I wanted to visit Monte Bello to see if we could refind the Long-eared Owl that we had heard on a night hike last year. It was earlier in the year (2/5 versus 3/10/12), but time, unlike the owls, had flown by. Six of us were able to go.
The evening was foggy. We walked the usual route and had dinner at the “gravel pit”, starting out at 6:00.
There were a few mushrooms, coral fungi, popcorn flower, a tick, 9+ deer, Band-tailed Pigeon and Wild Turkey. The sag pond at the nature trail intersection barely had any water; the area around it was soggy.
Near the gravel pit, three newts rambled into three separate holes in a row in the side of some raised dirt near the trail. We saw around ten newts altogether.
We heard distant Northern Pygmy Owl, and some Western Screech-owl calls, but no other owls.
Surprisingly, we saw a bat. Not surprisingly, the fluorescent millipedes (probably Xystocheir dissecta in the order Polydesmida), were out. Other finds were turret spiders, harvestmen, some small beetles, tiger beetle larvae (Omus), California Slender Salamander, Arboreal Salamander, and distant treefrogs called. We found some different fluorescent lichens.
The highlight, for me, was when we reached the old walnut grove. A Western Banded Glowworm (Zarhipis integripennis) larva or larviform female, was in the middle of the trail! Unfortunately, it wasn’t glowing.
Western Banded Glowworm (Zarhipis integripennis)
This was the first one of this family that I’ve seen on MROSD preserves. Here is a paper on their natural history. Page 244 says actively hunting larvae don’t glow. In the excitement of the moment, we (I) forgot to look for compound eyes or genitalia, which would distinguish the female from a larva.
2/24/12, Friday, was warmer than on our scouting hike. The temperature ranged from about 63F down to 55F. The sky was clear, but got partial clouds later. Out of 31 people who made reservations or were on the waitlist, 13 canceled, 11-16 expected, only 4 showed up, including a friend of one of the two docents (JW and LE) who joined us.
We started off at 4:40. We stopped at the northwest corner footbridge of Alpine Pond, and found a pair of newts in amplexus. Rounding the corner, we stopped to check the view, and found a male Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, and a female Hooded Merganser sharing a resting spot. Red-winged Blackbirds were singing, and one treefrog called briefly.
At 5:00 we came out into the open on Ipiwa Trail. A coyote, presumably the same one that we’d seen on the 18th, patrolled the ridge, and a few deer were downhill. We examined the various animal scats along the way. It was clear enough to see the ocean as we approached the overlook. We turned left to have dinner at 5:20 along the wide trail above, deciding not to disturb the curious deer ahead of us by making another left. Three heads peered over the rise of the trail, and a few browsed to the north.
Sunset over Ipiwa
Close to 6:00, around sunset, we proceeded back down to the overlook and around the chaparral. Silk Tassels were showing tassels, manzanita had blossoms, and buckbrush was in bloom and fragrant. We stopped to have a sniff of a Holly-leafed Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia) leaf, which smells like almond. According to the USDA, native peoples did use parts of this tree as food and medicine, prepared properly. Parts are toxic, and the leaves contain hydrocyanic acid (explaining the smell). A question came up about other organisms with cyanide, and I mentioned the millipedes we often see. We also had a discussion about using wild plants (in places where it is legal to collect/pick) for food, and the possible dangers of doing so.
We heard a Great-horned Owl briefly; as we waited unsuccessfully for more calls, a pair of Wrentits in the shrubs near us had a long twittering conversation.
At 6:15 we reached the Sunny Jim intersection, and at 6:40 we stopped before turning right to go to Horseshoe Lake. Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon were up. A bat or two flew by. [edit: There was also a brush rabbit who, in typical rabbit style, remained mostly motionless even though out in the open with eyeshine reflecting off my red flashlight. ] We could hear the treefrogs calling, and we played calls of Sierran Treefrog and California Red-legged Frog for the participants. Someone asked about bullfrogs, and we explained that they aren’t native here in California, and eat the native frogs and other animals.
