Night on Froggy Mountain, Skyline Ridge

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.

We arrived back at the lot a bit before 9:00.

==

See  Secret Weapons: Defenses of Insects, Spiders, Scorpions, and Other Many-Legged Creatures , page 43, by Eisner for more on millipedes and cyanide.

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.

Late Summer Eve in Open Space

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.

We arrived back by 10:30.

Here are more photos.

Girls’ Night Out at Russian Ridge

First, the scouting trip on 8/9. KG and I left the trailhead at 6:00. It was relatively warm, maybe 75. We were going at a somewhat slow pace, but kept moving except for a couple of stops. There was an orange velvet ant on the Ridge trail, and a brown beetle. We heard a couple of Western Bluebirds and saw one.

Clarkia was blooming, and there were a few pink thimbleberries. We reached the deck at 7:25. It seemed like the view was better than it was the last time we were there; we couldn’t remember being able to see sunset, but we weren’t sure why. After the sun went down at 8:15, the temperature was about 68F. We thought we could get through on the trail on the Mindego side of the hill, going past the windmill, but at the top, there wasn’t a visible trail connection. We returned to the deck and back to Hawk Hill the way we had come.

Harding grass and the moon

Harding grass filled the area looking towards Borel Hill. Warm air and chilled air wafted across the trail as we walked. A distant Great-horned Owl called from below. Crickets, small ground beetles and darkling beetles were plentiful on the trail.

A couple of deer bounded away in the grassland. As we approached the Ridge trail again, we spotted a small-medium spider which, at first glance, looked like a wolf spider. But after a photo, we discovered it was actually a small Calisoga, a surprise. Returning on the Ridge trail, a Barn Owl called. We arrived back a little before 10:30.

The actual hike occurred on 8/12, with KG and KP. We had 20 on the reservation list, with two cancellations. 12 actually showed up. A few were new, and a few had not been on a night hike. We started on the trailhead at 5:50. The temperature was similar to Tuesday’s.

As we approached the telephone wires, a huge flock of Violet-green Swallows got stirred up, perhaps by a family in front of us. There were hundreds of them; I don’t remember having seen such a sight there before.

Hundreds of Violet-green Swallows

We stopped on Borel Hill and pointed out landmarks. We stayed there a bit longer than I’d planned, so we kept a good pace on the way to the deck. Small, light-colored insects aggregated in low swarms. (If this had been another type of hike, I would have taken the time to catch one to see what they were.) A lone Red-tailed Hawk perched on the snag below the Caltrans vista point intersection.

The bulk of the group arrived there around 7:13, close to schedule.

The air above the oats in the meadow north of the deck was filled with small insects, perhaps the same ones we’d seen on the trail. Dragonflies patrolled also. Coyotes yipped from nearby, surprisingly early. Two American Kestrels called from nearby. We speculated that one was a young one bugging its parent. A flock of Bushtits flitted between trees. Straight out, a vertical arc shined in the sky.

In keeping with the theme, we enjoyed treats and butterfly tattoos. We headed off towards Hawk Ridge. We heard the owl again. Just after sunset, we came upon a young rattlesnake in the trail. When I  shined my light on it to see it better, it slithered into the grass.

Once under tree cover, we distributed glow bracelets. Because the moon was out, it was still somewhat light even under trees. Bats flew around ahead of us in the open. Back in the grassland, we saw deer cross the trail again. Crickets and katydids serenaded us.

We arrived at the cleared area at 8:50, giving us 20 minutes to sit and enjoy the rest of our treats under the almost full moon, before heading back towards the Caltrans entrance trail and around the side of the hill.

When we reached the main trail again, someone spotted a small Calisoga spider, and we stopped to take a look at it. A little further along, and we saw a Jerusalem Cricket, and then a medium-sized wolf spider predating a cricket. (We don’t see that too often. I’m not sure how well that went over with the “girls”, but I thought it interesting.)

Back at the lot by 10:30, everyone appreciated the beautiful night.

More photos are here.

As we drove down Page Mill, a Barn Owl flew across the road and landed about 10-12′ up. We stopped the car underneath the tree, and got a quick look at it looking down at us before it took off. A hare also ran across in a different spot.

