Natural History Wanderings

7/23/16 Bodie Hills is a 16 mile drive on unpaved roads from near Bridgeport to the ghost town (and highly visited) Bodie.

Heading north on 395 from Lee Vining towards Bridgeport there are Prickly Poppy, Blazing Star and Evening Primrose. Near Bridgeport we took Aurora Canyon Road about seven miles to an intersection where we turned right on Geiger Grade Road for about 9 miles to Bodie. The road is relatively good and doable in a car, but high clearance is helpful.

It is mainly high desert and Pinyon/Juniper Forest. Dominant plants are Artemesia, Rabbitbrush, Purshia and in some wet places invasive tamarisk. Most areas were very dry. The Iris were all finished. Cliff Swallows were busy flying out of their nests on the cliff sides.

Rabbitbrush, Red Paintbrush/ Castilleja linarifolia, And Sulphur Buckwheat were the most abundant flowering plants. Other plants in flower included

• Yarrow/Achillea millefolium
• At least two unidentified yellow composites, one possibly Dugaldia hoopesii
• Wild Rose
• An unidentified Erigeron
• Elk Thistle/Cirsium scariosum, with purple flowers
• Slender Cinquefoil/Potentilla glandulosa
• Mt. Pennyroyal/Monardella odoratissima
• Lupine – not identified to species
• A white Lupine – mostly past bloom
• Creambush/Holodiscus microphyllus
• Soda Straw/Angelica lineariloba
• Scarlet Gilia/Ipomopsis aggregata

It was a good day for butterflies as it was sunny and warm and the butterflies were nectaring on Rabbitbrush. Butterflies seen were:

• Orange Sulphur
• Great Basin Wood Nymph
• Sooty Hairstreak
• Blue Copper
• Acmon Blue
• Boisduval’s Blue
• Milbert’s Tortoiseshell
• Checkered White
• A Skipper that may have been Common Branded, Nevada or Uncas

Also seen was a White-lined Sphinx Moth feeding on Scarlet Gilia