This time we walked along the shoreline trail, but in one spot that was accessible, I didn’t see any newts or frogs. We went back to the bridge, and while some were star watching, I checked the area below the bench. There were a couple of newts in the water, but I couldn’t find any treefrogs visually, despite a few of them calling from nearby. The bulk of them seemed to be calling from the other sides of the lake, and many more called than on Saturday. It was far short of being deafening though. KG spotted a large owl flying by high overhead.
It took from 7:20 to 7:40 to get back to the big intersection, then to 7:55 to the overlook. We found newts still in land phase, around four from here back into the woods. One, near the overlook, was right next to a very cold banana slug. It had gotten windy, and we didn’t hear any more owls.
We looked for the small dirt turret with two beetle larvae holes, and found those along with some nearby small, fluorescent honey mushrooms. There were around seven Polydesmid millipedes (probably Xystocheir dissecta taibona, common in Santa Clara County according to Rowland Shelley). The first one was in the area that we had stopped at, and I picked it up to show. This one felt threatened for some reason, as it released defensive secretions, a brown goo. Someone remarked that it had pooped, so being me (and knowing that some millipede poop looks like pellets), I smelled it to see if it had the odor of almonds. It did, so everyone had a sniff. It was a nice connection to the Holly-leafed Cherry. These millipedes don’t have eyes, and they produce hydrogen cyanide.
Back at the Alpine Pond crossroads at 8:45, we went around the east side this time, stopping at the deck to try for bats over the water, without luck. Some frogs called.
Despite the temperatures reported by a couple of websites, it was chillier in the Russian Ridge parking lot. KG and I scouted a new route for our frog hike. We talked to the ranger for a while, then crossed over to Skyline Ridge at 5:00.
We noticed that much of the cattails seem to have been removed along the east side, leaving a clear view of Alpine Pond. A Wrentit called softly from the top of some remaining cattails. We continued up the hill to Ipiwa Trail. We dawdled a bit by finding spider turrets and tiger beetle larvae burrows. One spider turret was decorated with lichen–not just stuck on the sides, but Usnea along the rim of the turret, clearly purposely arranged.
Six deer
As we came into the open grassland at 5:30, we heard a Great Horned Owl, and six deer grazed uphill. We weren’t perceived to be a threat, and one deer came down to graze on the trail in front of us. When the breeze was just right, I could hear her chewing. As I listened with my ear cupped, I couldn’t hear anything so I looked up to find the deer alert with ears forward, looking uphill. At the top of the ridge, a coyote intently watched something unseen. It made its way downhill through the oats, finally making its way to the curve of the trail. The deer had moved uphill by then. The coyote looked over its shoulder three times at us while continuing up the trail.
Some scratching caught our attention; the outline of a Spotted Towhee’s kicking revealed duff flying in the air behind it. Two California Towhees joined it nearby.
When we reached the intersection near the overlook, an unexpected newt crossed the trail, heading downhill. Even more surprising was a banana slug in the middle of the trail, and another on the side. A few more steps past the overlook, and another newt had already crossed the trail, also heading downhill. Both newts’ eyes popped out from the outline of the head when viewed from above, and they had bumpy skin, probably making them California Newts.
At 6:15, we reached the big intersection with Sunny Jim Trail. As we approached, a few deer pronked away down into the woods. We wondered if they were the same ones we saw earlier. We turned right down the hill to the lake. It was past sunset by 25 minutes. One or two treefrogs gave land calls as we hiked down.
Arriving at the bridge at 6:40, we decided to sit and eat. My small thermometer said ~40F. I hadn’t put my light gloves on for a while, so my hands were cold. A Northern Saw-whet Owl tooted distantly as we ate. Only one or two Sierran Treefrogs called from the water.
Half an hour later, we started off to check the water level at the footbridge. It seemed more open here as well. I checked the water at a few places along the trail, but didn’t see anything in it. In one spot by one of the benches, a bat flew over the water in the beam of my flashlight. We found a few fluorescent millipedes under UV. The footbridge now has railings, something added since the last time I was there. There was no water below, so we turned around.
