Off the Edge of the Map
April 8, 2011: Galbreath Wildlands Preserve, Mendocino, CA
Early in the day, we viewed a specimen captured by Emily Harvey. Later, we found these newts in abundance at the Waterfall site, along the sides of the stream and in small pools. We saw dozens of individuals and they were easy to catch and examine in hand. Clearly different coloration from T. granulosa: T. rivularis has a distinctly red belly. Adorable.
Continue reading “Red-bellied Newt”
April 8, 2011: Galbreath Wildlands Preserve, Mendocino, CA
Found 2 specimens at the 1st Sheep Barn at Galbreath Preserve. One under a piece of a fallen tree (I found this one), and one under a wooden plank near the barn. Decided that both were “black” (rather than “arboreal”) based on the relative size of the head to the body. Captured a third specimen at the 2nd Sheep Barn site.
Continue reading “Black Salamander”
April 8, 2011: Galbreath Wildlands Preserve, Mendocino, CA
We were able to see a specimen that Emily Harvey had captured before we arrived.
Continue reading “Foothill Yellow-legged Frog”
April 8, 2011
Arrived 10:30, 68° F, sunny and clear w/light breeze
I visited this SSU property on a field trip with Vertebrate Biology. We stopped at several locations in the preserve, looking for specific target species at each location.
Continue reading “Galbreath Wildlands Preserve”
March 21 and 24, 2011
For the Vertebrate Biology class I am taking this semester, we’re required to keep a detailed field journal of all our wildlife observations. I took two walks along the main channel of the Laguna de Santa Rosa for making observations that I could include in my journal.
Continue reading “Laguna de Santa Rosa”
September 11, 2010: Emigrant Pass, Mojave Desert
After lunch, while a few of us were exploring near camp, I had my absolute favorite moment of the entire trip: this magnificent Chuckwalla. I wasn’t even particularly looking for wildlife, I’d just wandered off from the rest of the group and was in a little rocky area when I noticed the lizard. It was just the two of us for several minutes. I didn’t approach too closely, and the chuckwalla seemed happy enough to cautiously hang around, before it eventually ran to hide in the rocks. What a gorgeous, lizard! And I was grateful for the little bit of privacy, so I could take my time just watching . . . if anyone else had been there, they’d have tried to grab it up, and I wouldn’t have had this leisurely viewing, plus the lizard would have had a much more stressful encounter. Chuckwallas are amazing.
September 11, 2010
Today, we spent the morning mapping the Carrera Formation, looked for a few more fossils in the trilobite bed near camp, and then headed into the town of Shoshone for some afternoon and evening fun.
Continue reading “Paleontology: Emigrant Pass”
September 10, 2010: Kelso Dunes, San Bernardino County, CA
We spotted a Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard near the parking area. I especially love these photos as they show the lizard and some of the tracks it left behind. This lizard isn’t strictly endemic to Kelso Dunes, but is only rarely seen outside of this area.
Continue reading “Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard”
September 10, 2010
The next morning, we packed up our camp (we’d be staying the remaining nights at another site), and headed to Kelso Dunes, an active – and impressive – sand dune habitat, the largest field of aeolian deposits in the Mojave Desert. According to the National Park Service website, about 25,000 years ago, nearby Lake Manix catastrophically drained. As the land dried out, sediment was exposed, and as those sediments are picked up by the wind, they are consistently deposited onto the dunes due to the eddies and crosswinds formed by nearby landforms (the Granite and Providence mountain ranges). Most of our group went up to the top of the dunes, but a couple of us didn’t feel up to quite such a strenuous hike, and wandered around at the lower elevation.
Continue reading “Paleontology: Kelso Dunes and Emigrant Pass”
September 9, 2010
This multi-day trip took us to the Mojave Desert and Nopah Range in San Bernardino and Inyo Counties, with the Paleontology class taught by Matt James. It was a fantastic trip where we looked for fossils and assessed rock formations, as well as taking in some of the local sights. This post covers our first full day in the desert.
Continue reading “Paleontology: Marble Mountains”
February 28, 2009: Bodega Bay harbor, Sonoma County, CA
Spotted several of these birds on the water or on mudflats while we were leaving the harbor on our whale watch boat. I didn’t even realize they were a life species for me until looking at the photos more than a YEAR later.
Continue reading “Brant Goose”
August 27, 2008
Last Thursday, we took advantage of one of the last few days of summer to make a trip to the coast. I’d driven through Bodega Bay before (on our return trip from Mount St. Helens last year), but this is the first time I’d stopped and spent any time there. We had lunch in a bay-side restaurant, where we got to watch pelicans and seals and sea lions and cormorants and, yes, gulls who looked like they might go crazed and attack at any moment. 😉
Then, we went to the beach for a while, via the Bird Walk – a trail of about a mile (I’m guessing; maybe less, maybe a bit more, but probably less) which runs alongside a creek that flows into the ocean just south of the bay. It was a great day.
Continue reading “Bodega Bay”
Cormorant
Watercolor and Ink
Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer)
Graphite
Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)
Watercolor
Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)
Graphite
Purple Sea Nettle (Chrysaora colorata)
Watercolor
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Watercolor, unfinished
Rose
Watercolor
Rose
Graphite
May 4, 2007: Groveland area, Tuolumne, CA, United States
We spotted this pair of birds as we were driving back down the mountain out of Yosemite National Park. We were no longer in the park boundary at the time. They were preparing to cross the road, and as we were driving at the time, I only had a quick glimpse, but it was enough to see that the feather ornament on top of their heads was straight, not curved like that of the California Quail. YAY! My first life bird of this trip!
Continue reading “Mountain Quail”
August 8, 2006: Santa Ana College, Orange County, CA
We saw these naturalized (and countable!) parrots on the college campus when coming to see my sister perform in Our Town. There were a lot of these birds noisily flying overhead or perched on telephone wires. It was definitely an interesting moment when I heard noises that I didn’t expect to hear in southern California, only to look up to find that the pigeons were really psitticines. 🙂
May 1, 2005: Belair National Park, South Australia
Was able to watch this bird soar overhead for a few minutes. Unfortunately, it didn’t come down close enough for good photos, but it was still a nice sighting.
Continue reading “Australian Hobby”
May 2, 2005
Early on Monday, Vicky and I took the kids to Cleland Wildlife Park. It was FANTASTIC! We saw loads of great animals, and were able to hold a Koala, although in this entry I’ve journaled almost exclusively wild birds and animals that we saw in the park. New species for me included White-throated Treecreeper.
Continue reading “Cleland Wildlife Park”Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.