Diario de jwarnert

I went by the Kings River today because I heard that the water level is very low due to the drought. It was indeed low, but still a small stream was flowing down the middle of the riverbed.

I observed some plants on the banks that are usually covered with water. One I recognized as cocklebur because we had spent a lot of time roguing out the cocklebur around a spring at the McKenzie Preserve. Cocklebur is native, but it is poisonous to livestock so it is unwelcome at the McKenzie, where cattle are used for land management.

I was fascinated by large groupings of plants with tiny white and pink flowers. There were dozens of pollinators of different shapes, sizes and colors.

The warm fall weekend gave us perfect weather for camping at Calaveras Big Trees State Park this weekend. We presented the iNaturalist class for a new class of California Naturalists, but all in all probably learned more than them. Several of the CalNat students were docents at Calaveras Big Trees, so they knew all the details about the Giant Sequioas in the park, and a lot of information about the other trees and plants found there. It was a wonderful experience.