Pt. Mugu State Park is in Ventura County, just up the way from Pt. Dume in Malibu, and has amazing hikes. I have been there maybe 5 times, and always get lost, because I basically have no sense of direction. My hungover friend who came with me was a little annoyed we ended up on a meandering 5 hour hike, but I had a great time taking pictures of new flowers (see below). The Coreopsis weren't quite in bloom here yet, despite going off on Pt. Dume, but the California lilac (Ceanothus spp.) were going nuts with flowers, which I had never seen before. Another bonus was a western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) my herpetologist friend caught with her bare hands (which was so impressive!). The males have blue stripes on their bellies, and these lizards also have a protein in their blood that neutralizes the bacterium that causes Lyme disease in the gut of ticks that carry the bacterium around, which is just about the coolest thing I have ever heard of a lizard doing.
0 Comments
|
AuthorI like nature! And hiking, and taking pictures, especially of nature. Archives
September 2014
Categories
All
|