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.

==
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

Night on Froggy Mountain

It was a cold but not stormy night, 2/26/11. KP, MB, and I took a group around Picchetti Ranch. Picchetti had a light dusting of snow the previous evening, which was melted by the time we got there. The forecast ranged from 47F (felt like 43F) at 5 p.m. to 41F (felt like 38F) at 9 p.m., and that seemed correct. We originally had 23 on the reservation list including 8 on the waitlist. There were some last-minute cancellations so we ended up with 7 (including a kid and a teen).

This was the first time we’ve done a frog hike here. On a different hike last year at the same time, it wasn’t as cold, and there were adult toads swimming in the pond and on land on the shore. We saw no toads on our scouting hike or last night.

While waiting in the lot, a coyote cruised through and went into the brush uphill, and someone spotted a rabbit browsing. We started our intro at 4:30 and left the lot around 4:50. At the restroom, three more joined us until the dinner spot, deciding to leave since they hadn’t brought dinner.

The spring in the middle of the trail was bubbling out. We stopped to watch a White-tailed Kite hover, and a California Towhee popped up from a shrub. At the pond, the water level was about the same as it was a week earlier. There were four Mallards at the water’s edge, sifting for food. Close to the edge, a treefrog peered at us from the water. Newts swam. We didn’t see any critters on land.

Continuing to the dinner spot, we saw black cup fungi on the trailbank, and we stopped for liverworts, Hound’s Tongue and Tremella (Witch’s Butter). We got to the dinner spot at 5:50, ten minutes before sunset. After dinner, we refound the turret with the cup fungus, but didn’t see an occupant.

Black cup fungi

KP heard a Great Horned Owl near the second bridge/stream crossing, but when we stopped on the other side of the water, it was quiet. We talked about night vision there since the trail was a little wider.

Past the gate around 6:50, we made another stop to talk about the frogs and newts, wanting it to be a little darker. As we approached the pond, we could hear the frogs. We stopped short of the pond and heard one of the Great Horned Owls that we’d heard the week before.

I checked the shore again to make sure there weren’t too many critters around to get closer easily, but still didn’t see any on land. It was markedly different from the previous week. There were still newt balls in the water, and some frogs calling, but not nearly as many. It seemed like 50 versus hundreds or a thousand. We spotted a couple of them calling from their floating perches on top of the water, and a few were calling from land. Finally someone spotted a newt out of water, a female, moving extremely slowly. It seemed to be having trouble, but whether that was due to the cold or something else, we couldn’t tell. I spotted a frog in a hole with some water in it, a couple of inches from the water’s edge.

We stopped to look at the treehole mosquito larvae again, then proceeded up the loop. There was a budding Zygadene Lily along the trail. There was one Polydesmid millipede in the oak grove, and we stopped to look at it. There were hardly any near the restroom like there usually are. These are blind and it doesn’t seem like Picchetti’s event lights would have bothered them. Maybe the cold affected them too.

We got back to the lot around 8:00.

==
Knowing there are frogs in other parts that are adapted to freezing, I went searching. I was curious how our local amphibians would be affected by freezing temperatures. I found this abstract (Hyla regilla is a previous name of our treefrog), but didn’t find anything on newts.

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.

==

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.

Arachnophilia!

A group of ten, including JO, SW and me, met at Monte Bello OSP for our first “official” spider night hike on 10/9/10. (I say official, because as anyone who knows us knows, every hike is a spider hike…) It was a very successful one, albeit more of a meander than a hike. We met at 5:15 p.m. There was a surprising number of cars in the lot (not all ours).

We passed a few juvenile fence lizards on the way to the walnut grove. We found a spider hole in the ground; the hole was perfectly round and had a little silk at least around the inside edge. We marked it to check it on our way back.

There was a Cat-faced Spider (Araneus gemmoides) in the oats/grass near the road, and another nearby. We explained how to find the spider (if not in the web) by following the signal line.

Cat-faced Spider (Araneus gemmoides)

At the sag pond we stopped for dinner. The spider hole was covered over, and I only recognized it because I had looked at a leaf in the photo I took before, which seemed to show some silk purposely attached to said leaf. I don’t remember who told me a long time ago that these silk-lined holes in the ground were tarantula holes, but this one made me question that.

