Picture of the week

Meadow Larkspur

This week wildflowers and insects of the Desolation Wilderness within the Western Sierra along Lyon's Creek are covered. 

With the abundant rain and snowfall this year, the peak bloom of the wildflowers has been running about 2-4 weeks later than normal.  It has also resulted in one of the best shows I have seen on the western slope of the Sierra.   Both the quantity and diversity has been quite impressive.  But wIth the lingering moisture, the mosquitos (and biting flies) have also been quite ferocious, even shaking my tolerance in comparison to what I experienced from a trip to Northwest Canada and Alaska a few weeks back.

These images were captured with a Canon EOS 70D and EF 100L f/2.8 IS macro lens.  I continue to be impressed with the performance of this lens in terms of its responsiveness, sharpness, and the image stabilization that makes handholding such shots much easier.

Wildflowers are identified as best I can as follows (from left to right). Row 1: horsemint, silverleaf lupine, brewer's (or sierra?) angelica, some type of (sticky?) cinquefoil. Row 2: bolander's dandelion, sierra daisy, mountain pennyroyal, alpine paintbrush. Row 3: dotted blue butterfly, tbd fly, robber fly eating a lacewing, fritillary butterfly on a mountain pennyroyal. Row 4: star tulip, alpine lily, brewer's angelica, sierra onion. Row 5: another fritillary on a pennyroyal, columbine, yarrow with spreading phlox.