Bay Area Botanic Gardens
 

I visited a couple of the Bay Area Botanic Gardens over the weekend and here is some of what I found.

Regional Parks Botanic Garden (Berkeley, CA)
Many Manzanita are in full bloom. One of the earliest bloomers a number of species of Manzanita (Arctostaphylos) including several rare ones are flowering now. There were also trees still showing fall color, mushrooms in the grass and lichens everywhere. To see some photos: http://naturalhistorywanderings.com/...n-in-december/

San Francisco Botanical Garden
Current blooms included salvias, camellias, red-hot pokers, proteas, fuschias, tree dahlias, mazanitas, calla lilies, nerines, aloes and cestrums in bloom. some trees were also still showing fall foliage. Although mainly focused on the plants, it was also an active day for birds and even turtles were out on the rocks in the pond. Besides some of the common regulars (Coots, Mallards, California quail, Western Gulls), also spotted were Anna’s Hummingbird,a Black Phoebe, a Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned hawk, and my favorite of the day, a female Hooded Merganser.
To see photos: http://naturalhistorywanderings.com/...y-at-strybing/