Went to Carquinez Regional Shoreline for the first time last Saturday with Tony and Angie. Nice little park, some beautiful grassland and healthy-looking oaks. I was armed and ready with my new OakMapper iPhone app, but I didn't find any Sudden Oak Death to report! Oh well.

On Sunday I decided re-investigate the fungal situation in Sibley and Huckleberry. While things seemed pretty dry and empty in the upper piney regions of Sibley, where I've seen boletes, candy caps, and elfin saddle in the past, there was definitely some activity as I got lower and wetter. Lots of amanitas, which made me happy, including plenty of death caps.

Tried birding a new spot this morning, hoping for lots of ducks and waders. Definitely a lot of wader, pretty much nil on the ducks. I guess the winter migrants haven't reached that spot just yet, b/c all we saw was one Ruddy, Western and Clark's Grebes, 2 female Canvasbacks, a float of scoters, a float of scaup, and 2 females that were probably Green-winged Teal. That's actually a pretty poor list for the Bay.

Nevertheless, we saw lots of other birds, and took the time to ID some peeps. Feel much better about distinguishing Dunlins for Western and Least Sandpipers now (larger, downcurved bill / black legs / light legs). Also saw a bunch of American Pipits, which was pretty neat, not to mention some very handsome little lycaenids.

Went back to Round Valley on Sat to get some more pics of Kibramoa. Managed to get some shots of a mature male, embolus exposed! Also saw a billion more trapdoors, and a couple Calisogas. A damn find spider day.

Hit a decent -1 low at Scott Creek on Wednesday. Clear, warm weather and low to moderate surf made for a very pleasant afternoon. Saw a fairly standard assortment of slugs, with one very notable highlight: my first Aplysiopsis enteromorphae! A friend had told me that they live at Scott Creek, and that I should be looking for a mossy algae by the name of Cladophora. First pool with some decent Cladophora found was full of 'em. And a very shallow, exposed pool it was, too! Not the kind of place I'd ordinarily be looking for slugs. Will have to adjust my search parameters.

Didn't see any of the hydroid Eudendrium, which was one of the more remarkable things at Scott the last time I was there. Maybe it just wasn't low enough. Did see a ton of peanut worms, though! More than I think I've ever seen before.

Finished the evening with a tiny little octopus who pulled some wonderful color changing tricks and then pretended to be a very sly, moving stone. Walked back along the beach under magnificent pre-moon star field.

Decided to go somewhere new this past Saturday, and ended up at Round Valley Regional Preserve, an EBRPD holding east of Mt. Diablo. Wasn't really sure what to expect other than some nice scenery. Ended up find that in spades, along with all manner of interesting things, foremost among them being a night snake and a bobcat.

As far as I can tell Round Valley is almost all oak savanna, predominated by blue oak, with some valley and interior live oak mixed in with some buckeyes and walnuts. I don't think I saw any completely closed woodland on the loop I did. Plenty of rocks and fallen logs for herps and spiders and the like, so definitely worth revisiting.

The night snake was curled up under one of those logs, looking like it had just molted. Also found a Diabolical Ironclad Beetle nearby, which, I have learned, is not quite the same as the Plicate or Pustulose Ironclad Beetles. Noted.

The bobcat was something of a shock, as I came up behind it without realizing. It didn't notice me for quite some time, and I had almost changed to my telephoto when it did and loped off. I pursued, of course, and manage to get a few decent shots. I had never noticed how black and white the backs of their ears are! Really quite a sight.

Hurrying back in an effort to escape before the gate to the parking lot closed, I nevertheless stopped for a late-season male tarantula, and for some very nice trap doors, which may or may not belong to some cyrtaucheniids. Would love to go back at night, or perhaps after rain to see if I could catch some wandering males.

Went to Briones on Sunday to test out my new copy of the Sibley Guide to Trees. Was somewhat disappointed in the guide, esp. when compared to Biedelman and Kozloff, but had a grand time of it nonetheless, with some nice scenery and myriopods to pass the time. Oh, and did I mention the Common Poorwill? Saw another, but this time I knew what I was looking at, so I approached with caution and ended up within 6 ft of the thing! Got some find pics out of it too. The other highlight was hearing many Western Screech Owls calling in the woods. ID'd the call with iBird, no less!

Went out in search of fungal friends last Saturday, but didn't find much. Hit up Huckleberry with pretty much nothing in the way of fungus aside from anonymous LBMs. Went to Chabot next, found some interesting Agaricus that didn't stain that yellow and some oysters, but otherwise not too much activity. Yet.

Went up to Huckleberry for a quick stroll last weekend. Was kind of hoping for some mushrooms, but saw almost zero fungal activity, save a nice big chicken of the woods growing on a eucalyptus stump along Claremont. That was ok, though, as it gave me a chance to focus on perennial plants. Many things were fruiting, including the huckleberries and honeysuckles. I learned a new tree: the golden chinquapin, a pretty common small tree with nuts like a chestnut and beautiful, thick, willow-like leaves with golden undersides. I need to learn more of my western trees. It's very comforting to walk through the woods at any time of year and and silently recite the name of each tree.

Went for a second try at an Oceanic Society whale watching trip to the Farallons and had pretty much the best whale watching experience of my life to date. Whales. Lots and lots of whales, doing crazy things.

This was my second attempt to go whale watching with the Oceanic Society, the first being thwarted by high seas. The first also ended unhappily because no one from the Society showed up at the launch site to let us know about the cancellation. There was a number we were supposed to call to check the status, but my crew and about 8 other people didn't notice this little addendum to our receipts. I was very sour.

This time the ocean was flat, we called the number, and everything was good to go. Launched from Sausalito, picked up the rest in SF, then headed out under the Golden Gate Bridge. Harbor porpoise and tons of grebes around the Gate, and we started seeing murres just outside.

The humpbacks were very active around the islands. The first group we found were breaching like no one's business, and the last swam right up to the boat and played with us for about an hour. Pretty amazing stuff.

Saw some new-for-me sea birds too. The shearwaters were especially hard to pick out from a distance. They look a lot like gulls, and IDing them was sort of a process of elimination based on range, amount of whiteness on the underside, and beak color.

Hadn't been to the coast in forever, so I went out to Duxbury Reef to catch a moderate minus tide on Sunday. Lots of wind made for poor viewing conditions (too much turbulence), murky waters, and probably higher water than one might expect on a calmer day. So the usual crew of egrets and oystercatchers, purple shore crabs, porcelain crabs, gunnels, anemones, not too much out of the ordinary. Only slug was a single Triopha catalinae stranded on a rock out of water.