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.

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

Tanoaks at Windy Hill

DP and I got up there around 2:45 or so, and left around 4:30 today. WH03 isn’t numbered, but there were a couple of district work trucks parked there. As we made our way down, looking at various plants, we didn’t find the target trees. They were in the shade, and that made it not easy to see the catkins.We went to the first trail intersection.

On the way back up, we found two about six minutes down (walking slowly) from the trailhead. They were close together on the downhill side.  The one closer to the trailhead had more catkins, above eye level, but at least a few at eye level. This one had maybe 15% catkins with stamens. The other one had maybe 10% in the lower half of the tree. We seem to have missed the tree at the hairpin turn. We noted two individual catkins that had beetle(s) on them. One was high up so I could only tell that there were several black things on it, but they didn’t seem to be moving.  The small beetle on the close catkin was just perched in between the stamens. We found no fresh female flowers (there were a lot of female parts, but they appeared to be last years, I think–some had obvious acorns starting, and some were mostly green “spiky” turbans).

I took off an inch piece of catkin to look at under a hand lens. I thought I saw one anther than had a bright yellow blob (presumably pollen), but it was very small and I couldn’t find it again to get in the photo. Some of the stamens were curled up, and it seemed like they hadn’t straightened out yet. The anthers had no pollen that I could see.

Lots of thimbleberries were there, but not ripe yet. Creambush was in bloom. There is a self-heal plant in the middle of the trail, before the target trees (but if they continue the trail work they were doing today, it may not continue to be there). Hazel trees had developing nuts.

Hazelnuts

I heard a Hairy Woodpecker (I think), and Chestnut-backed Chickadees.  A small bee-mimic fly (about a quarter inch long) provided a training opportunity.

There were a couple of plants that look familiar, one a small tree with five-petaled dusky-magenta flowers (western burning bush, Euonymus occidentalis), and something that reminded me of Clematis but had berries.

The rest of the photos are here.

Windy Hill OSP Request Hike

KP, PL and I did a request night hike for 14 people, starting around 6:30, to around 9:30. It was chilly even in the beginning. We paused to listen to the Black-headed Grosbeak that was singing. We stopped at Sausal Pond, to view and have a closeup look at the water fern (Azolla filiculoides) which covered the surface in red. We explained that it was a native plant and wasn’t harming the pond. There were no visible bullfrogs, but we mentioned them.

Water fern (Azolla filiculoides)

The old cattle chute provided a look at habitat for mosses and various lichen species, and we pointed out that it could also be home to tardigrades (water bears).

A little further along, Woodland Star were blooming. We continued on to the bridge, to listen. There were people beneath the bridge, talking. We heard an alarmed American Robin, really loud aircraft which turned out to be fighter jets, the water flowing over the rocks, and the wind in our ears. Bigleaf Maple had blooms, and the willows were starting fluff.

We stopped around 8:00 to space people out for a quiet walk. When we’d gotten down to a few left, we heard the trill of a Western Screech Owl. It called a few times. The end of the quiet walk was an open area of wide trail where we stopped for the participants’ planned dessert (shared with us). A few people asked about the stars. We were lucky that the sky was clear.

After an explanation of red light and night vision, we continued on. The moon wasn’t up yet, but we stopped briefly at the open meadow where the bench is. A large patch of Pogogyne was a little hard to find by flashlight, but we managed. Some small creature was moving around in the brush nearby. It was cold enough to see my breath.

From the woods not far from the pond, we heard many Pacific Tree Frogs chorusing.

4/10/09 Pacific Tree Frogs stopping and starting. Recorded with an Olympus LS-10.

Millipede under white light

Millipede under UV light

I was in the rear, so I had my UV light trained on the trail to see if anything would show up. I was quite surprised when something showed up. A millipede, glowing bright electric blue! I allowed it to crawl onto my gloved (cold) hand (these guys eat vegetable matter), and we hurried to show the group. KP went ahead to catch them, and I saw probably 10-12 between there and the trail back to the lot, even near the eucalyptus grove. The millipede under UV was spectacular, and in the bug box later, people could see it even better. On my hand, the millipede used its antennae in a rather endearing way, to check out its surroundings.

Glowing fungus

Millipede exoskeleton

The group continued back to the pond to listen to the chorusing frogs, and I took the millipede back to where I’d found it. On the way, I also found a fungus that glowed, and a hole with glowing pieces of something outside of it. After I returned the millipede I went back to the hole to check it out. Under white light, the pieces almost looked like vertebrae, but upon closer inspection, I determined that they were pieces of millipede exoskeleton. I looked into the hole, and got a brief look at some relatively large spider legs. I guess the spider had a meal of millipede, and tossed out the leftovers.

When I caught up, I found PL waiting for me; the group had decided they were too cold to hang around, and left. We talked for a bit in the lot, locked the gate, and took off for warmer places.

The rest of the photos are here: Windy Hill