Monte Bello OSP

After the previous night hike at this preserve, I wanted to take another look at the Legionary Ants we found. I joined KG and PB on their scouting trip on 10/21. I hadn’t been up to Black Mountain since we did a group overnight a couple of years ago.

Many tiny fence lizards ran across the trail. The busy harvester ant nest had little or no activity. Perhaps the army ants drove them away.

One of the Calisoga burrows by the sag pond had housecleaning done; silky dirt with debris encircled the hole, the one that was “stuffed” with silk the previous week. We didn’t see any babies in the other hole.

Before 5:00, we crossed paths with a male tarantula. His abdomen was small, but didn’t have a bald patch like a lot of the ones we’d seen in Mt. Diablo on 10/12. We found several holes on the way up, including at least two tarantula burrows. A female tarantula hawk (Pepsis) was checking a trailbank for prey.

Yet another male tarantula crossed the trail, and we watched him go the opposite way from where we found a burrow. As we were taking photos, he turned around and climbed up a steep, almost vertical dirt trailbank. Last year we saw one tarantula, and before that we hadn’t seen one for a few years.

Some odd repeated calls came from the canyon, maybe wild turkey hens.

There was a very large deadman’s foot kind of fungus, shaped like a ball, but with cocoa-like spores.

We got to Black Mountain around 6:30. The wind was cold enough that I wanted a jacket on top of my two layers.
At 7:10, the too-bright light on one of the utility buildings made us wonder how it affected the nocturnal animals and migrating birds. We’ve seen this light from a distance off the preserve.

Campers were at the backpack camp, and we spoke to the ranger who had driven up to check on them.

There was a surprising number of Jerusalem Crickets on the trail. Usually we’re lucky to see one. I didn’t count, but I’m sure we saw more than seven. Two were injured and being scavenged by ants. We checked a hole in the dirt trailbank at one of the tree clumps, and it had a spider at the opening. We found one centipede, several Western Black Widows, and a millipede. Like the widows we’ve seen at Long Ridge, these seem to like spinning their webs over a shallow hole in the lower part of a trail bank hidden by grass or oats.

We looked for the tarantula burrows that we’d found on the way up.  We located one. I noticed that it also had recent housecleaning, with the dirt piled up around the opening. I wanted to see if it felt like the Calisoga’s housecleaning debris, so I felt some between my fingers. Somebody was home, and ran out! The spider startled us, and we watched it until it turned around and went back in, its body just fitting the hole. Although not fat, it looked in good shape. We thought of taking a video, so we got ready and tried touching the debris. Since we were touching the outside of the pile instead of picking some up, it took a little longer for it to come out. It crept closer to the entrance and did come out, and stayed there for three minutes, unmoving, until I got tired of holding the camera. I wanted to catch it going back in, and it didn’t take much since just the movement of an arm caused it to back in. Thank you for letting us see you.

Out of the wind, it was a little warmer. We heard a distant Barn Owl as well as Western screech-owl as we checked all the trailbank holes.

Back at the sag pond, we looked into the Calisoga holes. There weren’t any Solifugids on the trail back to the lot; maybe it was too cool. The astronomers were gathered when we returned a little early.

Photos are here.

Windy Hill OSP

The forecast said showers with temperature around 55F. Last night (3/5/11), JO, JH and I scouted the lower part of the preserve, looking for invertebrates. The parking lot was full at 4:30 3:30. All of us had to wait a few minutes for a space. It was relatively warm, and humid at that point.

We took off around 4:00 and stopped at Sausal Pond. There were some small fish, and no Azolla or duckweed on the surface. The cattails usually to the right, next to the shore were gone, with just a stretch of old cattails out about 20 feet. Birds on the pond included Ring-necked Duck, a female Bufflehead, American Coot (one was slapping the water with its foot while standing on a floating log), Gadwall, Pied-bill Grebe.

After a trip back to the car to retrieve something, I noticed that the big oak on the left near the corner of the first intersection leading in from the lot had fallen over. Back at the pond, we left there at 4:20.

