I photographed every flower I saw in bloom on my hike on San Bruno Mountain today, if its not in this post, I didn't see it blooming!

I made an effort to make an observation of every species I could find in bloom on my hike at Sugarloaf - the count of 17 reflects that its still a bit early in the year (Feb) but things are coming in fast and furious!

Hiked Sweeny Ridge with some friends today. We got a new telephoto lens this week - our old one has been broken since about April - which was great to test out. Fun to take photos of birds for a change. Also not much of interest in the plant world. Sweeny Ridge is interesting because you hike by the spot where the Portola Expedition discovered the SF Bay. I've been there before when it was totally socked in with fog (as it usually is) so there would be no Bay Discovering. But today was a gorgeous clear day and you could see as far as Mount Diablo without any trouble.

Since I started really looking (~1998) I was convinced that Foothill Yellow-legged Frogs were extirpated from the Russian River. I check the stretches along the confluence with Maacama Creek regularly since this is near where I grew up and my folks still live, and if there were there I'm sure I would have seen them. Since about 2008, I've started seeing them. I wonder whats helped them recover? Its a shame they just re-approved gravel mining in the Russian River without giving more thought to potential impacts on this little known amphibian that has disappeared from large parts of its range:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20101026/articles/101029602