Bay Area folks: apparently I'm going to be a section leader in this year's Eastern Alameda Christmas Bird Count, but I need more counters! Anyone want to join me? My section is downtown Livermore, so not particularly exotic, but we had a fun time last year. This year's will be on Friday December 16th. If you're interested, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
22 species of nudibranchs at Pillar this morning, which is pretty damn good for one guy surveying a very small area. AND I didn't see a lot of common stuff. Crazy. Lots of classes out there this morning. Showed some of them an octopus and they totally freaked out, many cries of "best field trip ever." I even got an appreciation cheer!
Despite the forecasted rain, today was fairly beautiful, so I went for a stroll. I saw pretty much every bird I saw the whole hike by standing still for 10 minutes at the trailhead. A tree fell there in the winter, damaging part of the trail (EBRPD has since put in some stairs), but opening up a nice gap for viewing birds. New things just kept popping up and singing. If only all canopy birding could be so pleasant.
Then I decided to observe every plant I could find in flower, which was edifying, if a bit arduous. The only one I know I missed was some elderberry that was out of reach and unphotographable with the phone. Still got some IDing to do.
I had the good fortune to connect with Jim Shevock of the Cal Academy recently over some of my bryo photos, and he ended up showing my some cool bryos in the East Bay this weekend. It was great getting to learn some mosses and liverworts with an expert, as I find these to be very challenging to ID without a microscope. Now I feel like I have a good feel for some new genera (Orthotrichum, Porotrichum, Homalothecium), and I'm looking forward to paying closer attention to them in the future. I even think I can get a hornwort to genus now!
We did this trip last year and it was loads of fun, so we did a repeat, but this time with only three people in 1 car. Saw a ton of cool birds and the weather was beautiful to boot. Last year was overcast and I couldn't even tell how beautiful the Coast Ranges look from the reserve! Next year: otters.
Tried a solo bird trip to warm up for CBC next week. Went alright.
Birding seems to get me in a journaling mood, I guess because I'm more interested in the number of species. This was our first outing of the winter, mostly out searching for ducks, which we found in abundance. The most notable bird for me was the female Blue-winged Teal, which Sarah picked out of a group of other female ducks by noting its white eye ring and overall shape, which I thought was some impressive birding-fu. In addition to the eye ring, the female also has a light patch at the base of the bill. Both marks set it apart from the female Green-winged Teal and the female Cinnamon Teal.
The baby kings snake was also a treat. Haven't seen one in a while. And Jesus, so many pelicans! Giant white flotillas of them. Zero diving ducks, probably due to the shallow waters we were perusing.
Haven't been diligent about journaling lately, alas. Our 3rd birding class trip was to Pt. Reyes, and luckily landed on one of the few recent dry days. Beautiful rainbows greeted us as we headed into Olema. Great day for birding, with two lifebirds for me! Rock Wren and White-winged Scoter. Very cool. Also, crazy Elephant Seals. They are large. Very large.
I've been seeing some wonderful fungal photos coming out of the SC mtns this year, so I headed over there for about a day and a half. Spent Friday afternoon puttering around a small area at the end of Gazos Creek Rd. recommended to me by a Flickr friend, where I found my first fetid adder's tongues of the year, along with many interesting fungi, and my first California Torreya! Did I mention there was a bunch of wild ginger? Cool little spot, with a glorious Hericium abietis at the end to top it all off. Also stopped by Pigeon Pt. before it all for a little birding.
Looked into camping at Costanoa, but that place is ridiculous. $40 for a campsite? So I drove up to Big Basin, where I had wanted to go the next day anyway. $35 there, but at least it went to the park service. Lots of mushies around the campsite, but I think the most remarkable thing was being awoken by the sound of owls, either Saw-when or Northern Pygmy (they sound pretty similar in the iBird recordings): high pitched and very regular.
Spent the next day hiking the Berry Creek Falls loop, which is a fantastic trail through some beautiful redwood and tanoak stands, with some wonderful waterfalls. Saw many wonderful fungi. Would love to go back.
Some former co-workers of mine planned this excellent birding the trip in the valley, and we all had a grand time tooling around, looking at birdies. SNWR is a bit weird, because the primary way of viewing the scads of wintering birds there is to drive a planned circuit and bird from your car. Great way to see A LOT of birds, though, including Bald Eagles, falcons, owls, a bazillion Snow Geese, only a tad fewer Red-tailed Hawks, and pheasants! I had a couple of new-for-me's, including a White-faced Ibis and the Greater White-fronted Goose.
Kind of a haul. I burned 3/4 of a tank of gas in my somewhat fuel-efficient 2002 Corolla, so make sure to start with a full tank. Williams is the last town on I-5 before getting there, and Granzella's is a pretty decent place to grab a sandwich.