The birds were singing a lot, surprisingly: Dark-eyed Juncos, Common Ravens, American Goldfinch, Purple Finch, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Pine Siskin, Song Sparrow, House Finch, American Robin, Anna’s Hummingbird, Oak Titmouse, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, and others.

We saw one Banana Slug. At the log pile, we found several Slender Salamanders, and beautiful jewel-like fruiting bodies of a slime mold. Upon the bright yellow plasmodium on one side of a piece of dead wood sprouted black sporangia. We found more of those sporangia on wood near the bridge.
California Buttercups were blooming. In some of the puddles on the trail, there were insects that resembled mosquitos, skating on the surface. In others, the breathing tubes of mosquito larvae were visible poking through the surface.

We reached the large intersection at 4:47.
The seasonal pool had some copepods, flatworms, a bloodworm, and tiny bean-oval shaped crustaceans that were too small to see much detail with a hand lens. There were no Daphnia or fairy shrimp.

Sunset was at 6:07; we reached the bridge around 6:00. In the creek, we found no water pennies, but found some small insect larva on the bottom of rocks, and one larger mayfly larva. More Slender Salamanders were under logs near the bridge.
After dinner, we left at 6:37. We checked the usual dead log but found nothing. Along a curved trailbank meeting up with the main trail, there was a hole about 3′ up, with a little salamander head showing. I could tell it wasn’t a newt, having dark eyes and a different head shape. It was an Arboreal Salamander, looking gray with a white belly and yellow dots under flashlight. I could hear treefrogs calling from the west, and heard a Barn Owl.

In one of a group of three trees was a hole, so having seen treehole mosquito larvae at Picchetti Ranch, I took a look. The water was dark, like black coffee, and it was hard to see through. There was a springtail on top, and some sort of segmented larva a few centimeters long. From the little we could see through it, there appeared to be some mosquito larvae wriggling around.

At 7:00, we crossed the “sandbag” trail. We were surprised to find millipedes in the grassy area, before reaching the usual wooded area. There was an active ants nest in the middle of the trail. We decided to take the shortcut to the Betsy Crowder trail for a change, instead of going up the hill and around.

We got to the Betsy Crowder trail intersection at 7:20. We found a fluorescent Russula past a culvert, near two trees on the left. There was an old earth star, but we didn’t find any fresh ones. JH heard a Saw-whet Owl. It was starting to shower a little by then, but it stayed light throughout our hike.

The millipedes were numerous, and JO spotted a pair mating. We saw the most snails we’ve seen on one hike, 4-5, on the mossy trailbank. On only 1-2 of them could I see a band, making them Shoulderbands. Another Slender Salamander was hanging out on the trailbank. We refound the large turret that we’d found last year, complete with spider. Unfortunately, it was shy and ducked down to the bottom of the curve.

Here are the treefrogs under light showers.

Back at the pond, we checked out the mushrooms we’d seen earlier to see if the mycelium bioluminesced (if they were Honey Mushrooms). We didn’t see anything, though the light part of the flesh was bright under UV. In the water, now we could see amphipods swimming, and JO found a Cyclops. We tried to locate a close Sierran Treefrog calling from a bunch of old vegetation, without luck. I shined my flashlight over the nearby water to look for eyeshine. There were at least five large pairs of eyes with white-purple eyeshine, which could only be bullfrogs. One pair glowed eerily from beneath a dark hole in the cattails.

There are at least 3 bullfrogs visible by their eyeshine--can you find them?

We left the lot around 9:00.

Here are more photos.

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American Bullfrogs are not native west of the Rockies. They eat anything they can swallow, including our native frogs, and birds. They are probably responsible for part of the decline of many native species (1).

Watch this National Geographic video, “Bullfrogs Eat Everything”.

1. Californiaherps.com

Picchetti Ranch (or, I just can’t help myself! said the treefrog)

It was Sunday, 2/20/11, a cold, dry day after 6 days of showers/rain preceded by an extended dry period. By the afternoon, it was cloudy. It turned out  a pretty interesting scouting night. The number of cars in the lot surprised us. A California Thrasher sang from up in a tree.

