Wildflower season is rapidly coming to a close, but I have a few more pictures. It's also getting too hot to go hiking, so these may be the last for a while. Remember that summer, not winter, is the harsh season here.
Here is a red, white, and blue entry just in time for the Fourth.
They are edible and pretty good. In the past, I have made pie from them. I was surprised to see so many berries in such a dry year. Some plants are not producing fruits/seeds this year. It doesn't look like there will be any acorns, which won't be good for the wildlife.
I was surprised to see a few more things out there.
This is bush mallow. It really is a bush, that is just one branch hanging over the grass in this picture.
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This is datura. It is native. I think they're very coarse plants but the flowers are showy.
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These are walnuts. This is a California black walnut. The nuts and the trees are smaller than eastern black walnuts.
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Here is another elderberry. It is in a parking lot and has been "groomed" a little. You can see that they almost reach tree status. There were a lot of fruitful elderberry bushes at this park.
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If my camera batteries hadn't gone dead, I'd have some pictures of old oaks and sycamores, but maybe next time. Here is one trail picture. This is a nice place to go in the summer. It is near the beach, so it isn't hot like inland where I live, the trail is pretty flat, and there is some shade. Technically, this is a road, not a trail, but only park rangers are allowed to drive on it. It's pretty popular with mountain bikers and we saw a track team out practicing. We also saw a deer and a flock of parrots.
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It would be rather difficult picking elderberries up in that "bush". That is amazing to me that that they can grow into trees.
I love that road. It looks like roads I remember from my childhood when I visited my grandmother way out in the country.
A flock of parrots!!!!!! Wow! I had no idea that there were any wild parrots in this country. I have really learned something today. Do you know how that they happen to be wild? Did someone turn some loose or did it happen over time from birds getting loose from their cages Explain please as I am quite curious about this!
No one seems to know for certain exactly how the parrots got here, but it appears most likely that they are escaped pets. According to what I have read, there hasn't been much study done on wild parrots in California. They ones that we saw probably nest in the sycamore trees.
That is so interesting. I bet there are wild parakeets too since they escape so easily from stores and from people's homes. I see them here from time to time with the sparrow flocks and figure that our cold winters kill them. It probably wouldn't do that in your area however.
Around our house, I have seen parrots, parakeets, a cockatoo, and a zebra finch. From what I have read, only the parrots survive for any length of time and reproduce. I have seen the cockatoo for a period of a year or so. It would hang out with a flock of crows. The crows tended to harrass it, so I don't know what the cockatoo was getting out of the relationship. Last fall, the zebra finch was hanging around our house. I don't know if he moved on or if the cold weather did him in.
There are wild parrots in southern California, Florida, and also Chicago, of all places. There used to be native parrots in the mountains of southern Arizona.
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