cellardoor's Journal

This is a collection my favorite observations from this 10 mile hike along the dipsea trail. The coolest species I saw were the Oakland Mariposa Lilly, the hawk, the marbled godwit, and the stellar's jay. I also included all the fungi that I saw here, just because I think it was the most that I have seen on any one hike yet. I wonder if I just noticed more or if they do better here because of the coastal fog.
I definitely get most excited about seeing vertebrates, but I have found those to be most difficult to document. On my hike I also saw several other bird species in the chapparral, a chipmunk, a hummingbird, and some people I ran into on the trail saw a coyote. Mammals and birds move too fast to get pictures of! Thus, my observations are dominated by plants and fungi. my goal is to document more vertebrates though, and hopefully more bats.

1. Regular flowers - death camas
2. Irregular flowers- irises
3. Monocot- Miners lettuce
4. Dicot- Bluewitch nightshade
5. Pea Family- fabaceae, probably scotch or french broom
6. Gymnosperm- Coast Redwood
7. Terrestrial non-seed plant- Ferns (looks like maybe bracken fern, but I am not sure)
8. Pinnate leaves- Hemlock
9. Opposite leaves- Probably red elderberry? I didn't see any flowers on it, and it was very cluttered with other vegetation, so it was hard to even get and idea of what was that plant vs. tangled in it.

10.Asteraceae- Coyote brush ( as a side note, cool fact: this plant provides overwintering habitat for a parasitic wasp that helps to control pest outbreaks in Vineyards- I worked on a project where we identified that.)