May 6, 2012

Nicole and I went on a field trip today with the local California Native Plant Society chapter, although the site we visited was already very familiar to me – it’s our Western Pond Turtle field site in Lake County, California! It was different being up there and not looking for turtles. I learned some things about plants (which is good; I’m ridiculously ignorant about plants), saw and heard a bunch of great birds (including Pileated Woodpecker and MOUNTAIN QUAIL! Only the second time in my whole life I’ve ever seen Mountain Quail).

April 3 and 4, 2012
Overcast and drizzly

This week, I took two sections of introductory biology students (BIOL 122) up to the Preserve to make some wildlife observations. Our actual goal was to survey some trees for Sudden Oak Death, but I never go to the Preserve without the supplemental goal of making wildlife observations, especially since there is always at least a few students who tell me that this trip is the first time they’ve ever gone hiking in some sort of “natural” or wilderness area.

March 31, 2012
Late evening

Nicole and I had the opportunity to go on this California Red-legged Frog survey as part of a workshop on local endangered and threatened species offered by the Laguna de Santa Rosa. I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves. (In the photos with three frogs, the one in the center is an American Bullfrog).

January 20, 2012
Rainy, after dark

I spent the evening helping graduate student Tracy Bain with her California Tiger Salamander field study. We were recording data on salamanders as they approached Stony Point, preparing to cross the road to access the vernal pool where they breed. Stony Point Road (near Meecham) is terrifying, especially in the rain, because the cars so by so fast! As you might imagine, this is often disastrous for the little tiger salamanders trying to cross the road in the dark, in the rain. In order to reduce road mortality in this critically endangered species, a series of three tunnels were installed under the road, along with driftnet fencing, in the hope that the salamanders would use them to cross safely under the road. On this night, I was assisting with data collection to see if the salamanders were, in fact, using the tunnels.

December 4, 2011

The final Field Herpetology trip of the semester took us to Galbreath Wildlands Preserve in Mendocino County, primarily to look for Rough-skinned Newt.

October 22, 2011

Today, Field Herpetology returned for a second visit to Boggs Lake, to excavate another Western Pond Turtle nest that we had located during our field season back in June, in order to raise the baby turtles long enough to determine their sex, as part of an ongoing research study. In addition to the turtles, we saw a good variety of other wildlife, as well.

September 24, 2011

Nick, Nicole and I took the Field Herpetology class on a field trip to Boggs Lake for a tour of our field site and an overview of the research that we’ve been doing on the nesting behavior and sex determination of Western Pond Turtles.

September 23, 2011

After dropping my kiddo off with their dad for the weekend, I went on a solo birding adventure to Shollenberger Park. Loads of great birds (as usual), including American White Pelican, Northern Shoveler, Greater Yellowlegs and Pacific Golden Plover – a new bird for me!

September 18, 2011

We visited two sites for California Giant Salamander: Purisima Creek in Half Moon Bay, and Sierra Azul, near San Jose. We walked the creek at both locations, searching for salamanders.

August 1, 2011

On my birthday, I spent the day birding with Eclipse and Andrea. We started at Shollenberger, then had lunch at Lily Kai, and then visited Willow Creek in the Laguna de Santa Rosa.

June, 2011

This is a collection of observations made while doing field work at Boggs Lake in Lake County, California. We were focusing on the nesting behavior of Western Pond Turtles, but we also saw loads of other great wildlife at this Nature Conservancy site. Note: some of these dates might not be exact, but all wildlife was seen during the month of June.

June, 2011

This campground, just a few miles away from our Boggs Lake field site, is where we camped throughout the field season. The facilities were nice – bathrooms with showers, a recreation room with wifi – and we had a permanent campground where we all set up our tents together. I usually spent about a week at a time up there, trading off as the field lead with my lab partner, Nicole. Since the turtles we were studying really only became active mid-afternoon, we spent quite a lot of time at the campground.

May 20, 2011
14:05, 70° F, sunny and clear, but windy

As part of our field trip to the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory at the Marin Headlands, we went to the top of Hawk Hill. It is not a migration time, so we didn’t see a large number of birds, but there were still a few feathery friends in the area, including California Brown Pelican diving in San Francisco Bay, Brewer’s Blackbird near Fort Cronkhite, and White-throated Swift near the top of Hawk Hill.

May 14, 2011

With another full day ahead, I started out with a short solo walk on the property before the rest of the day’s activities. I saw a good number of birds, plus a Desert Cottontail. New birds included a Green Heron flying along the salt flat, a Spotted Sandpiper tail bobbing on the fountain in Lake Tuendae, a Belted Kingfisher flying and calling at the lake, and a pair of Red-tailed Hawks on the rocks near the road between Zzyzx and Baker – the first hawks I saw on this trip.

May 13, 2011

Desert Studies Center

(07:30; 87° F) On our first full day in the desert, I woke up early in the morning and took a short walk on site before breakfast. I walked past the swimming pool and south along the alkali flats. I didn’t see a lot of wildlife here, although I did spot another Lucy’s Warbler, and a Mourning Dove. Near Lake Tuendae, I saw the American Coot family, and a White-throated Swift flying over the lake. During breakfast, a Killdeer flew overhead while vocalizing, which made it easy to ID.

May 12, 2011
Located off the Zzyzx exit from I-15; arrived at 16:35
88°/32° Clear, very warm

After a long drive on the first day of our Vertebrate Biology field trip, I took a short solo walk near Lake Tuendae, where I saw a family of American Coot (with four chicks!) and a Mourning Dove. I then headed out past the swimming pool, and along the Soda Lake salt flat. Here, I spotted Desert Cottontail, Say’s Phoebe, and Yellow Warbler. I also heard (but couldn’t spot) a Phainopepla. The excitement for this day was was one of the birds I’d most hoped to see on this trip: the relatively uncommon Lucy’s Warbler. Super cute! I saw the bird bopping around in some mesquite.

May 6, 2011
07:30, 59° F, light breeze

Vertebrate Biology field trip to the Palomarin Field Station, part of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, to see the techniques they use for mist-netting and banding. We walked the net route twice, but did not see any birds caught in the net. We were able to view at close range three birds that had been netted earlier, however, so we got to see the banding and data collection process. The PRBO staff were very helpful, and were happy to help me ID some of the bird calls we heard while walking the site, particularly Wrentit, whose call was familiar to me, but I’d never been able to identify it before.

April 15, 2011
11:30, 73° F, overcast

This was another Vertebrate Biology field trip. Safari West is located at 3115 Porter Creek Road in Santa Rosa, about 7 miles east of Hwy 101. We took a driving tour of the large animal enclosures, as well as a visit to the walk-in-aviary. This journal entry records only the native and non-captive wildlife I saw during my visit to the park, most of which were seen on the jeep tour.

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. 

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.