Long Ridge OSP and Evening Explorer Hike

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.

Tanoaks at Long Ridge, Windy Hill, and El Corte de Madera 2011

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.

Photos are here.

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.

Evening Explorations

JO, KG and I had 10 participants (of 16) on our night hike on 8/27/10. We met at 6:00 and left the trailhead that we had caravaned to at 6:35.

I made it a point not to make any lengthy stops, so we could get up to the ridge on time. As it turned out, we got there at about 7:30, 15 minutes before sunset. As we emerged from the woods, fog creeping up onto the road greeted us.

It was chillier than we had anticipated, and apparently the only foggy, cold night of the summer. After our dinner, we left the bench around 8:00. It was still too light to look for night critters, but we wanted to get moving.

At 8:20, we got to the intersection. Some sharp-eyed participants spotted a large beetle on the road. This was another surprise–on our scouting trip, we had found an even larger one in the woods, the first I’d ever seen up here. This one, a different species, was a little smaller, but had attitude. The antennae were different, and the beetle “hissed” when picked up. The other one we’d found made some soft clicking sounds after a while.

California Root Borer (Prionus californicus)

After the usual discussion on night vision, we headed downhill. This time we did find more than one turret. Three were occupied, and one was a couple of inches tall, perhaps the largest I’ve seen. There was also one by the pond.

California Root Borer underside

There was another spider, perhaps wolf, hanging out in the trailbank, and we also found a large Jumping Bristletail, a couple of crickets, and a Banana Slug in a hole.  Farther down, sharp eyes found a couple different species of harvestmen, and a treefrog.

We reached the pond at around 9:20. We had permission from Jikoji to spend some time there. The water was black in the areas between the duckweed, reflecting the trees. A few bats flew into the flashlight beam, and a Western Pond Turtle swam by, underwater! We also found a couple of newts.

Participants appreciated the quiet, spaced-out walk. In the stinging nettle, there was a huge harvestman that evaded JO’s attempts to take its photo.

As we continued on after that, a female Great-horned Owl gave repeated squawks.

We had time to spend a few minutes observing Jupiter near the almost-full moon, before heading home.

Long Ridge OSP

JO, KG and four newbies joined me in scouting on Friday, 8/20/10. We met at Skyline at 6:00, and left the lot at 6:20 to caravan to the alternate parking area.

We started out on the trail at 6:50, after some discussion of logistics. The non-native everlasting pea was blooming, and the seed pods of the Lunaria annua were there. Heading uphill, we passed Yampah, and fragrant Madia. We got to the “open area” at 7:16.

Fog blanket from the bench

Around 7:25, we found a spider turret. A few feet beyond that, JO spotted a BIG surprise–a 70mm Cerambycid, probably Ponderous Borer. I don’t usually wear insect repellent or have other chemicals on my hands, and I wanted to see what the underside was like. In hand, it was very strong, and made a clicking noise when it had enough, so we put it back where it had been (like we usually do).

Ponderous Borer

In one grassy opening in the woods, we heard the pip-pip-pip of an Olive-sided Flycatcher.

The beetle delayed our arrival at the ridge, so we were a few minutes after sunset. There was a small insect in front of the bench. I thought it was a beetle and took a photo. Upon examining the photo at home, there were no elytra (wing covers). Hmm…it looked suspiciously like a cockroach! Who knew there were native cockroaches that live here, in the wild.

Wood Cockroach, probably Parcoblatta americana

A couple of different bicycle riders were out a little late, one passing at official closing time. A couple of bats fluttered by as we had dinner. The temperature was mild, and the sky clear.

California Common Scorpion

We left the bench area around 8:50. Shortly afterwards, I found a small scorpion, California Common Scorpion, Paruroctonus sylvestrii. We looked at the ventral side to see if we could determine the gender (we think it was a male). We found three others.

At 9:19, we arrived at the next intersection and turned left. There weren’t as many turrets as in the past. We found a medium-sized occupied turret. Heading downhill, we heard barking from a Western Screech-owl.

At the pond around 9:50-9:55, we stopped to check for wildlife. JO found a tetragnathid spider.

Long-jawed Orbweaver

Since we had time, we did quiet, spaced-out walks. A deer or two crashed through the vegetation as we waited for the others. The people who left later heard a Great-horned Owl The “newt pond” held water, but there were no newts.

Turning right at the trail leading out at, we came upon a cricket, then noticed there were tiny things crawling around on the ground near it–tiny ants, a little over a millimeter long. There was a small hole into which they went in and out.

We took a few minutes outside the gate to soak in the night, before we left.

