R: Yellow-faced Bumble Bee face-planted in Purple Chinese Houses.
Today I returned to Black Point Historic Gardens for another volunteer day. It’s been a while! They had a lot of their Thursday volunteer days cancelled in April, so I wasn’t able to attend much that month. But, today I got TO VISIT!
And, OMG OMG OMG. The place is likely at ITS PEAK RIGHT NOW. I couldn’t believe it. SO MANY FLOWERS I’ve never seen before and haven’t seen in SUCH QUANTITIES. There is more Elegant Clarkia there right now in bloom in one place than maybe anywhere else? In the world?? Also, SO MANY California Poppies. And, TONS of pollinators were taking full advantage! They genuinely looked HAPPY buzzing all over each and every bright orange cup. It was A DELIGHT to see.
I spent just under half an hour there Naturing before my volunteer shift started, and for those of you reading my blog post on WordPress, you can see that I saw OHSOMUCH in that short period of time! I saw so much that it was quite difficult to pick my primary photos for this post.
Also, as I found out when I got home and saw my photos from the day, more often than not a pollinator ended up photo-bombing my flower photos. Do I mind? No, I SO DO NOT.
Ok, here goes. I saw, in addition to what’s mentioned above, Tidy Tips, Chick Lupine (?), Cornflower, my planted California Flannelbush with A BUNCH of flowers (!!!), Purple Chinese Houses (in bush form! Didn’t know they got SO BIG!), Seep Monkeyflower, Scaly Shield mushrooms (?), Red-masked Parakeets (aka the Parrots of Telegraph Hill, which I’ve never been able to see sit still there before!), Lewis Flax, Bird’s-eye Gilia, Sea Thrift, Catnip (I think), Bearded Iris (which reminded me of what’s blooming in Yvonne’s garden right now), Large-flowered Leptosiphon, pale yellow California Poppies (a native cultivar), Mica Caps (I think), Bluehead Gilia, and Western Columbine.
And, I didn’t even make it over to the North side!
Needless to say, the place is BONKERS right now. And, so many flowers there are native, which is a treat to see so many in one place. I highly recommend visiting now if not soon, if this place has piqued your interest at all…
As for my volunteering efforts, today I was tasked with removing weeds/unwanted plants around the Western Columbine and Ceanothus plantings (because Natalie said I was so fond of the finer weeding work). Guess I’m that person! I could barely see the Columbine when I first walked up to it. And after three hours, you can see them so well! Even the Bumble Bees appeared to see them easier after. Yay!
Another satisfying day at Black Point, which is easily at its best right now. I get to come back one more time before my internship starts the last week of May. Then, I won’t be able to volunteer there until mid-August! But, it’s nice to know good folks will take care of it until I can resume my usual schedule there.
The Afternoon Naturalist 