Crown Fire - The Aftermath

Looking upslope at the skeletal remains of bushes/trees.

Hmm, my second mystery is becoming clearer. Any guesses as to what is causing the white ash?

Aha, another mystery solved. Who'd of thought that Yucca plants look like pineapples under all that dry growth?

Better photo of same subject.

We've arrived at the location that we saw had some fire damage. I handed the camera to DH and he took the following photos, because he was wearing the bee suit.

The remains of 4 pallets, each holding 4 hives.

Remains of 16 pallets, that's 64 hives.

You can see that we really have to thank the CDF for putting out our burning hives. You can see where they hit these burned pallets with water.



edited for spelling error.

This message was edited Aug 9, 2010 10:58 PM

A view looking back at the unburned bee hives.

Another view of the same location.

All I recognize here is the hardware.

It amazes me that these hives aren't even scorched from the fire burning so closely. You can see the deep box followed by a shallow on the bottom of the stack. That is the hive I was telling you about. The supers are the boxes above that.
In total we lost 80 bee hives in this one location. Right now with the honey and beeswax on the hives they are worth about $300.00 each. Each hive was stacked about as high as the ones shown here that didn't burn.

DH said that you could see some of the beeswax in the ashes. The water must have kept the wax from continuing to burn. Whew!

This is the view on the up slope side of the burned bee location. Amazing isn't it?

On our way to check out the next location, I was struck by this half burned tree.

I don't know how DH knows his way around those dirt roads, but we were rounding a curve in the road and DH was telling me that he hoped that the quail that lived right there survived. I caught a motion out of the corner of my eye, and saw a quail. I demanded that DH stop.
I'm so glad he did. When I looked up, this is what I saw.

I'm not sure what kind of hawk this is. Maybe a kestrel? Anyway, it was the first living critter I'd seen since we left (not counting 2 leggeds), and I made him let me take a bunch of photos. Mainly because he was only about 15 or 20 feet away, from my open car window, and didn't seem to care we were there. Mostly, I was trying to figure out what he was eating.

Wow, what a look!

As near as I can tell, the hawk is eating a rodent. Good for the hawk!

Don't look at this photo if you are easily grossed out. The hawk is holding his dinner with his foot and ripping off a chunk of rodent with his beak.

I finally shut my mouth, remembered I have telephoto, and got this photo.

One last photo of the hawk. I'll be posting the whole series of just the hawk in the birding forum.

DH had been really patient with me, but I finally let him pull forward and got a photo (blurry) of his beloved quail. : - )

We saw three of these quail at once, but I know there were more of them. Truth to tell, it was nice to see that not all the critters were killed in the fire. : - )
Talk about miracles!

I have more photos to post of our trip through the burned zone. I'm just awfully tired for now, so I'll finish this up tomorrow. Feel free to comment or ask questions. I'll try to answer them tomorrow.
I wanted to end tonight with a symbol of hope.
Walk In Beauty!
SingingWolf

Jules you take some of the most awesome pictures!! I am so sorry that you all lost so many hives. We need our bees!!

I am going to go find the birding forum. I have never been there but I want to see more hawk photos.

Marie, you'll have to give me a chance to post them first. LOL, Let me finish this one first. I do have to admit that most people wouldn't take the time to wade through all these photos, but I hope to be able to return to these same locations over the next couple of years and document how the land and animals recover from such devastation. Honestly, it was like a lunar landscape in some places. In others, well, you'll see.
We'll be okay, despite the loss. As long as we can pay our bills, and have food on the table, we figure that we're rich. : - )
About the Hawk photos, I got lucky to be at the right place at the right time, with plenty of battery power, in my camera. Although, if I hadn't seen the quail, and asked DH to stop I might have missed the Hawk completely. How seredipitous! : - )
You know I forget which location this one is, but I think it's the one that was waaay down the valley.
Amazing what a fire break can do to protect property. The fire was burning hot and fast, and you can see that it mostly consumed the dried grasses, and some of those bushes are going to come back, Thing is the fire went through there so fast it didn't even burn the leaves off some of the bushes. They are scorched, but they remain on the bush.
Forestry management people think that it's a good thing to let fires like this one burn, as they would naturally, they don't try to stop them when so much land is involved, and structures/homes aren't threatened.
One of the reasons I want to document what happens over time. : - )

Okay, I recognize this site now. It's where the spring comes in. You can see a dry grass and dirt cattle path on the other side of the creek.

Another up close view of a bee location that survived intact. Looks like a good time to take a short hike up the creek to see what we can see. Usually that creek has water in it. : - )

Devastation is the only word I can find to even partly describe the feelings you have when you are there, and the ash is still blowing around and the smell is overwhelming to the degree, it stays with you and on you.

DH is happy that so far only those 80 hives burned. It could have been so much worse. Thanks be to the Creator for his many Blessings. DH is one of them. : - )

The quartz is showing up really good. In some places it looks like it was water smoothed and in others, it looks kinda melted.

We were wondering if the cattle that live in this area survived the fire. Here is evidence that one went through after it burned.
Actually I'm kind of proud of this hoof print, they are hard to capture but the light was right. : - )

Down in the creek bottom. Singed grass can be seen. It'll come back.

Of course a few feet away . . . .

Along the stream bank, some stuff you'd think would have burned, survived. : - |

Looks kind of desolate upstream, but the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. Very surreal.

A huge quartz boulder, half buried in the bank. It's hard to say if it's water smoothed or melted. The top looks scorched. Hmmm?

Looking back downstream, toward our bee location.

Sorry about the break, but someone reminded me to eat lunch. Which is a good thing, because I do forget.
Looks like the burrowing critters made it through the fire.