Off the Edge of the Map
White-throated Swift
Aeronautes saxatalis
March 4, 2022: Ellis Creek
A few deer were seen in the meadow at the eastern edge of the site.
Continue reading “Columbian Black-tailed Deer”
June 3, 2022
Our last day at the Bodega Marine Lab, we had only a single workshop session in the morning, and then would be heading home. A thick fog had rolled in while we were tidepooling, which made the landscape eerie and beautiful, especially along the BML road, which is a great place to drive slowly and look for wildlife.
Continue reading “Bodega Marine Lab (Day 3)”
June 2 and 3, 2022
06:30
While staying at the Bodega Marine Laboratory for a workshop, and knowing that low tide would happen around 8 in the morning, a group of us decided to wake up early enough to do some tidepooling before breakfast. Well worth the effort. Campbell Cove was just a couple minutes’ drive from the dorms, and we arrived just after 6:30 to find a large expanse of beach exposed, along with the rocks that form the jetty.
Continue reading “Tidepooling at Campbell Cove”May 15, 2022: Northern California
On our way home from Zzyzx, once we’d made it further north (right around dusk), we saw a road killed badger on the median of the highway. I came close to breaking into tears. Such a magnificent animal dead on the side of the road, and the first one I’d ever seen in the wild. I wouldn’t have chosen for my first badger to be dead, but it just gives me more incentive to go out and find some living ones in the near future. No photo, but this is the location.
Continue reading “American Badger”
June 2, 2022
This was the full day of our Virtual Field workshop so I was in the classroom for big chunks of the day, but I did have plenty of opportunities (on breaks and during lunch) to wander around outside and take photos of the amazing wildlife and plant community.
Continue reading “Bodega Marine Lab”
June 1, 2022
I had the good fortune to spend a few days at the Bodega Marine Laboratory for a workshop (for The Virtual Field project). I’d not been to the marine lab before, and I was looking forward to seeing the facility, but to be honest I was most excited about the promise of seeing the wildlife on site.
Continue reading “Bodega Marine Lab”
May 20, 2022
09:00 to 11:30
Rather than giving my Vertebrate Biology students a conventional written final exam, I decided to do something more adventurous: have them participate in a BioBlitz on campus so I could assess their knowledge of local wildlife and identification techniques. For anyone not familiar with the term, a BioBlitz is an effort to document biodiversity in a given location during a certain period of time. While the structure of these events can vary, the idea is to identify as many species as possible in the time you are given.
Continue reading “Vertebrate Biology BioBlitz!”
May 15, 2022
12:30 to 2:00 p.m.
On the way home from Zzyzx, the folks in my van decided to make a stop part of the way home, to see if we could find some desert tortoises at the sanctuary in California City. It was a bit of a drive off the highway that took us away from anything resembling civilization. When we arrived at the preserve, the facilities consisted of two trailers (one for the naturalist, and the other was the giftshop). The naturalist was super friendly, and eager to give us some tips about where we might be able to find tortoises (although she hadn’t seen one in the recent past). It was quite warm – probably around 100° F – so we covered up and stocked up on water, and headed out into the desert landscape.
Continue reading “Desert Tortoise Sanctuary”
May 15, 2022
07:00
Our last morning in the desert, several of us got up early to check a series of pitfall traps that had been set the night before. A few very cool animals found their way into the traps, and we were able to get some great photos before releasing them to go on their way. The traps were set up in transects, and I think we ended up checking 40 or 50 traps. Most of them were empty, but here are the things that we did see.
Continue reading “Desert Studies Center Pitfall Traps”
May 14, 2022
13:00
Our next stop was the Mid-Hills Campground in the Mojave National Preserve, where we explored a higher-elevation pinyon pine and juniper forest.
Continue reading “Mid-Hills Campground”
May 14, 2022: Night driving on Kelbaker Road, Mojave Desert
During a night drive on our last night in the desert, after about 45 minutes, no one in any of the vans had seen any reptiles, and I think people were a bit discouraged and tired, and we all decided that we’d turn around and head back to the Desert Studies Center. As we were making our way back, one of my students called out that she thought she’d seen something unusual in the road. We backed up, and sure enough, there was something “unusual” in the road: A Mojave green rattlesnake!!!! This is always one of the hoped-for species on this trip, and this snake did not disappoint. We phoned the other two vans to let them know about the snake, and they turned around to meet us.
Continue reading “Mojave Green Rattlesnake”
May 14, 2022
10:30 to 12:00
Our first stop for the day was the Kelso Dunes, where we would be looking for different species than we’d seen in the Bajada.
Continue reading “Kelso Dunes”
May 14, 2022: Kelbaker Road, San Bernardino County, CA
On the way east on Kelbaker Road, we didn’t find any reptiles, although we did pick up some eyeshine with one of the flashlights out in the desert near the road. We stopped the van, and tried to figure out the identity of what appeared to be three sets of eyes, almost certainly mammalian. Some of the others in the van caught a glimpse of the animals – foxes of some sort. We wandered around near where they’d been seen, and found their den, and a couple of my students caught enough of a glimpse of the animals to identify them as Kit Foxes. KIT FOXES!!!!! Unfortunately, by the time I was able to make my way to the den, they’d taken cover and were nowhere to be seen. Still, this was their den, so we thought there was a pretty good likelihood that they’d be out again when we drove past on our way back to Zzyzx. So, we dropped a pin on the map, to locate the den again, and kept on with the night driving. Later, we returned to the location where we’d dropped the pin, and easily identified the area where we’d found the den. We pulled off to the opposite side of the road and turned off the car, hoping not to stress them out or startle them too much. Then, we spotlit the area with our flashlights. Sure enough, more eyeshine, and then, in the light of the flashlights, we saw the foxes themselves. Juveniles – at least three (possibly four) – and I was absolutely thrilled to see them for the first time in the wild. Then, as we watched, they decided that they weren’t bothered by our lights, and went back to the business of being young foxes, which mostly included pouncing on one another in mock battles, running back and forth through the brush, and even trying to climb up into a small tree near the den. It was one of the most wonderful and adorable things I’d ever seen. They were so beautiful and precious, and watching the just playing with one another as if we weren’t there is literally one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my entire life. We watched them for a while – probably about half an hour – and then decided that it was getting late, and we had a long drive ahead of us in the morning. So, feeling a bit sad to leave the foxes behind, we headed back to the Desert Studies Center.
