Rainbow Season
California is entering its rainbow season. It runs from autumn through springtime.
When storms are clearing, the best time to see rainbows is when the sun is behind you and you are looking toward rain or mist.
Color spotter Crys Black captured just such a moment at the Sandhill Crane festival (Woodbridge Ecological Reserve, west of Lodi) as sunset approached.
A storm had just departed and illuminated by sunset light in the moist sky were rainbows and Sandhill Cranes. The latter were returning to the reserve to spend the night safe from predators.
Rainbow season provides all sorts of moments in which to be inspired by nature’s beauty.
Owens Valley Still Crackling
The Owens Valley, from Bishop south, continues to carry crackling bright orange and yellow color, with cottonwood and rabbitbrush still at peak.
Mendocino County color spotter Walt Gabler passed through the Owens Valley on a trip down US 395 to the Imperial Valley.
He recommends the route as more scenic and satisfying than I-5 or CA-99, despite the added time, when driving to southeastern California.
Color spotter Clayton Peoples adds his endorsement of Walt’s report, stating he was traveling the eastside and “took a quick detour to the Alabama Hills (Whitney Portal Road just west of Lone Pine) and was not disappointed.”
The trees are still peaking along Lone Pine Creek, which weaves its way through the Alabama Hills. He sent his photo of his favorite cottonwood, “one that stands as a lone sentinel above the boulders near the painted rock.” Presently, it is “bursting with yellow.”
A bonus of visiting the Alabama Hills right now, Clayton writes, “is that one can include the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada–including the tallest, Mt. Whitney–in fall foliage photos.”
Owens Valley – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
East/West Redbud Debate
When it comes to redbud, it’s debatable as to which is prettiest in autumn… East or West.
The eastern variety, cercis canadensis, displays bright gold and green heart-shaped leaves.
Whereas, western redbud, cercis occidentalis, display orange, red, gold and lime heart-shaped leaves.
Both are equally stunning.
Redbud is often overlooked by color spotters who give up looking for great fall color as soon as the forests of aspen have turned, but not Robert Kermen or me.
Robert found western redbud growing along Big Chico Creek in Chico’s Bidwell Park.
Cercis occidentalis are native to the Sierra and North Coast foothills. Native California indians used their barks for basket weaving and as a red dye. In springtime, their showy pink and magenta blossoms grow in clusters all over redbud shrubs that garnish foothill river canyons.
I have the pleasure of enjoying an Eastern redbud all year long. It grows in my side yard (El Dorado Hills) and provides an inspiring show when autumn light backlights the leaves in kelly green and yellow.
Eastern redbud are a popular landscape and street tree, appreciated for their shape, shade and autumn color (best from late October to early November).
Their heart-shaped leaves flutter in a soft autumn breeze, as if they’re beating.
OK, there’s no debate. East or West, who couldn’t love redbud with all they have to show?
Redbud – Peak (75-100%) – Their range forms an upside down fish hook, leading from the SF Bay Area north through wine country and the Redwood Highway, then bending east through Trinity County to the northern Sierra foothills, then south to the Southern Sierra. GO NOW!
Color Spotting Starts Early
Color spotting need not be done or appreciated only by grown ups. Paige Kermen, age 7, proves that with her photograph of dogwood, dripping with red in Durham.
Good eye, Paige. You can now say your photography has been published.
This Sacramento Valley farm town, south of Chico, is peaking as walnut orchards turn golden, sycamore turn chartreuse and the last of California’s dogwood are heavy with bright red berries.
Durham – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Mushroom Magic
Shasta Cascade mushroom forager and color spotter, Gabriel Leete brings us photos of the most amazing mushrooms and plants.
Ink cap (seen above) rise in clumps after a rain are usually found in tight groups, so they are easily seen from a distance. The grey-brown cap is bell-shaped before opening, after which it flattens and disintegrates. At maturity, the black liquid it exudes used to be used as ink, hence its name.
Stump mushrooms (Armillaria mellea) are often found, as the name implies around the base of trees. In an ode to Avatar, the Armillaria are capable of producing light via bioluminescence in their mycelium.
Agaricus is a genus of mushroom of which the well-known button mushroom is a member. However, just because the button mushroom is edible, that does not mean the mushroom you may pick is. Certain types of Agaricus are poisonous.
If you don’t know for certain that a mushroom is edible, don’t attempt to cook it. Regardless, foraging for them is a fun way to explore an autumn forest, particularly following fresh rains.
