Another lupine again

I was checking out the area where the Clitoria fragrans is found and discovered two lupine plants, one of which had died. This is the same area where Lupinus diffusus popped up after a fire about five years ago. I didn't find any stipules, so I assume these plants are L. diffusus, too. The habitat is right.

Meanwhile, the Natal grass and Guineas grass is becoming rife in and along the fire lane. This calls for more than a Ridge Ranger workday, I'm afraid.

Summertime, and the weeding ain't easy

Unsurprisingly, grasses, sedges etc have invaded the cleared second planting area and are competing with the lupines for whatever it is they need. Weeding has begun, but it's not a job for mad dogs and Englishmen. It's better to wait until the cooler portion of the day.

This will be an ongoing task. There's a sea of Natal grass along the nearby fire lane so it could be a long summer.

However, I've found that aggressive weeding in small tracts can control the problem pretty well for a time so the work doesn't have to be repeated too often. Obviously, on a landscape scale a different approach is necessary.

Signs of summer's approach

I walked through the landscape this afternoon.

Ceraunus blue butterflies are finally emerging. A Gulf fritillary was nectaring on the remains of the Nolina blossoms. Yucca is in full bloom, but the recent weather knocked over some of the plants with the tallest flower stalks. I also saw Common buckeye, Barred yellow and possible a Cassius blue.

Asclepias tuberosa and feayi are blooming. Very little Natal grass is blooming except in the fire lanes so far. All of the freeze killed grass is still brown.

The burn piles on the west side are still unburned.

The new hog wire fence has been installed.

Rain arrives in plenty

It has rained over the past two days. I checked the gauge this evening and it read 2 inches.

The Bonamia is beginning to bloom. The vines are plentiful across the landscape.

Polanisia tennufolia is in bloom, too.

This evening a Great Horned Owl flew across the landscape as I was setting up for night insect work. The sky tonight was lovely. It was that bright early evening blue, perhaps clarified by the rain, which gets rid of haze.

The bug survey was uneventful. Ant lions, a few beetles, moths, leafhoppers and flies, but nothing I was hoping for.

Bugs and benches

I'm still doing some regular evening bug monitoring to see what the light will attract.

I prepared the bench that was one of the insect observation platforms and installed a second on the north side to replace the one that was vandalized a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile, a Common Nighthawk makes its regular sortie over the open preserve sky, but this week I didn't hear the Chuck-will's-widow. Maybe it moved on.

I'm still slowly mining trash from the windrows along the north fire lane. I want to get some of the work done before the area becomes overgrown again.

Enough rain for now; fire lane getting weedy

The weekend storm dropped 3 inches of rain on the lupine patch. The plants look good.

Meanwhile, in the fire lane the rain and warmer weather has caused grasses to sprout again, the main concerns being Natal grass and Guinea grass. I've seen no evidence of cogon grass so far this year, though there was a patch nearby.

Late bloomers

I stopped by the lupine patch today and noticed that the plants that were blooming earlier were wrappping up, but that some other plants were putting out blooms for the first time.

I wasn't surprised because no species does everything at the same time, but it was interesting that the blooming was somewhat asynchrous. It rained pretty hard this evening, so that could provide additional moisture to spur blooming. It has been dry and windy for the past few days, which is less encouraging.