Another Post About the Birds in Merced?! NO! It's Mammals & Landscapes Time!

Rounding out my series of posts from the Merced National Wildlife Refuge, we have for you today, a serving of mammals and landscape photos.  Warning!  Some of these photos also contain birds.  It was pretty hard to avoid them. :)

So in my first post from the Merced National Wildlife Refuge about ducks and geese, I mentioned that I almost got my car stuck in the mud due to the maps I had printed out for directions.  

This is the spot where I decided I'd better turn around. 

I think I made a wise decision there.  Haha!  But, as I mentioned, I did have fun finding little birdies and hawks to photograph on the back roads when I had basically given up all hope of making it to the Refuge. 

Even though that looks cloudy, it's really a fairly low-lying marine layer with some clouds mixed in.  And it did burn off later in the day.  But it was pretty cool (no pun intended!). 

I really like this landscape with the rickety, leaning fence. 

It was shortly after this that I had my epiphany and realized there was another way to the reserve. Thank goodness!   

By the time I made it in, the marine layer was pretty much gone, leaving only the clouds which made the sky amazing. 

And the water reflected the sky's brilliance amongst the bare trees. 

Love this next photo. 

After leaving the marsh area, the ground came alive with jackrabbits, ground squirrels, and riparian brush rabbits.

The jackrabbits were very speedy!  Even when one was running straight towards me, I couldn't focus fast enough to get a clear picture!

This one ran into the cropped field and then froze.  It was pretty camouflaged! 

The ground squirrels are way bigger than regular squirrels.  They looked more like their cousin, the groundhog, than what you first think of when you hear squirrel. 

But they LOVE to dart in front of your car on the road, just like tree squirrels do.  Damn them!

After passing through the grassland and fields, I came up to a creek and saw my first riparian brush rabbit.  Much smaller with more compact bodies and shorter legs then their jackrabbit cousin, they are A-Dor-A-Ble.  

Not that the jackrabbits aren't, but these guys sit very still on the side of the road as if they hope you don't notice them, while the jackrabbits are gone in a blur.  So you don't have as much time to notice their cuteness. 

And that bunny tail!  

Well, just like this little guy, it's time for me to hop away!  Hope you enjoyed seeing the Merced National Wildlife Refuge through the lens of my Nikon D3000!

xoxo

Not So Wild Wildflowers! 2/20/16

Two posts ago I shared my amazing evening seeing Yosemite's Horsetail "Firefall"    That was how I ended my fun Saturday road-trip on February 20th.  This post is how I started it.  Or, at least my first stop of the day.

As I mentioned in my Yosemite post, I had originally intended to go to the Merced National Wildlife Refuge and possibly the nearby San Luis National Wildlife Refuge to photograph some wildlife.  But a different "wild" thing has also been on my mind lately...wild flowers.  

It's kind of early for wildflowers.  There are quite a few though because of the really warm weather we've had after all the much-needed rain.  So I've been thinking (and kind of worrying!) a lot lately because I'm afraid when they bloom, they won't last long.  And will I miss them??  Silly, I know.  

So when I saw a beautiful photo posted on my friend Cindy's Instagram of gorgeous wild daisies, I asked her where she had taken the photo.  It seemed to be a good omen when she said they were on northbound Highway 99 between Merced and Atwater!

It was foggy when I left Sacramento (not as early as I had intended) and then it got sunny.  But just before I got to Atwater, the fog took over again!  I drove all the way into Merced to get some breakfast and was a little dismayed because I didn't really see any flowers except for a small patch along the center median.  That wouldn't work.  And, they didn't look like the daisies that Cindy had seen.

After breakfast, I headed back North, but I stayed on surface streets near the highway, hoping to find some flowers.

Success!  

I found an interesting road surrounded by fields of beautiful flowers on three sides and rustic farms on the East. Photography Heaven!

It was still foggy and a lot of the flowers weren't fully awake.  But that only increased their beauty and the dew from the fog was amazing.

Ah. May. Zing. 

This tiny purple blossom was covered on every surface. 

To give you a better idea of what these little fields of flowers looked like...

I was a little suspicious, to be honest.  All these flowers were growing around areas that either were under construction or near construction. 

I had an inkling that the only true wildflowers in my photos were the mustard stems you can see in the photo below.  Not that I REALLY cared.  :)

The foggy farms were pretty interesting too.

But lest we forget that this is not a pristine field in the wild...

I really don't know how it was standing up like that.  But I didn't cross the road to look at the other side.  

I was wandering along the fence line, checking out the farm, when I noticed some feathered friends posing for me. They were not deterred me or by the fog.

I even had to dodge a Canadian fly by.

All these birds were making me anxious to get to the Wildlife Refuge, so I started to walk back to my car.  At one point a gentleman in a construction truck pulled into the dirt path where I was walking and asked if I was enjoying the flowers and if I had gotten any good shots.  

I said I was and hoped I had some good ones.  I said the flowers were amazing and he said that the city of Atwater air drops the wildflower blend seeds in construction zones to prevent erosion and make the projects looked more pleasing.  Smart idea!  I knew they weren't 100% wild!  

Again, I'm not complaining.  

So many colors!  And combinations!  I even found some Lakers colors.  :)

Which is not to say that the occasional white flower was overshadowed.  Not at all...still gorgeous. 

But one of the most unique flowers I found will end the post.  Loved this ombre-painted flower!  The vibrant purple and fuchsia fading into lavender and white were brilliant against the orange daisies in the background.  

I had so much fun walking around and photographing all the various "wild" flowers.  

Big thanks to Cindy and the city of Atwater!!

xoxo