Mosquito Weekend
- Posted at 1:55 AM on Thursday, May 29, 2008 by Chris Conard
On the weekend of 4/19/08, Kimya and I spent a couple of days with our friends Frank and Katharine around their place in Mosquito. To call Mosquito a town would be an overstatement. It is more of an accumulation of homes on the next ridge north of Placerville. The approach is slow and winding, but very scenic. Frank has seen a cougar and ringtails on his drive home! Depending on elevation and aspect, there is a range from foothill vegetation to coniferous forest.
 We turned over some logs and bricks in their yard and found this attractive ensatina.
 As well as this ground beetle.
 Frank is braver than I am--allowing this scorpion to pose for a photo on his finger.
 As well as this centipede.
 I noticed this deer tick on my pants. This is the type of tick that can transmit Lyme Disease. The ticks where we live in the Sac Valley are larger and do not carry Lyme, but deer ticks occur on both sides of the valley and along the coast.
 They had about a dozen Band-tailed Pigeons in their yard. The pigeons were very skittish, and flew every time we moved about the yard.
 This Red-breasted Nuthatch was excavating a nest hole.
 We spotted this Merlin near a small pond. After decent scope views, we watched it fly over and begin diving on this plastic owl in a private backyard.
As we walked through some nice mixed coniferous forest, the number of Nashville and Black-throated Gray Warblers was astounding. We also heard calling Pileated Woodpeckers and saw a single Lewis's Woodpecker in the lower elevation oak woodlands. A Great-tailed Grackle was also a bit of a surprise at one of the community's small ponds.
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