Spineless Wonders

JO, JH and I led our fourth SW hike at Windy Hill on 4/6/13. There was a 10% chance of rain, but it was only cloudy with some clear areas, and temps ranging from 52-62F.

We had fewer sightings than last year, perhaps from the lack of rain (despite recent rain). We did find an unusual mass on our scouting hike, possibly fungal or a misshapen slime mold.

Unknown lumpy white mass, possibly fungalAbnormally developed Fuligo septica slime mold

At first, we didn’t know if it had come from an animal (it was white, and lumpy, but didn’t smell). The outside looked woven/netted of several layers of pliable, somewhat tough material (but not tough enough to withstand a stick). I poked a hole in it to see what the inside was like; it was grayish purple “goo”. It was still there on Saturday, but looked a bit deflated.

We started off past 5:30, after looking at a small Lepidopteran caterpillar that had crawled onto my shirt (3 pairs of legs, 4 pairs of prolegs, and a pair of anal prolegs). Sausal Pond had many small fish (Gambusia). A Hooded Merganser took a bath, and American Coot, Pied-billed Grebe, and Mallard floated on the water. Azolla concentrated around the emergent vegetation. JO swept tiny insects and arachnids onto a cloth from an oak for us to look at.

The puddles in the trail didn’t have much if any life in them, unlike last year. At the bench, we looked at damselflies and the tray of water I had set up earlier. I had to dip 6-7 times before I got anything, and that was only tadpoles and one ostracod.

Pseudacris sierra tadpole?

Again, there was a lot more last year. When I approached the area before the hike, 5-6 splashes from the edge of the water occurred, along with a couple of alarm squeaks. Bullfrogs do this. (Both Gambusia, aka mosquito fish, and American bullfrog are not native here.)

There were a few mushrooms along the way. Part of the group had stopped a few times to look at insects and arachnids. We didn’t stop to try to look at any microorganisms in the seasonal pool, which was only a few inches deep and very tannic.

At the log pile, we found two small millipedes, one pink and one beige, and a centipede. Under one of the logs, we marveled at the lavender color of two Panus conchatus mushrooms.

JH went ahead to set up some trays from the creek, and we reached the bridge at 6:50. There were more mushrooms in the meadow, lavender fungus on the log, a California slender salamander, a tick (one of a few), and a large spider in the family Amaurobiidae. While we ate dinner, we looked at a water penny, two caddisfly larvae, and other aquatic larvae. JO found a couple of small black and orange beetles on a piece of bark, and a couple of bats flew over our heads.

We left at 8:00 and headed for the dirt trailbank. The one kid in the group spotted a small snake in the back. We found a large occupied turret in the bank.

On our scouting hike, we checked the “treehole mosquito” tree, but there was no water in the hole. We had taken the additional .5 mile uphill leg, but skipped it this time, opting for the shortcut to Betsy Crowder. We saw a newt and a slender salamander on that leg, but no newts on this night. We did see another 2-3 slender salamanders sitting in the trail, and noted that it seemed like we’ve been seeing relatively a lot of them in the trail this year. There were also many native shoulderband snails; we observed snails on Saturday, but it was difficult to see whether they had the dark line running along the shell.

As expected, closed suncups lined the trail. We missed the crab spiders that we’d seen on our scouting hike, but did have around ten fluorescent millipedes. There were a few black beetles including Scaphinotus, but nothing as interesting as the several harvestman-Scaphinotus-prey scuffles that we observed on the previous Monday. One apparent joint feeding was between some small earwigs and a harvestman. And, having just returned from a recent bryophyte foray with UC, we found another liverwort.

A lone Great Horned Owl called briefly as we passed through the eucalyptus grove.

We made our usual stop at the lichen fence, and around 9:40 those who wanted to depart did so, while some of us returned to the pond to look at frogs. The treefrogs were calling, and we were able to see at least one bullfrog’s eyeshine.

All critters, temporarily collected in clean trays, were returned to their homes.