MB and I left the lot at 4:50. Just past the restrooms, a man watched two rabbits browse. At 5:04, we turned left to go around the pond, stopping first to watch two more rabbits play ahead of us. A flock of Golden-crowned Sparrows foraged.

We could hear people with kids. There was shallow water in the middle of the basin, with a large dry area surrounding it, where the kids were playing in a pile of wood. American Robins gathered at the tops of a tree. We carefully walked down to the water’s edge to see what was there. Pieces of dry grass from the basin covered the surface. Underneath, newts swam, and we saw a newt ball. At the top of the pond area near the trail, a banana slug stretched out.

Pond water level

Pond water level

After we left the pond at 5:20, we crossed paths with a gravid female newt. Then, another. We saw more than a few that all appeared  female, on the trail between the time we left the pond and on the way back while it was dark.

We reached the gate at 5:30, got to the first bridge at 5:35, the second bridge at 5:40, and the third and final bridge, our dinner spot, at 5:50. Along the way, we noted a patch of liverworts with umbrella-like fruiting bodies, as well as blooming Hounds Tongue. The water was rushing loudly at our stop.

Sunset was at 5:53, but it was dusky in the woods. It was chilly, and after dinner, I finally put on my gloves. It was probably around 45F-47F; last year on the same date it was around five degrees warmer.

At 6:15, it wasn’t quite dark, but dark enough in the woods to use a flashlight. We slowly made our way back, taking our time to let the dark settle. Our first find was a spider turret at the base of the trailbank, with a cup fungus attached at the base. Nobody was home (or at least willing to come to the door). At 6:45, we heard a soft Western Screech-owl trill from the oaks. Coyotes yipped from somewhere ahead.

We arrived back at the gate at 6:54. We could hear the treefrogs already. Past the gate, a Great Horned Owl hooted, then a female called from the other side of the trail. As we approached the pond, the frogs got louder and louder. When we got close enough for them to detect us, they quieted. We stopped, and waited for the chorusmaster to start. Unfortunately, there was a lot of air traffic that disturbed the quiet.

The chorusmaster started up, then another, and another, and soon any air traffic that was passing over was drowned out. We carefully made our way to the water, with good cause, as we found our first little brown frog sitting on land. In fact, quite a few of them were chorusing from land. With all that noise, you’d think it would be pretty easy to spot them in the water, but I couldn’t see any eyeshine. Newts slid through the water, and it was easier to see the light color of the males. We found a frog close to shore, vocal sac inflated, not caring that we were nearby. He did call, but he also sat there with the sac inflated for a while, long enough for me to get a photo.

Here is the recording; you can hear the Great Horned Owl in the beginning. If you listen with headphones, turn down the volume because the treefrogs start up about halfway through, and they are deafening!

We picked our way around several other frogs on land, some larger, and after seeing a few pairs in amplexus on land (what’s up with that?), I figured that the larger, fatter, quiet ones were females.

Then, something totally unexpected appeared in our lights: a female newt waddled up the basin, a treefrog on her back! We watched, transfixed by the sight.

The wrong way

The right way

I thought I’d heard something earlier, so I wanted to check out the other side. I made my way over there, avoiding more little brown frogs which were difficult to see. Another female newt paused with a treefrog on her back! Maybe she figured if she didn’t move, he’d leave. Or she tired of hauling around eggs and a frog.

Since it was only 7:45, we decided to go around through the oak grove and headed up the Vista Trail. The grove seemed a good place to hear owls, but we didn’t. It was a good place to find Polydesmid millipedes though. [Added] While figuring out which trail to take, we noticed a cavity at the base of a tree, in it a pool of water filled with wriggling mosquito larvae–maybe Ochlerotatus sierrensis, Western Treehole Mosquito. That’s a new one for me.

We heard another Great Horned Owl once back on the straight trail leading back to the winery. More millipedes twinkled like stars on the ground under UV light near the bathrooms around 8:00.

See more photos here.

This is last year’s post for the same date.

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See CR’s post of another frog-and-newt encounter.