As we hiked uphill the way we’d come, a coot grunted, a few more frogs called, and a Barn Owl shrieked. It was far enough away that we couldn’t hear the entire range of the call; it sounded more like one note. Out in the open, Jupiter and Venus were bright in the western sky, and Mars in the east. There was no moon, but the ambient light made it possible to walk without flashlight much of the time. However, we didn’t want to step on anybody crossing the trail, so we had our lights on most of the time.
As we headed toward the chaparral, Great Horned Owls called from the canyon. When we rounded the corner, we heard more, as well as another Saw-whet. A Western Screech-owl joined the chorus. I wanted to record that, but my batteries weren’t cooperating and by the time I got things working, they had stopped. There was a lot of air traffic.
Entering the woods again, a couple of wailing calls came from the trees. It sounded like another Saw-whet, but I wouldn’t have expected one there. It wasn’t that far from where we’d heard the toots in the chaparral though. Here are some toots and wails from an owl at Gazos Creek.
I refound the spot where we’d seen some turrets, including one small undecorated one. A spider perched at the entrance, and two tiger beetle larvae waited at the mouth of their burrows for prey to stumble by. A few more millipedes showed up.
It was pretty quiet at Alpine Pond also; only a couple of treefrogs made themselves known. We didn’t have time to check out the water in other parts of the pond.
When we got back to the car, I noticed the back window was frosted. The paint felt icy, and when I looked at the top of the car, it had a pretty good layer. I had to scrape the front and back windows. When I got home, I checked the Alpine Road Weather Underground station, which said 36F. Some other La Honda temperatures said 46F, but given the icy car, at least some areas were that cold. Perhaps that’s partially why the frogs were relatively quiet.
We had no winter rain when we did our scouting trip on 1/9/12. JO, DP and I hiked the Stevens Creek Nature Trail loop from 10:25-3:10 and found few slime molds, and some dried up fungi. On our old Madrone, we found a couple small patches of yellow slime mold fruiting bodies, and the Stictis and tiny fungal bells that we’ve seen in previous years.
Stictis at El Corte de Madera
We saw another set of fruiting bodies, few milkmaids in bloom, a small slug, Slender Salamanders, and a couple sets of puffballs in different places. The highlight of the scouting trip was a new millipede species for us, under a log. There was also a strange, stiff hair-like bunch of something on the cut end of a log. The water in the creek was very low, and the small sag pond was only damp.
The rain came on 1/19-20, but there wasn’t enough time to allow for much to happen by 1/21. The temperature was in the low 40′s according to weather.com; it was certainly less than 50F, partly cloudy. Two participants joined us, including one other docent.
We started off at 12:45. Someone spotted a large, rose-like Polypore, of which there were a few at the bottom of a tree. We found several instances of Tremella, a yellow jelly fungus that is parasitic on other fungi. The hair-like stuff was now pliable due to the recent rain. There was also a brown jelly, slime mold sporocarps, Calocera cornea which had rehydrated, and a white jelly resembling Pseudohydnum gelatinosum. This time we saw three newts, one Slender Salamander, and one small slug.
Once we reached the creek crossing, we knew that we had passed the best section for slime molds. The group decided to finish the loop but walk at a faster pace. The small sag pond now had some water, but it was brown and still low.
We did see birds’ nest fungi on the Canyon Trail, and the bottom layer of a patch of slime mold fruiting bodies on a piece of fallen wood. When near the large sag pond, we heard a Pileated Woodpecker. We arrived back at 4:30.
A friend and I decided to take another short trip to Gold Country during the holidays. We’d gone in 2008 for a longer stay. This time, we stayed two nights. After some searching for lodging, we decided on a house on 217 acres. We decided to take it instead of staying in town, as we’d be able to wander the property, which has trails, and we could wander at night if we wanted to.
We left around 10:25, and got to the New Melones Lake Visitors’ Center around lunchtime. Nearing our destination, we spotted a Bald Eagle flying over the hills.