Here are some photos from both nights.

Night on Froggy Mountain 2013

We revisited Monte Bello this year on Friday 2/8/13, taking the new trail configuration and meeting at 4:00. KG, LJ, CR and I scouted it on 1/28. While cold, it was colder on the public hike, and CB took LJ’s place. We stopped first at a small seasonal puddle. Surprisingly, it was teeming with life. There were many brown flatworms swimming slowly, orange clam-like ostracods moving a little faster, other pond microlife, and treefrog egg clusters as well as a few small tadpoles. The water had shrunk some from our earlier visit, and there was less activity.

We passed a fresh “cowboy’s handkerchief” mushroom and an old puffball, and reached the White Oak Trail intersection at about 5:00. 11 days earlier, we had come across a pair of freshly-shed deer antlers from an old animal. Here, the biologist scouting with us demonstrates. We stashed the antlers so they would be available to show hike participants, but alas, they were gone. Five live deer were spotted along the way.

Deer CR

At 5:20, we turned to go downhill, and found a different kind of animal sign, a skunk carcass. A few feet from the carcass were scattered clumps of fur. Oddly, the tail had been stripped naked.

We arrived at the pond and our dinner post at 5:30, ten minutes before sunset, hoping that the frogs would start calling by 6:15-6:30. Four Hooded Mergansers floated on the water. We heard duetting Great Horned Owls, and one landed atop a tree over the pond while it was still light enough to see, along with a short bark from a Western Screech-owl.

The air temperature was about 37F; unfortunately that was too cold for the frogs to feel like calling. One or two treefrogs gave a couple of calls, but we heard no red-legged frogs. One gave some calls on the scouting hike, which was warmer at 44F. Gambusia (mosquito fish) were still present. The newts were still visible, as well as egg clusters. Along the back of the pond, a female newt hunched above a big pile of egg clusters. One of the participants saw an “albino newt”, but we didn’t see it.

We decided to head back at 7:30. Always fun, we pointed out a couple of fluorescent millipedes in the woods, and arrived back half an hour early at 8:30.

Here are more photos, and here are frogs from 1/28, with one in the foreground.

 

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Edit: While we talked about the skunk carcass on our hike a little, contemplating what might have gotten it, I still wanted to know more. After we saw the owl at the pond, it reminded me that Great-horned Owls eat skunks (they can’t detect odors very well, unlike Turkey Vultures). The carcass was also not too far from the road. I posted the find to the bay area trackers club online group. Here are a couple of edited comments:

“…it IS roadkill season for skunks as they come out of torpor spells feeling hungry and looking to make social connections. …But the stripped condition of the tail, and it looks like other parts of the carcass though a bit unclear, is consistent with raptor kills, since they tend to pull the skin off the prey rather than eating through it like a canine or feline, and the carcass seems fairly whole, not scattered as if it had been scavenged.”–RV

“Whole carcass, stripped fur, rib meat picked clean… And it looks like a GHO predated skunk carcass I saw once before. Also, I did a bit of camera trapping of raptors on carcasses last year for a golden eagle survey, and it has that look.
But your point about roadkill is solid – it could have been stripped by crows, ravens, TVs or like.”–KH

Monte Bello OSP, Adobe Creek Trail

Coyote trotting, 5-second sequence

On sunny clear Friday 2/1/13, JO and I took a last-minute hike on Adobe Creek Trail, which I hadn’t been to on foot (I think we drove part of this on the one deer survey that I’ve done). To enter, we parked at a pullout. The gate is across the road, and we walked up the paved portion starting at 2:00. 2-3 fast running spiders, looking like Agelenids or Lycosids, crossed the road.

We turned right up the hill, then at the first left intersection, we came across a coyote. It stood looking the way it apparently wanted to go, in the same direction that we would be going after we watched it and took photos. It crossed the grass and trotted across our view, not paying much attention to us.

