Basking in the October sun

 

The colors in the wings of this Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) seem like a good match for fall.  Photographed on 27 October 2018.

Fall beauty

 

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia), photographed in the Bodega Dunes on 7 November 2017

This butterfly was alternating between basking in the sun and nectaring from male Coyote Brush (Baccharis pilularis) flowers:

 

 

Pears? Or...

The other day, as we were driving along the Coast Highway, my mother (who is visiting from Massachusetts) said, "I think I just saw some pears!"  I've been in California long enough now that I knew what she had seen...but do you have a guess?

Warning: The picture below might give the answer away. 

Although not the actual ones that she saw, these are the same type of "pear-look-alikes":

 

Did you guess the fruit of the California Buckeye (Aesculus californica)?

These large, pear-shaped leathery capsules split to reveal a beautiful, shiny, swirled-with-brown-patterned seed: 

 

Today we were walking at Crane Creek Regional Park (in Santa Rosa), and while stopping to admire California Buckeye trees, we heard a few loud thuds as the seeds dropped to the ground.  Then we noticed quite a few picnic tables under these large California Buckeye trees.  It crossed our minds that it might be a risky time of year to sit at those tables (see below):

 

(Just kidding...no mothers were hurt in the creation of this image!)

While researching California Buckeyes, I came across a wonderful article by Roger Raiche.  He did such a great job, I'm just going to direct you to Roger's article here — California Buckeye: A Tree for All Seasons.  It's totally worth reading.  I especially like his description of how well matched this species is to a Mediterranean-type landscape. 

River runoff and stranded seeds

During a bird survey on Salmon Creek Beach today, I noticed a significant amount of woody debris washed up on the beach.  Recent rains must have caused a lot of material to flow down Salmon Creek and the Russian River (the Russian River is ~10 miles north of Bodega Head).  Longshore currents transported, and then waves deposited branches, leaves, and seeds high on the beach.  Examples of species represented — Douglas-firs, redwoods, oaks, willows, maples.   In addition, do you recognize the seed in the photos below?

 

 

If you guessed California Buckeye (Aesculus californica), you're right!  There were at least 12 or more buckeye seeds in the wrack line along ~2 km of the beach.  Note that this one had started to sprout (look for yellow-green shoot emerging at top left).

They're impressive seeds — the diameter is listed as 2-5 cm in The Jepson Manual.  I think this particular seed was even larger.  With the pencil for scale (the metal portion below the eraser is 1.5 cm long), I'd estimate it was ~6.5 cm across.