We had lunch, while watching birds and a few honey bees. Acorn Woodpecker, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Lesser Goldfinch were plentiful, and we also saw and heard White-breasted Nuthatch, Western Bluebird, Black Phoebe, Northern Flicker, Oak Titmouse, American Robin, Dark-eyed Junco, Lincoln’s Sparrow and crowned sparrows. After lunch, we walked partway on the Norwegian Gulch Trail. It looked different. When the trail started to head downhill, we didn’t remember it being so close to water. We stopped and turned around, as there were some people with their dogs at the water, and we could hear them from where we were.
Since it was after check-in time, we decided to take care of that. We drove around the property to find the house and where to check in, and noticed a plethora of birds: Spotted Towhee, Cedar Waxwing, American Robin, European Starling, California Quail, Northern Flicker, Acorn Woodpecker, Western Bluebird.
After unloading, moving a millipede from the bathtub, and placing a trail camera, we headed over to Natural Bridges Trail. Our mistake last time was that we walked past the end of the drive rather than entering the actual trail, close to the gate. It was after 4:00, but since the trail was only .7 miles, we figured we had enough time. We left the trailhead at 4:25, and got to the stairs and We saw and heard many Hermit Thrush, Spotted Towhee, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Acorn and Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Wrentit, and California Towhee. We also saw some interesting plants, including Red Berry and Mountain Mahoghany.
We got down to the stairs and first bridge/outlet at 5:10. After about 20 minutes of exploring, we started back up. I didn’t realize that the bridges were actually further, but it was getting dark anyway. We usually have our flashlights with us, but I wasn’t sure if they locked the gate. The crescent moon and Venus were close together, and we stopped to take photos. We were back at the trailhead at 5:55, then headed over to Murphy’s for dinner. We had a tasty meal, but it took a long time.
Natural Bridges Trail
Back at the house, we put a log in the fireplace and moved some chairs closer. We noticed something on the carpet–leaves? A closer look revealed two small Western Fence Lizards! They were mostly immobile. The smaller one did climb a little on my hand; both seemed calm and allowed us to look at their ventral sides. Another surprise was a small jumping spider (Salticid) on the wall.
I slept well both nights, and during the first night, I woke to hear a Great Horned Owl hoot quickly nearby, with a “wah” sound after. I’m not sure if that was the owl, or something else. I also heard, at another time, something walking through the fallen leaves. There was what appeared to be raccoon scat by the back walk.
The large blackberry tangle, that was the highlight of the picture window view, attracted many birds. After breakfast the next morning, we took a hike on the property to see what else was around, at 11:00. It wasn’t clear from the map where the start of the trail was, and we climbed over some old barbed wire where it appeared to be. Making our way through oaks, lots of Hermit Thrush called and sometimes made their appearances. Frozen dewdrops on the grass, and frosty leaves looked magical. We climbed up to the ridge, finding different scats and shrubs, and a partial deer skull showing the complex sutures, along the way. We reached the opening of the woods at 12:30, and entered grassland. It took us another 20 minutes to explore and stop at a place that we could see part of New Melones Lake. Some dry Birdsfoot Fern, and a dragonfly interested us, and I found a louse fly in my pocket.
Besides some of the birds we’d already seen there, we added Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Black Phoebe, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Oak Titmouse, Lesser Goldfinch, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, White-breasted Nuthatch, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Bewick’s Wren, Hutton’s Vireo, Common Raven, and Red-tailed Hawk, Western Scrub-jay, and Northern Mockingbird.
We started down, and wandered to the right, ending up on the wrong side of a fence on the other side of which was our house. There were a couple of large, machine-dug holes. We picked our way through manzanitas, and refound the trail. At the same fence that we’d climbed over before, we found a mantid ootheca on the post. We had a late lunch after arriving back at the house at 2:30.
As we left to go to town, a flock of Wild Turkeys moved around the barn. We paused to watch two of them lock heads. Arriving in Murphy’s close to 5:00, we found that most of the shops closed at that time. We walked to the end of town to work up an appetite, then picked a place that had a couple of interesting dishes on the menu. Unfortunately, they weren’t serving one of them, and what we picked for our entrees was disappointing and not what we expected.
After dinner, we stopped at the pond on the property. The water smelled somewhat stagnant, and there were no signs of life. There were a few dessicated mushrooms in the ground, and we found an odd styrofoam-feeling cocoon? partially wrapped in oak leaves. Something was loose inside.