Over the entire 2.5 miles, there was open grassland and some woods. We reached the low point crossing Adobe Creek at 3:10, ~1.7 miles in. There were a few mushrooms along the bank in the woods.

Water drops

The most interesting thing in the woods were some very tiny white dots on a piece of wood, which a hand lens revealed as fungi or possibly empty egg cases (see the holes in the tops), but they don’t seem  uniform or placed neatly as insect eggs often are. Some were taller than others.

Tiny fungi?

Once we came out into the open again, some lichen-covered rocks appeared. “Rock tripe” was spaced out on one, unlike this, so packed together than it’s hard for me to tell.

Crustose lichen on rock, crowded Umbilicaria (rock tripe)?

Lichen tree

We arrived back close to 4:00. Shaggy lichen-covered trees stood near the gate.

See the route we took here.

Christmas Bird Count 2012

This year, we had someone else counting the Ward Creek area but no other help. The temperatures ranged from ~45-51F. It was mostly overcast, and didn’t feel as cold as I had expected.

KP, CB and I started at MB’s place at 8:40, looking for the two White-throated Sparrows spending time there,  then quickly drove through Lone Tree Cemetery at 9:36, leaving there at 9:57 to go to Don Castro. We didn’t see the turkeys that MB had seen.

At 10:01, we arrived at Don Castro. We stopped briefly by the dam to look at the Cackling Goose and look over the spillway. A Black-crowned Night Heron slept in a tree. There was a Common Merganser, but no Ring-necked Ducks that day. KD was waiting at the lot.  We birded the lot and lawn areas for about 20 minutes, then took the lower trail around the lake. That end of the lake has filled in, but there was some very shallow water. We followed the perimeter  then along the creek, and got to the bridge around 11:40.

We decided whether to turn around or continue around, which we did upon KD’s recommendation. We took the higher trail in the open area, and at 11:55, reached a large old willow next to an intersection of the trail that leads up to a residential area. KD spotted a woodpecker, and KP identified it as a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! This bird wasn’t even on the CBC list, and we had to document it. After watching it for about 20 minutes, we continued.

Favored bare area with holes weeping sap

Yellow-belled Sapsucker

We finished up there at 12:47 and headed off for lunch, which took longer because we had to write up the rarity.

At about 3:00, we started down Shady Canyon Trail. We went partly around the pond, where there was a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds. Wild Turkeys were around, and we heard Varied Thrush. We finished there at 4:33.

Since it was too late to go back to Don Castro to watch the blackbirds come in to roost, we went to Crestview Court to listen for owls. We arrived at 4:45 and stayed for 8 minutes. Two Great Horned Owls duetted.

Here are some photos from November and on count day.

Here is the complete list.

 

Death and Tigers on the Road

On a rainy night, our Merritt College salamander class took a night drive along one of the rural  roads off I580 south. We arrived at the east entrance at 6:00 p.m.

After about 15 minutes, we started driving, trying to keep the car in front of us out of sight. There were three cars. We didn’t see anything (at least didn’t recognize things as being more than detritus) going at the speed we were going, 25-30 mph. We tried covering the distracting dashboard displays to help our vision. We turned around 10 miles in at 6:40.

At 7:20, we found a decomposing raccoon carcass (read somewhat smelly). While we were not finding the things we were looking for, the other two cars found many things. 10 minutes later, we found a squished newt. Another 10 minutes, and we found a live California Toad (Anaxyrus boreas halophilus) in the road.  We encouraged it to move to the side. It started to rain. Another 12 minutes, another roadkill. It was a herp, but we couldn’t tell what. In examining my photos post-trip, I see a light stripe, but that could be just reflection off a fold.  Nearby was a squished California Red-legged Frog (Rana draytonii), a federally threatened species.  There was also a roadkill bird. It wasn’t a seed eater, as the bill was thinner than that of a sparrow or finch.

