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.
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.
This year, we had some help, so HF, CB and I passed on Hidden Lane and Lone Tree Cemetery, and Sulphur Creek Nature Center and Carlos Bee Park and the back part of Don Castro RRA to others.
We started off at 8:24 and got to Don Castro at 8:33. The far end of the lake was dry.
Don Castro RRA
On Friday, I’d only seen one duck, a Ring-necked Duck. There were only a few Mallards on count day, and we missed the two Belted Kingfishers, two Great Egrets, Hutton’s Vireos, Common Ravens, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and a Townsend’s Warbler from Friday. Conspicuously missing were Cedar Waxwings, and there were much fewer American Robins and Northern Flickers. We heard a “Dairy” woodpecker (my name for an unseen Downy or Hairy), and I guessed Downy because that’s what we saw last year, but I was fooled. Looking back, we did have Hairy in 2009.
We made it halfway down the Ridgetop Trail to the bridge, and turned around to head to Five Canyons. We left the lot at 11:33.
Our next stop was the Shady Canyon Trail, arriving there at 11:49. We made it to the far side of the pond. The female Bufflehead was still there from Saturday. The Varied Thrush were difficult to discern, but we heard at least three. A surprise was another Hairy Woodpecker. Since it hadn’t rained much, there were only a couple small patches of old fungi. I did find a cluster of tiger beetle larvae burrows of various sizes on Saturday, and a Buckeye butterfly. We returned to the top at 2:04 and headed to lunch.
We made our afternoon run through Five Canyons. Our first stop, by accident, was Boulder Canyon at 3:35. This steep hill has a snag that almost always has a raptor, and this was no exception. An American Kestrel, as well as a Northern Flicker, were perched in the snag.
Next, we headed to where we meant to go, Century Oaks. It was almost 4:00 by then, maybe too late in the afternoon, as we found no Rufous-crowned Sparrows or Western Bluebirds. There was a Lincoln’s Sparrow though, and a Bewick’s Wren which had made a nest at the top of someone’s downspout.
We made a quick stop at Crestview Ct. at 4:45 to try to get some bluebirds. We heard none, but did hear at least one Great-horned Owl. A couple of deer were browsing, and a Red-shouldered Hawk flushed out of one of the near oaks. We left there at 4:58, finishing a cold, but dry day.
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.
KG, PB and I scouted for an upcoming night hike on 9/12/11. We haven’t done a night hike here since 2008, so I was curious to find out what we might see.
We left the lot at 5:45 p.m. I spotted something out of the corner of my eye: a snake skin, left coming out/going into a hole in the ground. Nearby, across from some buckwheat, something with orange, and dark eyes, fled into a hole. It backed up, so I didn’t get a look at it myself.
It was quiet, with no other people around. We got to the intersection at 6:15, and continued through to the chaparral area. We hadn’t decided on a dinner spot, so we checked out the grassy area to the right from the overlook. The grass was flattened, with rabbit and other scat around. We decided to go back to the left side, and eat on the trail that leads past the water tank, arriving there around 7:00.
View from he chaparral area
After dinner and watching the sunset, we headed across the ridge and down the steep trail back to the first intersection (8:00).
We reached the lake bridge at 8:30. We went up Fir Knoll. In the dark, it was a little difficult to navigate since parts of the trail were covered with leaf duff. We found a few scorpions on the trail banks, and heard various owls. We found a katydid and took photos. I decided after we took a few steps to go back and take a lateral view; then I noticed that it was ovipositing.
We spent half an hour there, which made it questionable to continue around the back side of the lake when we finished the loop. We decided to take the lakeside trail back since it was 9:55. We got back to the lot with some time to spare, so we checked out the hole that we’d found previously–no action, though.
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?
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American Bullfrogs are not native west of the Rockies. They eat anything they can swallow, including our native frogs, and birds. They are probably responsible for part of the decline of many native species (1).
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.
It was Sunday, 2/20/11, a cold, dry day after 6 days of showers/rain preceded by an extended dry period. By the afternoon, it was cloudy. It turned out a pretty interesting scouting night. The number of cars in the lot surprised us. A California Thrasher sang from up in a tree.
MB and I left the lot at 4:50. Just past the restrooms, a man watched two rabbits browse. At 5:04, we turned left to go around the pond, stopping first to watch two more rabbits play ahead of us. A flock of Golden-crowned Sparrows foraged.
We could hear people with kids. There was shallow water in the middle of the basin, with a large dry area surrounding it, where the kids were playing in a pile of wood. American Robins gathered at the tops of a tree. We carefully walked down to the water’s edge to see what was there. Pieces of dry grass from the basin covered the surface. Underneath, newts swam, and we saw a newt ball. At the top of the pond area near the trail, a banana slug stretched out.
Pond water level
Pond water level
After we left the pond at 5:20, we crossed paths with a gravid female newt. Then, another. We saw more than a few that all appeared female, on the trail between the time we left the pond and on the way back while it was dark.
We reached the gate at 5:30, got to the first bridge at 5:35, the second bridge at 5:40, and the third and final bridge, our dinner spot, at 5:50. Along the way, we noted a patch of liverworts with umbrella-like fruiting bodies, as well as blooming Hounds Tongue. The water was rushing loudly at our stop.
Sunset was at 5:53, but it was dusky in the woods. It was chilly, and after dinner, I finally put on my gloves. It was probably around 45F-47F; last year on the same date it was around five degrees warmer.