Night on Froggy Mountain 2011

We had a small group on 2/12/11. KP, CB and I led a small group of five, including RF and friend. One person didn’t show.
This is the last time this route will be available for this hike, as the new trail will be in place soon. The sky was clear, and the day had been relatively warm. It hadn’t rained since our scouting hike, so we weren’t sure what to expect.

We left the lot around 5:15. By that time, the sun was behind the mountains, though sunset wasn’t until 5:45. It was probably around 50F, cooler at the pond. It seemed warmer at the pond on our scouting hike.

We observed a few animal tracks in the dried mud in the trail. Dark-eyed Junco, Bewick’s Wren, Red-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Kites, and calling Red-shouldered Hawk caught our attention. After we turned to go downhill, American Robin song, and a Great-horned Owl’s hoots were detected by some. Three deer down the trail moved away. We could hear distant Coyotes yipping. A dead Jerusalem Cricket was found by RF in the middle of the trail. As we neared the pond, Red-winged Blackbird song could be heard, and I saw a duck fly towards the pond.

We stopped briefly at the pond to see whether there was any activity. I could see one newt in the water. The outlet by the sign was dry. Last year, we did this hike at the end of the month, and the water was higher.

Since it was so foggy two weeks ago, we weren’t able to see that the hill that we’d had dinner on last year was now covered with Yellow Star Thistle. We had dinner not far from the pond, on the trail. More deer were up on top of the ridge. The moon was overhead, and Orion and Jupiter were visible.

The treefrogs first started up earlier than I expected, about 15 minutes after sunset instead of 30 minutes two weeks ago. They intermittently called as we had dinner.

Some time after 6:15, we moved down to the water. We could see several newts in amplexus, and someone spotted a couple of newt egg clusters. We saw no frog eggs, but we also hadn’t seen any newt eggs two weeks earlier. After some observation, we took a stroll to the other side of the pond. We heard more Great Horned Owls calling. Something relatively large splashed into the water. Presumably since it has been dry, there were no newts or frogs seen on land.

Most of the treefrogs were on the other side, so we turned around and went back. We found more egg clusters, and the treefrog calls punctuated the quiet. A couple called from close to land, and I vowed to find one of them. It took a while to find the frog that called from about 15″ away in the middle of some Pennyroyal, and I only spotted him because his inflated vocal sac moved a piece of grass! He was the color of mud, and not easy to see even knowing where he was.

Close to 7:30, a Red-legged Frog started to call. One or two of us had heard it earlier, but just briefly. It called regularly with some pauses. Everyone was able to hear it.

P. sierra with R. draytonii below about 700Hz

We headed back after that. We made one stop to look at a fluorescing Polydesmid millipede. I only found one, compared to the approximately 25 on our scouting hike. One of the participants spotted an owl flush from a shrub in front of us.

Back at the lot, we found a small group of astronomers again.

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Did you know that we’re losing our amphibians? Watch this PBS video.

One of the reasons is Chytrid fungus, which you can read more about here. If you visit different marshes and ponds, you may want to clean your boots to help prevent the spread. The suggested cleaning is the same or similar to that for Sudden Oak Death.

For more on cleaning protocol, see this page at Pinnacles. And for more in-depth information on these diseases, see this site.

Christmas Bird Count 2010

This year, HF, KP and CB joined me. We left my place at 8:45, having seen one Oak Titmouse at the feeder. It was rainy and around 50F, challenging conditions.

As usual, we headed over to MB’s place. She had previously told me that the birds were down, so we missed some things, but did see two Red-breasted Nuthatch. After about half an hour, we took a drive through Five Canyons. It was drizzling or foggy in parts, so there were some visibility issues. However, that didn’t seem to impact what we did see, which wasn’t a lot. Because of the ornamental pear street trees, there were a large flocks of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings. At the end of Boulder Canyon Dr., we took a short walk partway up the hill, and saw an American Kestrel on the snag. In our section this is probably the best raptor place.

We skipped the Shady Canyon Trail which would have been wet and muddy. On our scouting trip, we heard White-tailed Kite:

and Wild Turkey hens:

plus a couple of Varied Thrush, which we usually seem to miss. There were not as many fungi as last year.

