Posts Tagged ‘Androsace’
Very Early Trip to Groundhog Mountain Area
Not much snow for late May on the west side of Diamond Peak. The mountain shooting star (Dodecatheon [Primula] jeffreyi) was putting on quite a show.
The long antennae of this large white-spotted sawyer beetle (Monochamus scutellatus) caught everyone’s eye on the road to Logger Butte. Apparently this wood-boring beetle doesn’t really bite, but it can grip hard if you’re trying to get it off you.
On May 24th, I headed up to Groundhog Mountain with Alan Butler, Dave Predeek, and Hannah English. It was only the second time I’d ever been up there in May as it is usually snowed in until at least mid-June. Dave and I had also come on May 24th way back in 2015 (see Two Foggy Outings)—after the only other winter since I moved here over 30 years ago when there was no snowpack in the Western Cascades.
We came in from the north via Road 2309 to see the roadcut flowers. It was already drying out there—with no snowpack, it is a very early year indeed. We made a number of our usual stops to Waterdog Lake, Logger Butte, Road 452, the pond just north of Logger Butte, and we also drove all the way up the west side of Groundhog to see the cliffs at the north end (in Alan’s high-clearance truck—I wouldn’t do that in my car!). Here are some highlights of a very pleasant day with other nature lovers observing flowers and insects. Read the rest of this entry »