Squished California Red-legged Frog

At 8:00 we passed a squished insect, an Orthopteran (crickets, grasshoppers and katydids). The people in the other two cars found more things. There were hundreds of round Spirobolida (probably) millipedes on the wet road. They exuded brown defensive secretions that smelled like bleach. Somewhere, we passed another raccoon carcass.

We turned around again at 8:15. We were moving slower now, realizing that the suggested 25 was still too fast for us, so we moved at 5-10 mph, keeping an eye out for cars coming up on us. From the car, things looked a lot smaller. In retrospect, we could have gotten out and walked in some areas. Half an hour later, MC spotted some movement on the road ahead. We stopped and jumped out. Finally, a California Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma californiense)! It was moving parallel to the road, so we couldn’t tell what it was from the car.  It was roughly 7″ long including the tail, a beautiful creature.  This species is federally threatened, endangered in some areas.  Non-native barred tiger salamanders had also been introduced as fishing bait, and they are hybridizing with the natives.

Since some of these salamanders and many other critters not listed here were killed by cars, we encouraged all the critters we found to move to the side. Hopefully they will live another day. A few minutes down the road we spotted another tiger.

Around 8:50, I spotted something by the yellow lines. Jumping out again, the small lump in the road became a  Western Spadefoot Toad (Spea hammondii)! It was very cute, 1.5-2″ as it sat. We didn’t want it to get run over either, so I picked it up (we didn’t pick up the protected animals). We looked at its hard spade. It protested with a release call. I brought it over to show our driver, and it protested again. Thank you, little guy, I hope you live long enough to have kids.

Western Spadefoot Toad (Spea hammondii)

Another 10 minutes later, another animal in the road. This time it was a small, live California Red-legged Frog, 3-4″ sitting.

We missed the gopher snake, newts, treefrogs and owl that others saw, as well as a Calisoga spider. But the Tiger Salamanders made the trip. We started back at 9:00.

More photos are here. They include several roadkills.

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For more, see CaliforniaHerps, and Hank Fabian‘s website.

Nature at Night

The sentinel

Joining PB and KG again at Monte Bello on 10/19, the sky was clear. From down below it looked overcast. It would turn out somewhat chilly in the woods.

The guardian of the lot, Common Raven, perched at the entrance.

During the introduction, a Great Blue Heron flew over to the east. Golden-crowned Sparrows gave their three-note calls. The 12 participants got to watch a male Northern Harrier float over the grassland.

There was a new spider hole on the way down, and at the sag pond, another spider hole that hadn’t been open this year.  Spotted Towhee and Steller’s Jay called.

It wasn’t quite dark enough when we got to the dinner spot, but at half an hour after sunset, the Common Poorwill showed up.  There was one bat spotted.  Other owls called during the night: Great Horned, Barn, and Western Screech-owl.

Edward’s Glassy-wing, female

Still early when we left our dinner spot, an owl wailed at the nature trail, possibly a Saw-whet. Coyotes yipped. We quickly found scorpions, and with the participants’ help (a few had their own UV flashlights), found ~15 over the course of the night despite the cool temperatures. We stopped at the turret patch. The Edwards’ Glassy-wings were still out, and a female landed on the ground. I picked it up gently, and it perched on my hand for a long time. From time to time, it would buzz its wings to warm its flight muscles.

Other sightings included a millipede, Scaphinotus beetle, and one wolf spider.

At this time of year, a lot of what we see after dark are arachnids. Sometimes they are particularly accommodating. We refound the wafer-lid trapdoor from our scouting hike.

Here is a slowed-down version:

One newt showed up in the water beneath one of the bridges. This time, there was no odor of decomposition on the way up the switchbacks. We got back to the top early, and did a little stargazing. I scouted the spider holes, and we tried to coax one out of a new hole, but it wanted to stay in. Since we had time, we went back down a short distance to a known hole, and that tarantula came out far enough to show most of its body.

We still got back to the lot about 15 minutes early.

Arachnophilia, in flagrante delicto

On our fourth annual Arachnophilia! hike on 10/13, temps were ~63 to ~55. JO, SW and I had 12 participants show up.