We headed over to Don Castro and got there at 10:30.  KP and CB saw a Northern Flicker with yellow shafts, but didn’t get a look at the head. By this time, the rain had stopped so we walked around the lake and along the creek and back around. Waterfowl were mostly Mallards, with a couple of Ring-necked Ducks.  It started to rain when we were along the creek, so we turned back. HF spotted a Green Heron as we skirted the lake on the way back. We got back to the lot at noon.

After lunch at the usual spot, we drove through Lone Tree Cemetery at 1:50. A large flock of Rock Pigeons flew around, but we missed the bluebirds and Killdeer.

We continued on to Five Canyons park at 2:05, and got two Killdeer, then revisited Crestview Ct. to see if we could get bluebirds there. They still weren’t around, so we drove to Century Oaks Circle to look for Rufous-crowned Sparrow at 2:25. We missed those too, but the Western Bluebirds were there. We walked a short way up a trail behind the houses instead of walking from the Boulder Canyon entrance.

Close to 3:00 we decided to try some new places. We drove under the overpass on Castro Valley Blvd. for a quick check for any swifts hanging around underneath, then drove Palo Verde Road. This was in someone else’s section, but we did see some Wild Turkeys there.

At 3:15 we went to Carlos Bee Park. I have checked this park out while scouting but we’ve never actually counted birds there while I’ve done this. It did add some birds we didn’t see already, including a Townsend’s Warbler. We were there for about 45 minutes, and it remained dry.

Next, we stopped briefly at Sulphur Creek Nature Center at 4:10 to see if the Barn Owl was in the nest box. Unfortunately it wasn’t. Finally, at 4:30 we checked the back part of Don Castro from the Ursa entrance. There were fewer cattails on this side than there were last year, for some reason, and by 4:45 there were no blackbirds coming to roost. We didn’t hear any, either. KH told me that he had some at Cull Canyon around 4:15.

We arrived back home at 5:00.  It was a long, wet, day, but surprisingly, we got more species than we did last year!

List to follow…here.

Thornewood OSP

PB, JO and I scouted this preserve on 11/1/10 for our first night hike here. We started out at 5:30. There were some annoying face flies in the first stretch of the trail.

We saw two brown unidentified mushrooms on the way, and found a large spider turret. At 6:15, we reached Bridle Trail. We wanted to see what dusk would be like, so we turned left.

At 6:30, we reached a large flat area next to an old logged redwood stump. Since it was getting dark, we stopped for dinner. A few odd bird vocalizations (owls, we assume) pierced the quiet. We left there at 6:46.

I hadn’t seen any on our day scouting trip, so JO was keeping an eye out for the odd little Hyptiotes, aka Triangle Spider. Aha! Found one, around 7:00. This is the first we’ve seen on MROSD land. We recently found some at Huddart Park. This particular spider was right by the trail, in a redwood branch. Unlike at Huddart, it was on a silk line, a couple of inches out from the redwood needles.

As we were observing it, some fast, persistent toots started up, along with a few sharp cries. This was exciting for me, since we don’t hear Northern Saw-whet Owls very often. They were relatively close.

We reached the closed part of the trail at 7:18. Twenty minutes later, we were startled to find some bright green fluorescence on the side of a redwood. This was not like the scorpion kind of green around 490nm, but was more like a green laser. Under white light, it looked yellow. Other patches were hard to see under white light. There was also a small bit of orange fluorescence in an area bare of bark.

We left the fluorescence at 7:48, and found more where we had dinner.

An Ensatina sat obligingly in the middle of the trail. We also found one early Polydesmid millipede.

We reached the intersection at 8:37 and turned left to go back to the lake. The house above the lake was obvious with its lights on. We found the dried slime mold I’d seen on our previous trip, and found Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa near it.

At 9:00, there was no action on the lake, and it was perfectly quiet. On top of the signpost by the lake were two small millipedes.