Continue reading “Kit Fox”
May 14, 2022
21:00 – 23:00
It was our last night in the desert, so of course, there would be night driving as soon as the sun went down. We’d hoped for a bit more action than the previous night, since the temperature had been much warmer today than yesterday. This didn’t really pan out, but in spite of not finding a huge array of wildlife, what we saw was utterly amazing.
Continue reading “Night Driving Kelbaker Road”
May 14: Midhills Campground, San Bernardino County
During a Vertebrate Biology trip to the Mojave Desert, we visited this higher elevation montane forest. After we’d been there for about half an hour, one of my students spotted something amazing: this snake that had just caught a pocket mouse and was in the process of swallowing it. Seeing this behavior in the wild is so unusual, especially for a snake that isn’t all that common in this area, which is at the very edge of its range. Super interesting, and such a pretty snake. I suspect that we are among a very small number of people who have ever witnessed this species having a meal.
Continue reading “Desert Striped Whipsnake”
May 14, 2022: Kelso Dunes, San Bernardino County, California
This amazing lizard was found during a Vertebrate Biology field trip to the Mojave Desert, at Kelso Dunes. While I was walking not far from the parking area, someone called out “DESERT IGUANA” so I started to head in that direction, all the while yelling back to try and figure out exactly where they’d found the lizard. I caught up with them near the bottom of a rise.
Continue reading “Desert Iguana”
May 14, 2022: Kelso Dunes, San Bernardino County, CA
Back at the cars, I found a Long-tailed Brush Lizard up in the tree that was shading our van.
Continue reading “Long-tailed Brush Lizard”
May 13, 2022
07:30 to 23:30
On our first full day in the desert, after breakfast I had some time while everyone else was getting ready to head out to the bajada site, so I took a 45-minute walk through an area I’d enjoyed on my first visit here: south past the pool, out through the mesquite trees and along the edge of the alkali flat/dry lake bed. I’d explored this area on my previous visit with good results (Lucy’s warbler!), and was excited to visit it again. No Lucy’s today, but I did see a wide diversity of birds, including at least one I’d not seen before.
Continue reading “Mojave Desert: Day 2”
May 12, 2022
7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Distance traveled: 861 km
The culminating experience for this year’s Vertebrate Biology class was a multi-day trip down to the Mojave Desert, to stay at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, California. Anticipated throughout the semester, the trip did not disappoint. On this first day, most of our wildlife sightings were incidental, seen from the van while driving down I-5. After a long day on the road, we arrived at the Desert Studies Center, where everything looked pretty much the same as I remembered it from 2011, when I took this trip as a student. Immediately upon arrival, I remember just what a good place this is. After we’d arrived, I did see a few animals on site, and we made some fantastic finds along Zzyzx Road after having dinner in Baker.
Continue reading “Driving to the Desert Studies Center”
May 12, 2022: Zzyzx Road after dark
On our way back to Zzyzx after having dinner in Baker, we drove slowly along along Zzyzx Road, hoping to locate some Baja California Treefrogs. When we came to a place where we could hear the frogs vocalizing, we pulled off to the side of the road. We never did see the frogs, but while I was taking some photos of a Vachon’s scorpion, one of my companions turned over a rock a few meters from the road to reveal a Desert Nightsnake!
Continue reading “Desert Nightsnake”
May 6, 2022
11:30 to 13:30
Distance traveled: 2 km
After we were finished at the Palomarin Field Station, while most of the Vertebrate Biology class headed home, a small group of us decided to make a stop at a different part of the Point Reyes National Seashore to forage for mushrooms. We parked at the Bear Valley Visitor Center and took a hike along the Morgan Trail, a detour that only took us about 10 minutes off of the route we were taking home This turned out to be an excellent decision. We didn’t see as many different types of mushrooms as my companions had hoped, but we saw LOADS of other wonderful things: birds galore, some lovely native plants, and a few mammals, as well. I made good use of the Merlin app on my phone to help me sort out the multitude of birds who were singing in the woods (all identifications were verified by me once I returned home).
Continue reading “Morgan Trail, Point Reyes”
May 6, 2022
8:30 to 11:00
After an hour and a half drive to Bolinas, at the southern end of the Point Reyes National Seashore, my Vertebrate Biology students and I arrived at the Palomarin Field Station at 8:30 a.m., where folks from Point Blue Conservation Science had graciously agreed to show us the ropes of mist netting and bird banding. Up on the mountain, it was foggy and just a little bit drizzly, but not too cold – not great weather for seeing birds (or for catching birds in the mist nets).
Continue reading “Bird Banding at Point Reyes”
May 2, 2022
10:00 to 13:00
My Restoration Ecology class visited various sites in Marin County today on a field trip where Sarah Phillips introduced us to some of her salmonid restoration sites. Sarah is an alumna of SSU, and now works with the Marin Resource Conservation District.
Continue reading “Salmonid Sites in Marin”Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.