Wednesday was our last day, and while we got our things together, the Wild Turkey flock walked around the house. Two of the turkeys scuffled, and one or two others seemed to get into the act also. They didn’t lock heads this time, but kicked. We looked at them more closely to try and figure out their genders. They didn’t appear to be adult males, and at least a couple of them looked younger. More bird species showed up: House Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow.
We stopped at the pond on the way out to find the cocoon again, and also found a fallen mud bird nest. Another interesting find was a pecked oak apple gall with a lacewing egg on the opened part! A few American Coots and Ring-necked Ducks floated on the water.
It was almost lunchtime, and we decided to stop in town. Mineral was open, which gave us wonderful, creative vegetarian meals.
After a walk around town, Calaveras Big Trees was our last hike. It was 3:40 when we got going again. We took the North Grove Trail, but because there were a relatively large number of people with loud kids, we split off and took the Grove Overlook Trail. We did manage to hear Red-breasted Nuthatch, Common Raven, and a White-headed Woodpecker. We couldn’t find that in the trees though.
Back at the lot at 5:25, only two other cars were left. As we pulled out of the parking lot, we saw the only snow we’d seen on the trip, a 15′ strip along one part of the lot. Without stops, it took us almost 2.5 hours to get home.
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.
Is that guy cute or what? Only 2-3mm long. Read on…
JO, SW, KG and I scouted our hike the night before. Usually we have more time in between, but it had rained on the prior Monday when we had planned to scout. 10/14/11 was a glorious night as far as arthropods go. The weather was in the low 70′s, with some high clouds. I forgot my boots, but as it turned out, it was ok. We saw a few new things, so that made up for it. 10/15 was cooler, and a little windy.
An Osprey soared to the east. We started off at 5:25, and about 10 minutes later on Saturday.
We passed a few ant holes, but as we rounded a curve, we came upon a very busy one. Ants were busily carrying eggs or larvae. As we watched transfixed, I turned and saw a male tarantula crossing the trail ahead of us! For whatever reason we haven’t seen many of these in the past few years. The ants would still be there, so we all gathered around to watch the tarantula walk. Every once in a while he would stop and do a little repeated bounce with his abdomen. I’m not sure what that was about. Some hikers came by and said they also had seen one.
As we returned to the ants, I saw a tiny reddish brown oval running around near the ants. It didn’t resemble anything I’d seen before, so I managed to catch it in a vial. It was a tiny ant cricket. When I put it back, I blew it off my finger–that caused the ants to speed up. We figured that the CO2 caused them to react as though a predator was near.
On Saturday, we found some small red ants in a nest near the busy larger black ant nest. I don’t remember seeing these before. A lizard was half in a hole, only its back half showing.
The next sighting along the trail was a medium-sized wolf spider. On Saturday, a similar one walked past us in the parking lot.
We’d seen a bowl-and-doily spider, so we stopped to talk about that and discovered a small orb nearby. There was a lack of large orb webs this fall, unlike last year.
We had dinner at the sag pond, arriving there around 6:20 on Friday and about 10 minutes earlier on Saturday. The three spider holes were open, and we were able to see tiny round light-colored babies in one hole. While talking about spider taxonomy, we heard a Virginia Rails call. Sunset was around 6:30.
It took us about 40 minutes on Saturday to reach the first set of woods, where we’d seen the first scorpion (Uroctonus mordax) on Friday. A bat fluttered overhead. We found several scorpions, and refound the trapdoor spider holes (Cyrtaucheniids). Unlike at Long Ridge, the spiders were not at the door. We also checked the hard dirt turret that PB had found previously, which had at least a partial loose silk covering. There was no covering, and the spider perched at the top. A photo revealed that it had finer, denser hairs on its legs compared to Antrodiaetus riversi photos. The turret was taller than the typical A. riversi turrets we see, which are usually not plain dirt.
Scaphinotus beetles were more common than darkling beetles (we only saw one), and on Friday, we found at least four different millipedes and two different centipedes. Several tiger beetle larvae were visible. Either this is a good year for them, or we’ve not had the search image to find them. An Arboreal Salamander was cozy in a trailbank hole, which seems to be where we see them.