We found spiders in a couple of small turrets but forgot to look for the large one we’d seen on the way in. We also forgot to look into a hole in the trail. But we found one male Calisoga sitting on the side, as well as an (probably) Arboreal Salamander’s head poking out of a hole in the trailbank!

We arrived back to the lot around 10:00.

You can find more photos here.

Monte Bello OSP: Post-Arachnophilia!

I used to be like many people, finding spiders scary and repulsive. But something happened along the way. Now I’m an arachnophile. Can you tell?

JO and I wanted to have another close look at a Calisoga spider, so we got a permit for 10/15/10.

The weather was mild again. We started out at 6:00 and got to the sag pond at 6:20. The Mygalomorph burrow was uncovered again. I had hoped to catch it covered up, since I didn’t get a photo of it the one time it was covered. After 20 minutes and a quick dinner, we headed off to the spider patch.

In the dust of Canyon Trail, there were a few very large tracks, maybe 4″ long.
We found the Cat-faced Spider again, plus the Banded Garden Spider. There was a Labyrinth spider (Metepeira) web nearby. The orb portion was wavy.

Along the trailside, I noticed what looked like a dried mushroom. I passed over it, but decided to take another look. It was a coiled up juvenile rattlesnake!

While looking for scorpions, I came across a UV-fluorescent blob on a fallen branch among other branches on the trailbank. It was as bright as a scorpion, but blue. While I was looking at that, Western Screech-owls had a conversation across the trail.

This year has been a good year for arachnids, Cybaeus no exception.

Somewhere along there, we crossed paths with a different Harvestman. It was dark, large and had very long legs even for a Harvestman. It was on a mission, but as we tried to block it to get a photo, it climbed up JO’s pant leg, disappearing for a while and finally ending up on his head. I picked it off, and it ended up climbing all over me too. We never did get a photo, but that was amusing.

And Calisogas. We came across one near the big intersection around 9:00, and spent the rest of our time examining this very cooperative spider. Perhaps he had already mated; he barely moved for the half hour or more that we looked at him. We couldn’t see the third claw that they have, but we could see the scalloped sternum, pointed posteriorly, and the 2 spines on the tibia.

We’ve read that they’re aggressive, but none of the Calisogas that we’ve come across have been so. Maybe they knew that we weren’t out to collect them. We placed the Calisoga on the trailside.

We only got about as far as the big intersection with the Stevens Creek Nature Trail (no big surprise).

On our return to the trailhead, we checked the other Mygalomorph burrow that we’d found on 10/2. It was occupied, and we tried to coax the spider out with a piece of grass. It clung to the stem as far as just below the opening, but wouldn’t come out all the way. We left it alone after a couple of photos.

We came across another small Solifugid on the last trail section. In previous years, we’ve been lucky to see them at all, but this year we’ve seen multiples.

You can see photos here.

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Did you know? The IUCN List of Threatened Species comes up with 11 arachnids in North America (search by taxonomy=”arachnida” and location=”North America”). All of them say “needs updating”.

Spiders and their relatives don’t tend to be at the top of the list of most people when it comes to saving species. But check out this recent news from the UK. And for some spider fun, try “Spot the Spider” (a third of the way down), actually a camouflage study.

Long Ridge OSP

JO and I took a group of ten on a request night hike on 9/11/10. Some had not been on a night hike before. We met at Skyline Ridge and caravaned to the trailhead. We left the trailhead around 6:28, with sunset around 7:22, so I didn’t stop much while hiking up to the ridge. We did stop briefly when we flushed a covey of quail on the was in, and at the everlasting pea and money plant.

There was a dead vole shortly after the trail split leading up to the “open area”.

We arrived at the bench at 7:18. The temperature was mild (my small thermometer that was in the outside pocket of my pack said 70F), and the sky was clear. The only fog was a blanket lying over the ocean, as usual. The orange sun blazed through the conifers to the west. A couple of bats flew by after dinner.

The end of the trail

The crescent moon and Venus were close together. After a bit of early stargazing, we headed down the road. I found our first scorpion of the night, a California Common Scorpion, and waited until everyone had caught up to put the UV light on it. No one had seen a scorpion fluoresce before, so there were lots of exclamations when they saw it. We continued to see several more on this stretch, some of which were on the road.