Mushrooms, Shasta Cascade – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Exotic Datura stramonium or Jimson weed (native to Mexico, but now naturalizing in many places) is a member of the nightshade family and is highly toxic. Gabriel found one during his wanderings.
Datura is known by many names: thornapple, devil’s snare, moon flower, hell’s bells, devil’s trumpet, devil’s weed, stinkweed, locoweed, devil’s cucumber and others because of the intense halucinogenic visions it produces, which have led to hospitalization and death… not something with which to experiment.
Grass Valley Glows
Black oak, bigleaf maple, red maple and gingko biloba were at peak today in Grass Valley, color spotter Robert Kermen reports, a sure sign that the Gold Country is a Peak of the Week destination for this weekend.
Grass Valley (2,411′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
#MendoStrong
Compared to Napa and Sonoma counties, very few #MendoStrong signs can be seen, now that it has been weeks since the wine country fires occurred, reports Mendocino County color spotter Walt Gabler.
Walt was a first responder on the fire team; he found the small American flag (at left) in the area devastated by fire. It was surrounded by ash and discolored, but unburned.
Similar to Napa and Sonoma counties, fall color is now emerging in Mendocino County’s vineyards.
Finding it requires driving slowly along country roads near vineyards and looking for vines that are turning color. Some are Patchy, some Near Peak, some Peaking and some Past Peak.
Do not enter vineyards without permission. They’re all private property, even if not posted (which they rarely are). Though, it is not necessary to enter a vineyard to see or photograph fall color, as it is readily seen along their edges.
And, if you don’t find fall color in the vineyards, then go wine tasting or go mushroom foraging in the woods (just know what mushrooms are safe to pick).
Either way, you return with an enjoyable day in Mendocino County.
Mendocino County – Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW!
Nearing Peak Near Chico
Shasta Cascade color spotters Danie Schwartz and Cindy Lee Hoover are reporting signs of peak approaching throughout Butte County.
Oroville and Biggs (to Oroville’s west) are near peak with Chinese pistache throwing off increasingly iridescent color around the ancient burgundy walls of Oroville’s Chinese temple.
At Sank Park in downtown Oroville, maple, dogwood and more Chinese pistache are peaking.
West of Oroville, Biggs Pond is ringed with yellow, chartreuse and lime-colored brush. The Valley oak are carrying the first signs of orange and yellow color.
Traveling north from Oroville, the Midway between Durham and Chico continues to transition with some orange appearing among yellow and lime oak and pistache, though many leaves along this boulevard have dropped. Walnut orchards up and down CA-99 are coloring up.
In Chico, the Esplanade, its famous boulevard, is overhanging with patchy Valley oak and Chinese pistache, though near peak color should arrive this weekend and peak continue to Thanksgiving Day.
Further north in Paradise, color has peaked. The last remaining black oak leaves hang proudly from trees around Paradise Lake.
Oroville – Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW!
Biggs – – Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW!
Chico – Patchy (10-50%)
Paradise – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Autumn Accipiters and Asteraceae
Robert Kermen was looking skyward to find these hawks watching him from autumn posts spare of leaves.
Accipiters are the largest genus of birds, writes Encyclopaedia Brittanica, with more than 50 species of falconiform birds.
Kermen found these on one morning in Northern California. Though, many others have been attracted to Northern California to prey on migratory waterfowl.
In autumn, hundreds of thousands of duck, geese and other migratory birds pass through the Central Valley, providing a flying feast for these raptors.
After looking skyward, Robert looked down to see another form of living autumn color in full bloom… exotic Asteraceae, a flower native to South Africa.
Central Valley Flyways – Peak (75-100%) – GO NOW!
#SonomaStrong
Responding to a call for reports from the wine country, color spotter Darrell Sano left before 7 a.m. on Saturday to get to Sonoma early. As, he’d planned a long day in the wine country.
He walked Sonoma’s Town Square past Mission Sonoma to Buena Vista Winery, the oldest premium winery in California. Darrell recalled having watched helicopter footage of firefighters saving this historic building.
“That’s where I met Fred the “Sheriff of Buena Vista, who, in addition to telling stories of the winery’s history, told me that all of the fire companies surrounding Sonoma’s central square are Volunteer Fire Departments. Those volunteers joined thousands of other firefighters to battle the blaze. Click images to enlarge.
To Darrell’s amazement, “the hill behind BV was black, charred.” Yet, “Fred who has worked at Buena Vista for 17 years seemed unfazed by it all.”
Darrell continued along Castle Road to the Bartholomew Foundation Park and Winery. Its vines stood unscathed before “blackened, charred hillsides.”
Sonoma – Near Peak (50-75%) – GO NOW!