Natural History Wanderings

Pete Devine on his Yosemite Nature Notes blog has updates on waterfalls, flowers, birds and butterflies at Yosemite. He notes:

“all grass and forbs are brown. The Merced River is running at 25-30% of average volume. The waterfalls are shrinking noticeably. Sentinel and Ribbon Creeks barely trickle to the river now, Woski Pond is down to about 30′ at its widest point.

Birds and flowers are still plenty active. Two vireos, grosbeak, tanager, a few warblers, 2-3 flycatchers, and the hermit thrush are heard as you get up above the Valley. Seems like we’ve been seeing more Vaux’s swifts in the Valley this season. Azalea is perfuming Valley meadows now, cow parsnip is opening. Dogwoods fade, but are still nice higher up. Noticed a monarch in the Valley this morning, as milkweeds are just starting to open. Pale swallowtails are abundant this year.”

Read his full report and all his postings at: http://yosemitenaturenotes.blogspot.com/

Although the Yosemite Park is not posting wildflower bloom reports at its website this year it just updated its Common Wildflowers page.