California Common Scorpion

A few more bats flew over us after dark. Since Scorpius and Sagittarius were visible, we took the opportunity to point them out along with the Milky Way. As I pointed to the “teapot”, an orange meteor streaked through!

Near the next intersection, there was a tan-colored beetle about an inch long, with long antennae that was on one of the participants.

We found the turrets on the trailbank without too much trouble. A few of them were occupied, but the spiders ducked down after some people had gotten a look. Farther down, there was a tiny one with a tiny spider in it. And farther still, there were two scorpions about a foot apart. One was smaller and had smaller hands. At first, I thought it was a different species, but after examining the photo later, they both look like California Forest Scorpion.

California Forest Scorpion

California Forest Scorpion

The air got cool as we approached the pond around 9:30. Again, we had received permission to look for critters, but the bats were not cooperative there. I saw one newt underwater. The duckweed seems to have broken up over the summer; instead of one big blanket, it was a few larger round patches and more small ones.

Some of the participants agreed to try the silent walk, with some hanging back to walk together. The ones who did try it silently appreciated the experience.

As we neared the intersection to turn back to the trailhead, we heard the owl cry again. First, just one. Then another, and a few more. It moved farther away, and then returned. In hindsight, I suppose it could have been a juvenile, but I’ll have to compare the sonograms to a known recording.

Everyone liked being able to see things they hadn’t seen before.

Monte Bello OSP, Black Mountain campout

Having not backpacked since the last time we camped here in 2003, I decided it was time and got permits.

A group of a few friends hiked in from Waterwheel Creek on 9/5/10, taking the road. We started out around 6:00 P.M. It wasn’t uncomfortably warm, unlike our public overnight in 2002, but was around 70F.

An interesting sighting on the road was some lacewing eggs stuck to a broom stem. There was also an alligator lizard that, after pausing, ran into the grass. And, curvy tracks in the dust that we deduced was from a snake.

Poplars near the camp

We got to camp in about an hour, stopping here and there for interesting things (mostly scat). In one spot, we watched a rabbit browse by the side of the trail. A scrub-jay gave an alarm, which caused the rabbit to run for cover. We saw a large unidentified bird fly apparently out of some shrubs on the opposite side of the trail, near where the scrub-jay had called from. When we got up to that point, something hidden in the brush gave repeated calls. It seemed relatively near, and creeping to a few feet in front of the vegetation didn’t stop it from calling. We weren’t sure if it was a bird or something else; it wasn’t chirpy. Here’s a recording from KG’s phone:

A raven croaked at another, and a two rows of swallows perched on the telephone lines.

Lots of dragonflies hunted above our spot (they didn’t seem to make much of a dent in the eye fly population…) After setting up and filtering some water, we went up to the ridge to have dinner. Except for a few deer and a passing bicyclist, we had the place to ourselves. We enjoyed some delectables, and watched Venus and Mars appear. Later, Scorpius and Sagittarius with the Milky Way were visible.

After some relaxed stargazing, we went off to the other hill below camp to see if we could find any critters crawling around. We didn’t see anything, not even one darkling beetle. We looped around the hill on our return, and with the city light blocked, we found Andromeda.

We gave it one more try, the trail behind the camp. We listened to three different orthopteran sounds. Still nothing but a few bats hunting overhead. Back at camp, everyone was ready for some sleep. The crickets and katydids sang us to restless sleep.

During the night, the wind came up and kept flapping one corner of my tent. It was still mild enough for me to get a little warm and have my sleeping bag only partially over me.

In the morning, we had French press coffee thanks to JO. A Bewick’s Wren, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and a Wrentit sang.

We left around 9:30. It was getting warm quickly.

At the ridgetop, more dragonflies hunted. We ran into a few people on the trail. While we were talking with a couple of young women who had come up Rhus Ridge, I saw a large, black insect hovering over the dry grass. It was 20-25 mm. long. JO took a photo, and we could then tell it was a fly, albeit a large one.

Big horse fly, Tabanid?