Having spent almost an hour along that stretch on Saturday, we decided to skip going to Indian Creek and the gravel pit where we’d only seen a tiny Solifugid on Friday. We continued down the hill, and found one mushroom, being munched on by three crickets. Besides some distant Great-horned Owls, one Barn Owl called.
At about 8:30 we reached the nature trail intersection. We checked the tarantula hole that was stuffed loosely with silk on PB’s hike, and surprisingly, it was open. We didn’t see the spider, but KG found a small Calisoga on the other side of the trail. It was still and cooperative, so we got good looks.
Since we hadn’t yet shown the participants actual turret spiders, we went the .2 miles down the nature trail. Many turret spiders were visible, and JO found a small Hyptiotes with an atypical triangle web between two branches of a fallen log. We also found two fluorescent Polydesmid millipedes, another surprise.
It took an hour to return from the intersection. We stopped to view a Tetragnathid and check the sag pond spider holes.
Update 10/23/11: It appears that, based on my red ant photo, these are army ants! Legionary ants in the genus Neivamyrmex, either N. opacithorax or N. californicus. The busy larger black ants are harvesters, Messor andrei, and they were moving brood probably because of the army ants. See antweb.org for data on ant species.
On a warm Wednesday night, 9/29/11, KG, CB and I scouted Long Ridge. On the way up Page Mill, a young coyote crossed the road. We started off from the trailhead around 5:30.22
I’ve been looking for a certain something for a couple of years. The search intensified after KG joined me on a MCOSD naturalist spider hike, of which I’ve been on several. We’re addicted to looking in trailbank holes, and with trapdoor search image in head (thanks to DH and SB from Marin) and time to look, somehow we managed to find not one, but more than one! The first one was on a small diagonal slope on a mossy bank. KG spotted another nearby, which was vertical on a dirt face. When she carefully opened the door with a piece of grass, the spider popped out! The door stuck open, and the spider stayed there for a while, long enough to take photos. When it decided to back up, we closed the door. The burrows were in the same area as Antrodiaetus riversi, the turret spider. We found many, many of those, in other places besides our usual after-dinner haunt.
We got to the bench at 7:12. Some trees near the intersection had been cut; the area seemed more open. After dinner, we left around 8:00. Along the ridge, we found the usual California Common Scorpion, and back in the woods around 8:30, also found California Forest Scorpion, by red flashlight and not UV, since the hands were darker than the dirt. We passed a Jerusalem Cricket, not a true cricket but in their own family, Stenopelmatidae.
At one point, we flushed some birds from the trees. CB got only a glimpse of size, and thought they were more pigeon-size. Usually what we flush is Band-tailed Pigeon, which make a big commotion startling the heck out of us, or California Quail, which may cluck. The calls these birds made were almost turkey-like, something like what these hens were doing.
In a grassy area, KG spotted a Western Black Widow. We’ve seen one or two here before.
Another curiosity that I’ve been trying to figure out for a number of years is those perfectly round holes in trailbanks. One time at Monte Bello, PB, KG and I saw something in a perfectly round hole, but we couldn’t tell what it was. It backed in before we got a good look, and we got no photos. I had another exciting moment when I found an occupied hole. The holes I’m talking about have a beveled edge. This one was filled by a tiger beetle larva head! Once we saw that one, we started to see more, and also found them at Monte Bello. Our Marin naturalists tell us these are in the genus Omus, and the adults can be mistaken for darkling beetles if one does not look carefully.
On the public hike, the fog came and went in waves during dinner.We saw many Scaphinotus (snail eaters) beetles. Two were carrying what looked like yellowjackets. One was on top of another, mating-style, and the bottom one had a yellowjacket in its mandibles. We weren’t sure if that was a nuptial gift, stealing, or just taking advantage of a busy beetle.
Here are photos from this hike and the Evening Explorer Hike on 10/7.
