Snail Spirals

I have a few pictures I've wanted to post for almost a month, but due to the fact that they were taken with a (gasp) FILM camera and I hadn't gotten them developed yet, I'm slow.

I used the film camera because it has a better telephoto lens than my digital camera. Boy, am I spoiled by digital! Aside from the fact that there's no instant gratification, I was acutely conscious that I only had 36 exposures, unlike with the digital camera where you can take pictures willy-nilly and just delete the ones that don't turn out well. I also had a moment of embarassment when I went to take the first picture, and was honestly confused that there was no viewscreen on the back of the camera! I had forgotten you could hold the camera to your eye and look though the viewfinder. Luckily, only Emma was there to see me laughing hysterically at myself.

Anyway, the first four were taken at American Camp and Jakle's Lagoon, where I love to hike and "look at things." When my dad was here in May, we went to American Camp and I saw some butterflies. The day after he left, I went back with the big camera and Emma and I spent a lovely couple hours following butterflies around.



This is an Island Marble (Euchloe ausonides insulanus) butterfly. I was particularly excited to see this one, because not only was it a new species for my Life List, this subspecies has been petitioned for listing as an Endangered Species. It was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered here on the island in 1998, and American Camp supports the largest remaining population of this subspecies. The feds have to decide by November if it will be listed.

We also saw an Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon), another new one for my Life List:



Most of the wildflowers are nearly done, but Howell's brodiaea (Triteleia grandiflora var. howellii) was all over the place, very pretty.



We also spent some time watching the eagles feeding their two chicks above the beach at Jakle's Lagoon. There's another nest with a single chick at American Camp, less than a mile away, so this is a good area for eagles.



This is the Jakle's Lagoon nest, with an adult on the lookout. The other adult and two babies are out of sight inside the nest, which is the big pile of sticks to the right of the adult. I had Emma in the backpack when we walked this stretch of beach, and she kept whispering in my ear "Quiet Mama, quiet. Don't wake up the baby eagles!" She's well trained in wildlife-viewing protocols. Not to worry, though, we were very quiet and slow, and the adults didn't get agitated at all when we passed. I expect they're used to activity, though, since they chose to nest on a fairly heavily visited beach.

Lastly, here are a couple shots of the Rufous Hummingbirds that have been visiting my feeder all spring. I've seen as many as three females/juveniles at one time:



And two males:



This picture doesn't show it, but when the male is turned just right his throat feathers catch the light and are brilliant red.