At the intersection of Waterwheel Creek, we turned right to take the trail we hadn’t on the way in. JO and SO decided to go drop their packs, taking the road, and then meet us on the creek trail. They heard a rattlesnake on their way to meet us. We saw another alligator lizard, fuzzy Clematis, and a gooseberry with big orange fruit. Where we met up, there were large funnel webs; one had a large Agelenid visible in it.

Southern Alligator Lizard

Going this way was something new. At least some of us decided we wouldn’t do it again, especially with a pack. When we got past the woods, it got very warm, and the sparse shade from coyote brush was welcome.

The harvester ant nests along this stretch had big piles of seed chaff.

Back at the lot, the thought of real food inspired us, and we headed off to Hobee’s.

See more photos here.

And here is information on obtaining a permit to camp.

Southeast Arizona

I’d been wanting to go back ever since I went in 2003, with a local birding tour. Since an opportunity came up with two bay area leaders, I jumped at the chance. Here is our itinerary:

08/06/10

My roommate and I arrived a day before the official start. We stayed at Quality Inn in Green Valley, about a half hour ride from the airport. There is a Walgreen’s across the street, and the median strip has interesting desert plants. Cactus Wrens, White-winged Doves, Gila Woodpeckers, and Great-tailed Grackles were among the motel parking lot birds.

08/07/10

Mission San Xavier del Bac. We couldn’t go inside because of a service. One of the courtyards had a nesting Curve-billed Thrasher.

Sweetwater Wetlands Park. We had a picnic lunch near Brown Mountain in Tucson Mountain Park.

Kinny Road

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I have been there before, but didn’t get to see everything. The same held true this time, partially because I was getting too hot to go where I wanted to go, which was a longer walk.

BW’s trip details

08/08/10

Rio Rico
Kino Springs
Patagonia Roadside Rest Area
Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve
Paton’s Birders’ Haven
Patagonia Roadside Rest Area
Patagonia Lake

BW’s trip details

08/09/10

Florida Wash–interesting caterpillars
Proctor Road
Madera Canyon picnic area
Madera Canyon
Carrie Nation Trail–missed the Elegant Trogon, but there was an interesting green beetle ball
Santa Rita Lodge
Kubo Madera–a life bird, Scott’s Oriole
Continental School

BW’s trip details

08/10/10

Green Valley
Sonoita rest stop
La Cienega Grasslands
Environmental Operations Park, Sierra Vista
San Pedro National Conservation Area
Cave Creek Ranch
American Museum of Natural History Southwest Research Station
Portal

BW’s trip details

08/11/10

Cave Creek Ranch
Stewart Forest Camp
South Fork Cave Creek
Southwest Research Station road
Sunny Flat Picnic Ground
Herb Martyr Campground–lunch
John Hands Picnic Ground
Dave Jaspar’s feeders, Foothills Road
Paradise Road
Portal
Southwest Research Station–owling

BW’s trip details

08/12/10

Fire Road to Herb Martyr Forest Camp
Portal
AMNH
Herb Martyr Campground
Barfoot Park meadow
Rustler Park
Pinery Canyon Campground
Paradise Road 42
George Walker
Portal

BW’s trip details

08/13/10

Cave Creek Ranch
Douglas
Stateline Road
Wildlife Pond
Fort Huachuca, Garden Canyon, Sawmill Canyon
Ash Canyon B and B

BW’s trip details

08/14/10

Carr Canyon, Sawmill Springs  Trail
Sawmill Spring
Carr Picnic Area
Miller Canyon
Beatty’s

BW’s trip details

08/15/10

St. David, Holy Trinity Monastery
Cienega Creek Natural Preserve

BW’s trip details

 

Here are photos, broken down by subject.

08/06-15 Southeast Arizona General

08/06-15 Southeast Arizona Plants

08/06-15 Southeast Arizona Vertebrates

08/06-15 Southeast Arizona Invertebrates

 

The trip list is here.

 

When I get a chance, I’ll add some sounds.

 

==

For more, see:

Tucson Audubon
Southeastern Arizona Birding Observatory