Moon and clouds

Bring on the Night

On Saturday 10/17, we met at Skyline. The ranger on duty met us and waited as we took a quick trip to check out conditions.
With 12 of 16 on the list (original total 21) participants including two kids 12-13 years old, we set off to caravan to alternate parking at Long Ridge. No one admitted to being new or not having been on night hikes, and everyone followed parking instructions well.

Leaving the trailhead around 5:25, the first sightings were deer and a couple of small fresh holes in the soil. The holes were about .5″ in diameter and had small bits of dirt unevenly surrounding the hole. They could have been ant holes, but we saw no ants there.

Turning right on Peter’s Creek, we found a piece of bark with King Alfred’s Cakes (carbon balls), which also had a cricket, a jumping bristletail, and another, smaller cricket. There were quite a few fallen branches, and a larger trunk across part of the trail.

Following that was slime mold (myxomycete) on a log–definitely a creepy crawler. In their plasmodial stage, they move around. See this page for some of the amazing forms their fruiting bodies take.

JH and KG found termites at a log. After the recent heavy rain, the termites had emerged and the winged reproductives were ready to mate and start new colonies.

We arrived at the bench in about an hour, in time for sunset. Crickets called behind us, but not in the area in front of the bench.

Catching the view

 

Sunset

A few bats flew about as dusk descended. A stuffed tarantula provided a mostly anatomically-correct model. The weather was mild, around 65, and overcast. When it was dark enough, we proceeded down the road, searching for scorpions. Again, we found at least ten, including a tiny juvenile.

Juvenile scorpion, right of the pebble

One of the larger scorpions was accommodating in moving into the plastic tube for observation. Its pectine organ (v-shaped sensory organ on the ventral side) was small, unlike one that we’d seen before.

There were two large ants in different spots.

Turning into the woods, we looked for turrets. There were many, of various sizes, and most of them had spiders perched at their entrances. Three holes held larger mygalomorph spiders; the two I saw were grayish, but all I could see were legs. We didn’t see the Black Widows that we’d seen on the scouting trip, but there was one spider hanging head down on the trailbank. A small black beetle crawled around also.

Cybaeus sp.?

After catching it in the bug box, we released it. It tried to run away before I caught it, and upon release, it quickly ran into a hole.

We found more scorpions on the trailbank, including one on the move. It found a hole and was quick to hide. In one of the open grassy areas were two Harvestmen (an arachnid, but not a spider). The group got a closeup look at one.

We quietly approached the pond. I checked for activity, and didn’t attract any bats or see any frogs, though there were a couple of quiet water sounds. A fallen branch was along the bank. We also didn’t hear any owls this time–perhaps the ambient light bouncing off the cloud cover kept them quiet.

It was around 9:00, so we had plenty of time. We decided to do the quiet walk to the “newt pond”. There was water running in the creek and pond. A participant found a newt in the creek. We had no triboluminescence demonstration this time, but had a similar activity with glow-in-the-dark plastic creepies.

At the turnoff to the trailhead around 9:30, four participants elected to call it a night and KG escorted them out. The rest of us had decided to walk back past where we had turned up the hill at the start of the hike. We didn’t find any more creepy crawlers except for another small beetle, and had no luck with owls. We turned back, meeting KG along the way.

Once back in the clearing on the way out, some stars were visible. Everyone seemed to enjoy the night, and the fluorescing scorpions were a hit.

Long Ridge OSP

On Saturday 9/26, KG, JH and I scouted this preserve, starting around 6:25. We parked at LR10, and checked out LR09. Two deer separately hung around. There were quails clucking, and a robin chortled.

We left the big open intersection at 7:00. Heading up to the ridge as the light faded, we decided to check some holes. There were quite a few very tiny spiders in webs, and lots of crickets on the trail, and one tarantula in a hole in the trail bank. A surprise was finding two Black Widows in their webs along the trail bank.They were shy, and scurried for cover. There was also at least one scorpion in a hole.
Along the way, a Western Screech Owl barked, seemingly at us, for disturbing it.

The bench was in darkness when we arrived at 8:30. The temperature was pleasant, but some areas along the trail were quite warm. There were three spiders in webs at the front lower part of the bench. They bounced around and dashed for cover.

After dinner, we swept the road with UV. Lots of smallish scorpions were hanging out. I wondered what they were doing just sitting there.

We arrived at the gate at the other end around 9:15. We found a couple of occupied turrets, but didn’t find a lot of turrets. There were more scorpions in holes and up in the duff above the trail bank, and one red reproductive termite. Two tarantulas showed up in trail bank burrows, and a couple of small spiders sat at their burrow entrances.
A deer’s eyeshine showed up above us along the trail.

Tarantula in burrow

The water was almost completely covered with duckweed. The partial moon was out, at 9:50. After listening to a few soft water noises, a Red-legged Frog emerged. It might have been the same one we saw before; it seemed perfectly happy to sit with its head out. We heard another Western Screech Owl trill behind us.