On Friday night, 9/23/11, KG, JO and I led a group of 11 through Skyline Ridge. A few had been on night hikes, and all had been on hikes on these lands before. The weather was mild and warm, probably ~75F after dark. Some high clouds partly obscured the sky throughout the hike. We haven’t done a night hike here since 2008, and even though we added some trails that we don’t hike on much, we were able to keep with the schedule.
We set off at 5:45. There was a lot to look at on the first stretch: A patch with lots of tracks: two tracks of a mammal that we guessed was raccoon, small passerine tracks, perhaps made by a California Towhee hopping, larger walking bird tracks, probably quail, deer, and lizard scat. We looked at a lot of scat along the way–the hard, shellaced bobcat scat, furry coyote, and a few unidentified scats. There were many latrines. Frit flies, as usual at this time of year, bothered us.
We stopped to smell and look at plants along the chaparral area: Vinegar weed, yerba santa, yerba buena, pennyroyal, holly-leaf cherry, skunkweed, silk tassel, seeding chamise, sagebrush, mugwort.
We had dinner on the trail above the overlook that leads down to the water tank. The quail flock farther down the trail was also having dinner, like they did on our scouting trip. While we ate, a curious deer popped its head above the quail flock from down trail. Dampwood termite alates fluttered around.
Sunset
Some heard a Western screech-owl as dusk fell. Lots of harvester ants busied themselves, and we saw two bumble bees and some dragonflies.
We found two centipedes (not stone centipedes) on the downhill past the intersection. We managed not to miss an Iridium satellite flare.
Centipede
A Jerusalem cricket and Calisoga spider showed themselves on the way to the lake. We looped Fir Knoll, finding many forest scorpions. KG and I found a large moth by its pink eyeshine, but it was too far off the trail in a tree to see clearly. It seemed to be about the size of a sphinx moth, but was perched vertically. As on the first wooded section in the beginning of the hike, there were a few small orb weavers, plus jumping bristletails.
Circling around the back of the lake didn’t produce much except for a large spider hole in the middle of the trail, with a flat collar of live oak leaves (two days later in the daytime, we weren’t able to find the hole). On the way back from the equestrian lot, a large wolf spider carrying babies crossed the trail. I haven’t seen one that large with babies in a long time, last probably at Long Ridge.
Birds seen/heard: Band-tailed pigeon, CA quail, ducks (probably mallard), western screech-owl, wrentit, Bewick’s wren, western scrub-jay.
At the end of the season, JO and I surveyed all three tanoak locations. We first went to Long Ridge, arriving around 11:00. The weather was sunny and warm, at least 75F. The catkins on the trees still had stamens with anthers, but no visible pollen. We did, however, find a few small hymenopterans? on a lower clumpy catkin on the tree we designated as LR-2 (four trees, numbered left to right, with three “subtrees” behind LR-4). We collected an iridescent green one. Many small, tangled spider webs were apparent between the leaves. There were some large green acorns as well as small female flowers.
Small wasp or cuckoo bee?
After some time examining trees at the first spot, we checked the small 12′ tall tree at the second spot. We got there around 12:15. The tree was in shade, and had a few spider webs but no catkins or insects.
We stopped for lunch at Skyline Ridge, then went on to Windy Hill, arriving there around 1:15. Fairy Bells had red seed pods, Baneberry had red berries, and there were lots of Helleborine orchids.
We found the upper tanoak close to the trail on the right, designating that as WH1. Some large green acorns grew on higher branches. Across from this tree is a moss- and lichen- covered multiple-trunked tree. Down the trail, a smaller tanoak on the right could be a possible observation tree for future surveys.
We started off at El Corte de Madera at 2:00, first checking two trees to the left (EC-L1 and EC-L2). We collected a flower beetle that was head-down in a catkin. The second tree had more catkins, and we collected a stilt bug.
Stilt bug (Berytidae)
To the right of the entrance and down the hill, two tanoaks before the curve had catkins and lower branches (EC-R2 and EC-R3). We continued to the tree downhill before the meadow (EC-R4). These also still had small tangled spider webs. At 3:44, there were a few honey bees buzzing around, but they didn’t seem to be landing on the catkins. EC-R5 is across the trail.
