Swarming Bees

Doc and I were wandering around after working out at the gym, when suddenly I saw a huge swarm of bees dangling from a pomegranate tree at 21st and Treat.

beees

They were swarming around with at least one queen, looking for a new place to build a hive. It was pretty amazing. They were surprisingly forgiving of my curiosity and sticking my face right up to their swarm, since bees are apparently even more reticent to sting when they don’t have any hive to defend.

I was obsessed with the bees all day, so we went to go check out the area to see if they decided to settle in the pomegranate tree, but they were gone without a trace. Farewell, bees!

Gray Whale Fossils in Marin

Low tide over Drake’s Estero; Inverness, California

Near Inverness in Northern California along the Estero Trail, there is a secret little beach littered with cetacean fossils that are roughly 7 million years old. These cetaceans were the ancestors of the modern day gray whale, and this particular area used to be their breeding ground. The whole hike is only about 9 miles round trip, and there is only a minimal amount of bushwhacking necessary to get to the fossils. Continue reading “Gray Whale Fossils in Marin”