As we approached the turn to the trail leading to the trailhead, the temperature on that part of the trail was cool. We listened to another owl call from farther away. A large owl flew over, above me so I didn’t see it, but I was facing the right direction to see a meteor fall. A mammal crossed the grass, but went behind the vegetation so we couldn’t get a better look. It was smaller than a deer, and didn’t seem to move like one.

I checked out LR09 after we got back to the car before 10:30. There was a fire break behind the gate, but other than that, there didn’t seem to be a trail there.

Photos are here.

A Two Moon Evening

It was a very warm night on Friday (75-80) 8/28, and remained warm until the end. We had 18 participants, including two boys.

We started out around 6:15 or so, and the first sighting was a good-sized Gopher Snake not far from the trailhead. It was hanging out on the upside of the trail in the shade, and stayed there, probably trying to cool off. It appeared healthy and was flicking its tongue.

Next was a small spider wasp on the ground, flicking its wings as they do. One of the boys noticed a spider, which wasn’t apparent at first as it was covered with trail dust. The wasp attempted to drag it, but wasn’t having much success.

We pointed out the Poison Oak growing through the snowberry, for those who weren’t familiar. Also out was Vinegar Weed and Clarkia. Yerba Buena and Wild Ginger offered additional scents. Some California Quail were clucking below us. Sneezeweed and yampah were also observed.

We turned up the trail leading to the ridge. At the open intersection, a small male wolf spider was spotted by one of the boys. We got it in a bug box for observation. We had a short discussion on venomous spiders, noting that Brown Recluse are not found naturally in California. Along the way, JO had noticed a round piece of wasp nest, which he showed to the group. The story of Douglas Fir fire and mouse tails was told.

All the way up, “eye flies” were bugging us, but there were dragonflies flying around in the open areas.

Arriving around 7:35 at the ridge, the sunset was starting to turn pink.

Looking west

A few bats flew overhead. A jogger passed by as we had dinner. A beetle which showed purple iridescence in the right light was found near the bench. Jupiter and two moons were visible, as was the moon. Some of the participants caught a meteor while the sky was still light.

We headed out around 8:10. It was starting to get dark, and UV light showed us some small scorpions. The kids found three for us along the ridge. There was also a centipede.

Heading into the woods, the turret spiders were cooperative. We found at least three perched at the top of their turrets, along with another spider behind some webbing covering a hole on the trailside.

We shined a flashlight across the duckweed-covered water to reveal bats chasing insects. The moon was overhead, but reflections were not to be seen. There was enough moonlight to see the whole surface.

There was a plop in the water. A bit later, a frog was spotted–not a Pacific Tree Frog since it was larger and had no eye stripe. It was floating in the water about 5 feet from the water’s edge, facing us. After ducking underwater, it came closer. It had large eyes; it turned sideways and we could see some spots. It was quiet. (Hopefully it would not turn out to be a bullfrog.) Yes, it was a California Red-legged Frog! One of the ridges on the dorsal side was visible in our photos. I’m happy that they are still there. Rana draytonii was Federally listed as a Threatened species in June 1996.

We did a quiet, spaced-out walk to the “newt pond”, which was dry. We pointed out stinging nettle and Poison Hemlock. Katydids and crickets were calling, and there were a lot of small crickets jumping on the trails.

At the bridge, a California Newt or two was spotted in the creek. We wanted to make sure we returned in time, so we proceeded on. There was a medium-sized brown katydid and small darkling beetle in the middle of the trail. One of the kids found another small scorpion.

We attempted to do Lifesavers near the trailhead, but the moon was too bright. It was close to 10:30.

Oddly, we saw no deer, nor any fence lizards or larger wolf spiders, but our group was relatively noisy. The Red-legged Frog was a treat, and we were happy to have seen four scorpions.

Photos here.

Tanoaks at Long Ridge

KG, PB, ST and I checked out the tanoaks again 0n 7/10,  specifically looking for female flowers.

To me it seemed like the aroma of the flowers wasn’t as obvious like it was last time I was there, but they still smelled if you stuck your nose up to one.

This time, there were two small structures on the bases of a few catkins. Some of the structures had three green somewhat hard things sticking out of the top. Apparently, these are protruding styles. At this stage, the flowers were smaller than the artichoke-shaped ones we’ve seen. Looking closely at the artichoke-shaped ones,you can see some long, slender structures. Perhaps these are the sepals, of which there are supposed to be six.

We saw some oval structures that turned out to be the buds of new leaves. We looked at some of the dried up, brown buds and female flowers to see the difference. One of these had three minute larva inside the base.

On the catkins again were the small black beetles. Under one leaf, a small spider had taken up residence, and had many small black insects stuck in its web.

The photos are here.