A small dark wolf spider passed by and I captured it while JO talked about the different arachnids. After everyone got a look, we released it. We headed off around 6:30, to get to the “spider patch” before sunset.

There were two Argiope trifasciata and an Araneus gemmoides or two at the patch. Here SW gave a brief overview of how an orb web is made.

We headed uphill and saw a bat or two in the open areas, plus a large owl fly by. Once it was dark enough, we saw a few California Forest Scorpions. When we came to the tree in which another Cat-faced Spider had a web, the spider was very visible but there wasn’t much of a web. On the return, I was behind and saw that she had finished rebuilding it.

We saw a few possible Cybaeus sp., two small Calisoga Spiders along the way, and another 2-3 larger ones. Near the “gravel pit”, we got one into a baggie to look at it more closely. It was very cooperative, and didn’t move while we looked at its ventral side. It was not aggressive at all.

JO spotted a Solifugid near the edge of the trail. We took a look at it also.

We went just past the pit to the edge of the woods, then turned back. I lagged behind for a bit, and found a Jerusalem Cricket and a millipede crossing the trail.

We found two turret spiders, three Harvestmen, another Jerusalem Cricket, and lots of crickets on the trail. Some of us stopped to see if the sag pond burrow was open, and it was. A Calisoga spider was at the edge of the road.

[/caption]

The owls were surprisingly quiet compared to on our scouting hike. The temperature was mild, probably mid-60′s.

The burrow in the trail that we’d spotted on the way in was occupied, and the last section of trail had two small Solifugids.

We were surprised to see headlights as we approached the trailhead; there was a permitted star party going on.

This was a very successful hike as far as finding arachnids. Next time we’ll have to call it a “meander”…

More photos are here.

Monte Bello OSP: Arachnid scouting

JO, SW and I scouted on 10/2/2010 for our upcoming night hike. DK joined us.

We started out around 6:10. The temperature was mild. The vinegar weed was blooming. A large raptor that appeared to be a Northern Harrier soared low over the grassland. At the walnut grove, there were remains of a juvenile fence lizard, being eaten by three Western Yellowjackets.

We arrived at the sag pond at 6:30. There were still some Pacific Coast Dampwood termite alates fluttering around. After dinner, we left at 6:53.

The Banded Garden Spider (Argiope trifasciata) found by PB on Canyon Trail a couple of weeks ago was gone, but there was a different individual nearby, plus two Cat-faced Spiders (Araneus gemmoides).

Before it was completely dark, a Great Horned Owl lazily flew from the west to the east, and a bat fluttered by.

Many small Trashline Weavers (Cyclosa) had webs in the woods, mostly low to the ground. These spiders use a stabilimentum as a base for attaching debris (usually prey remains).

There were a lot of very small orb weavers. Another Cat-faced Spider had the beginnings of a web, about five feet up in a tree.

Cat-faced Spider (Araneus gemmoides)

JO found a Cybaeus-looking spider on the dirt part of the trailbank.

The beam of my flashlight revealed two large, round, yellow reflectors–no, they moved! Then there were two more. We stared at them, wondering what they were. JO removed his red filter, and they were just a couple of deer in the woods. I’ll have to remember the red next time I see eyeshine.

Along Indian Creek to the right, we found a smallish Calisoga spider. Near it was a hunting spider.

We were looking for the hidden pond, but I missed the turnoff. DK told us about a pond on the left, which I had not seen before. That was past the other pond, and on the way back we found the one I was actually looking for. There was a Harvestman, and a small tetragnathid, but not enough to warrant the trip down (and back up). We left there to return around 9:15.

Returning on Canyon Trail, we found one small scorpion, a California Forest Scorpion (Uroctonus mordax).

On the Bella Vista Trail sign, a tree cricket sat quietly.

We heard several Great Horned Owls in different places, including the sag pond. Western Screech-owl calls also in different areas entertained us.

The mygalomorph burrow by the sag pond had an occupant, visible after dark.

When we arrived at the lot, there was a group of astronomers and their families.

More photos are here.