At 6:15, it wasn’t quite dark, but dark enough in the woods to use a flashlight. We slowly made our way back, taking our time to let the dark settle. Our first find was a spider turret at the base of the trailbank, with a cup fungus attached at the base. Nobody was home (or at least willing to come to the door). At 6:45, we heard a soft Western Screech-owl trill from the oaks. Coyotes yipped from somewhere ahead.
We arrived back at the gate at 6:54. We could hear the treefrogs already. Past the gate, a Great Horned Owl hooted, then a female called from the other side of the trail. As we approached the pond, the frogs got louder and louder. When we got close enough for them to detect us, they quieted. We stopped, and waited for the chorusmaster to start. Unfortunately, there was a lot of air traffic that disturbed the quiet.
The chorusmaster started up, then another, and another, and soon any air traffic that was passing over was drowned out. We carefully made our way to the water, with good cause, as we found our first little brown frog sitting on land. In fact, quite a few of them were chorusing from land. With all that noise, you’d think it would be pretty easy to spot them in the water, but I couldn’t see any eyeshine. Newts slid through the water, and it was easier to see the light color of the males. We found a frog close to shore, vocal sac inflated, not caring that we were nearby. He did call, but he also sat there with the sac inflated for a while, long enough for me to get a photo.
Here is the recording; you can hear the Great Horned Owl in the beginning. If you listen with headphones, turn down the volume because the treefrogs start up about halfway through, and they are deafening!
We picked our way around several other frogs on land, some larger, and after seeing a few pairs in amplexus on land (what’s up with that?), I figured that the larger, fatter, quiet ones were females.
Then, something totally unexpected appeared in our lights: a female newt waddled up the basin, a treefrog on her back! We watched, transfixed by the sight.
The wrong way
The right way
I thought I’d heard something earlier, so I wanted to check out the other side. I made my way over there, avoiding more little brown frogs which were difficult to see. Another female newt paused with a treefrog on her back! Maybe she figured if she didn’t move, he’d leave. Or she tired of hauling around eggs and a frog.
Since it was only 7:45, we decided to go around through the oak grove and headed up the Vista Trail. The grove seemed a good place to hear owls, but we didn’t. It was a good place to find Polydesmid millipedes though. [Added] While figuring out which trail to take, we noticed a cavity at the base of a tree, in it a pool of water filled with wriggling mosquito larvae–maybe Ochlerotatus sierrensis, Western Treehole Mosquito. That’s a new one for me.
We heard another Great Horned Owl once back on the straight trail leading back to the winery. More millipedes twinkled like stars on the ground under UV light near the bathrooms around 8:00.
We had a small group on 2/12/11. KP, CB and I led a small group of five, including RF and friend. One person didn’t show.
This is the last time this route will be available for this hike, as the new trail will be in place soon. The sky was clear, and the day had been relatively warm. It hadn’t rained since our scouting hike, so we weren’t sure what to expect.
We left the lot around 5:15. By that time, the sun was behind the mountains, though sunset wasn’t until 5:45. It was probably around 50F, cooler at the pond. It seemed warmer at the pond on our scouting hike.
We observed a few animal tracks in the dried mud in the trail. Dark-eyed Junco, Bewick’s Wren, Red-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Kites, and calling Red-shouldered Hawk caught our attention. After we turned to go downhill, American Robin song, and a Great-horned Owl’s hoots were detected by some. Three deer down the trail moved away. We could hear distant Coyotes yipping. A dead Jerusalem Cricket was found by RF in the middle of the trail. As we neared the pond, Red-winged Blackbird song could be heard, and I saw a duck fly towards the pond.
We stopped briefly at the pond to see whether there was any activity. I could see one newt in the water. The outlet by the sign was dry. Last year, we did this hike at the end of the month, and the water was higher.
Since it was so foggy two weeks ago, we weren’t able to see that the hill that we’d had dinner on last year was now covered with Yellow Star Thistle. We had dinner not far from the pond, on the trail. More deer were up on top of the ridge. The moon was overhead, and Orion and Jupiter were visible.
The treefrogs first started up earlier than I expected, about 15 minutes after sunset instead of 30 minutes two weeks ago. They intermittently called as we had dinner.
Some time after 6:15, we moved down to the water. We could see several newts in amplexus, and someone spotted a couple of newt egg clusters. We saw no frog eggs, but we also hadn’t seen any newt eggs two weeks earlier. After some observation, we took a stroll to the other side of the pond. We heard more Great Horned Owls calling. Something relatively large splashed into the water. Presumably since it has been dry, there were no newts or frogs seen on land.
Most of the treefrogs were on the other side, so we turned around and went back. We found more egg clusters, and the treefrog calls punctuated the quiet. A couple called from close to land, and I vowed to find one of them. It took a while to find the frog that called from about 15″ away in the middle of some Pennyroyal, and I only spotted him because his inflated vocal sac moved a piece of grass! He was the color of mud, and not easy to see even knowing where he was.
Close to 7:30, a Red-legged Frog started to call. One or two of us had heard it earlier, but just briefly. It called regularly with some pauses. Everyone was able to hear it.
P. sierra with R. draytonii below about 700Hz
We headed back after that. We made one stop to look at a fluorescing Polydesmid millipede. I only found one, compared to the approximately 25 on our scouting hike. One of the participants spotted an owl flush from a shrub in front of us.
Back at the lot, we found a small group of astronomers again.
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Did you know that we’re losing our amphibians? Watch this PBS video.
One of the reasons is Chytrid fungus, which you can read more about here. If you visit different marshes and ponds, you may want to clean your boots to help prevent the spread. The suggested cleaning is the same or similar to that for Sudden Oak Death.
For more on cleaning protocol, see this page at Pinnacles. And for more in-depth information on these diseases, see this site.