On the way up Page Mill, a young coyote trotted down the road. An amusing Common Raven incident happened as we waited for people to arrive. There was another raven nearby. I assume the culprit is the same raven that I’ve seen loitering in the lot. One time it walked from one side of the lot to the other, under the arching oak and down the trail by the entrance. Another time, it sat atop the Monte Bello sign as I drove past. The last car in a row of many fell victim to raven’s mischievousness, having its side mirror pecked and wiper blades pulled. Here is a video that JO took:

 

We started on the trail at 5:30, after a little arachnid show and tell. A couple of deer browsed on the hill. The vinegar weed continued in bloom. A couple of very small brown wolf spiders crossed the trail, and a fence lizard ran to hide.

At the sag pond, a Virginia Rail called. A young Southern Alligator Lizard skittered near and stopped, pretending to be invisible. A gray squirrel climbed through a willow. We briefly checked holes on the hill, and stopped for the birds’ nest fungi. There were only a few very small orbs along the way.

The big intersection came at 7:40.  I wanted to get to our dinner spot by dusk, so except for stopping for the labyrinth spider (Metepeira), we continued on. A  bat flew by. It took a while for it to get dark enough for the poorwill to show up.  We watched it for quite a while, and it was still there when it was time to leave. We made our way slowly down the trail on the opposite side, and finally it took off.

The harvester ant nest still has alates. Oddly, they’ve been there at least since 8/24. A tree cricket sat in the trail, and a small brown crab spider uncharacteristically walked around on the ground.

Soon after entering the woods, our first Calisoga for the season showed up. Then someone spotted another.  We examined them, and a centipede and millipede also showed up. We would see several more of these slender round millipedes as the night went on. A few small cockroaches also appeared along the way, with various small black beetles including Scaphinotus and many many harvestmen. One pair was either fighting or copulating, and another was eating an ant or ant remains.

It was a bit after 8:00 by the time we returned to the intersection, so we decided just to go in as far as the turrets. A small 15-20mm Calisoga sat in the middle of the trail. It did a good job at playing dead when I touched it, and even fell over on its side. We decided to move it to the side since we’d be returning that way. We found several turrets, plus forest scorpions and other small spiders. At 8:45, we headed back uphill.

The hard turrets had spiders perched in them. Lots of camel crickets sat in the trail, and some of them curiously fluoresced. We  pondered whether they were afflicted with a fungus, were about to molt, or simply were a different species.

Glowworm (Phengodidae), female or larva

Over the course of the night, at least some of the participants saw about 15 scorpions and 2 Jerusalem Crickets. As we looked in holes, a Barn Owl shrieked a few times. Another Edwards’ Glassy-wing visited us, and while we were looking at that, someone noticed something moving at my feet. It was a glowworm (Phengodidae) larva or female! Its eyes were too small to see well enough to tell whether they were compound or simple, and we didn’t detect any visible bioluminescence. This was only the second of this family that we’ve seen up here. Another interesting moth landed on MW, a very hairy but beautiful moth, perhaps genus Tolype. We also saw more Calisogas looking for mates.

At 9:45, I decided to go up Bella Vista to the first clear dirt bank. We found a Black Widow in her web, showing her red hourglass.

Along the sag pond trail, a newt crossed. It stopped in the middle of the trail, and was cooperative. We checked the sag pond spider hole, which was still closed. A bit further along, a pile of silver hair by the side of the trail–a pair of mating Calisogas, next to a burrow! Including the one by my car in the lot that managed not to get stepped on, we saw a total of 12, a record. The male Calisoga held the female back with his spurs, using six of his legs to hold her while he used his palps.

Mating Calisogas, male on the left

Another small brown crab spider walked by the couple, and a harvestman.

We finally tore ourselves away after everyone had gotten good looks with close-focus binoculars, and turned towards the walnut grove around 10:15. We only had time to take a quick look into the tarantula hole to see legs in order to get back by 10:30.