and birds just love them. You can also find a "Fawn Lily" or two..
Alpine lilies and Tiger lilies are there too, but you must travel down some of the side roads to find them. You cross the Bear River into Bear Valley and highway 20 and back to I80. We see why the Emigrants of old were happy when they got this far along the trail.  Enjoy!!

Breakfast with the Dutch Flat Mayors


As usual on the 4th of July weekend, we head for the old gold mining town of Dutch Flat in Placer County.and the annual 4th of July breakfast at the Odd Fellows Hall.This year we were fortunate to breakfast with the two Honorary Mayors and their ladies.
I tried to make points early on and mentioned that I was a personal friend of Jim Gould, who died recently and who's Great,Great Grandfather had owned the nearby gold diggings and the Dutch Flat Gold Mining and Ditch Co.That did not seem to ring a bell so I mentioned my old friend Jim Stewart who also owned the nearby Gold Run hydro mine along I-80 and ran it for 50+ years. Blank stares registered nothing so I mentioned that we were photographers with the Bay Area Porno Magazine and were trying to find a cover photo of a good stud for our up-coming August issue and wondered if I could take their pictures. The heavy-set mayor glanced down, I guess to see if his zipper was closed and then said " I guess so". His lady had stopped eating and was looking at me with eyes as big as saucers.I took the pictures and showed them the results. They thought the pictures were great and wondered when the pictures would be published. I said we usually post a copy on the wall of the Gold Run Rest Area's restroom and it should be up by the end of the month. The ladies were now laughing so hard I saw tears roll down their cheeks so we thought it was time to leave. The Mayors asked where we were going and I said we were going to "Nature-ize" and photograph wildlife and flowers along to Drum Forbay-Bear Valley's Culbertson road. I overheard one Mayor ask his lady if I said Forbay or for-play. I think that story is next.


Thursday, July 2, 2015

Osprey Adventures


One of the three Osprey chicks stood up, leaned forward and strained, and out like a fire hose from his rear was a jet stream of white liquid. Thank God they are being fed and are all alive. Daddy Osprey was seeing to that. Earlier we saw him fly low over the nest a drop what looked like a Golden Mantel Ground Squirrel. This last feeding was a fish from the nearby lake.It is a full time job for the male to keep well fed his mate and their three chicks.
We are at 5600 ft. in Placer County and the temps today at the nest site are 81 degrees. When the female is not feeding the chicks she stands with her back to the sun, wings slightly  extended, shading the chicks. The male does not stay long. It appears like lots of his prey are not out in this heat.He has got to go hunt again. It is called hunting for my family and it is really very hard work.
It is only July 2nd and a long way to go before the chicks are fledged.We need some cooling rain.But right now we would settle for just some big nice clouds. Stay tuned..