Monterey Day

Last week my mom and I went down to Monterey to hang out. She hadn't seen the Brandt's Cormorants before and back in May I had.
Monday (the day we went) we saw lots of wildlife. More than I remembered from May. First was the harbor seals - they weren't there in May, then we noticed the brown pelicans and they were hanging out with a few Cormorants, and then after we walked over to the Coast Guard Pier where the Cormorants nesting site is, we noticed some smaller shorebirds never before noted by my mom - or myself if I kept track ;)

I'll post the wildlife in a subsequent post, but for now, here's some of the plant life we saw.

Rockrose - one of the Cistus species, but because I didn't get a good picture of the leaf structure and the overall plant, I couldn't identify which one.

Tree Mallow (Lavatera maritima) with Fleabane (again, which one, i don't know). The tree mallow I had originally guessed it was some kind of hibiscus - it certainly had the flowers for it. I think they are closely related, but specifically -although it is really a shrub, it's called Tree Mallow.

The water drops were likely from watering. There was no rain, but the marine layer was thick enough to leave mist on the windshield, so it might have been from that too.
A Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri) whose blooms were 5 or so inches across. Bees like the yellow globe in the middle.

Sea Lavender (Limonium perezii) - dime a dozen around here, but still beautiful. They make excellent cut flowers because they last forever - even when the water dries up... also make great dried flower arrangements.

Here's a closeup of the blooms.


There were of course more flowers, but these ones were in great shape and at their peak of blooming.