Wildflower Weekend, Part 2

Taking advantage of a promised rain-free weekend, we took a trip to some of the reported best places to view wildflowers. Having visited the Carrizo Plain a few years ago, I had a good feeling about the area and anticipated exploring it further. The heavy rains of the season offered hope of abundant blooms, and the postings on Flickr from some of my contacts motivated to grab up all of my camera gear and pack the family into the SUV for a road trip.

We first visited Wild Wolves Preserve (first time for me) off the 166 on the way to Carrizo. Then we continued along 166 to the 33 and through Taft on the way to highway 58. Along the way, we stopped to appreciate the numerous fields of fiddlenecks and coreopsis in the otherwise empty fields. The road was quiet and the weather was beautiful.



When we turned onto the 58, we started seeing a few other wildflower fans. In fact, every turnout on the mountainous part of this road had at least one car containing people and cameras. Fortunately, there was plenty of room to pull off the road and enjoy the scenery.


Now, fields of brilliant orange California Poppies and yellow Goldfields joined the ever-present orange fiddlenecks and yellow coreopsis.


We also saw bunches of the pale yellow Cream Cups on the high side of the road.


After the abundance of oranges, golds and yellows, it was a nice change to see the phacelia again. We found a spill of the purple-blue flowers on a sunny hillside.


We continued down the hill, oohing and aahing at the brilliant splashes of color and pulled off the road next to an abandoned cottage to have a picnic lunch before heading down to the Carrizo Plain.

The Snow Goose

The Snow Goose is a medium-sized goose that breeds in the Alaskan tundra and winters in the warmer areas of the United States. The adults are usually white with black-tipped wings and the young are grayish or “blue”. There is also a blue morph version of the adult goose that has grayish feathers. The feet and bill are pink and there is a black line or “smile” on the sides of the bill.

Every fall, the Snow Goose embarks on a long trip. On the west coast of the United States, the snow goose leaves its nesting site in Alaska, to travel in huge flocks over thousands of miles south to the warmer weather of the Central California Valley. There it spends the winter resting in wetlands and feeding on winter grains planted by farmers. The Central Valley used to be covered in vast wetlands and hosted millions of geese, ducks and swans, but early in the last century farming took over the area and the wetlands were drained to make the area suitable for planting crops. Today only a small fraction of the area is still natural wetlands. Thankfully, people realized the impact farming was having on the environment and worked out a compromise. In the spring and summer, the fields support California’s agricultural demands, hosting rice, cotton, tomatoes, onions and other crops. In the fall, farmers harvest the crops and burn the waste. The fields are then either planted with winter grains or flooded with irrigation water to support the migrating waterfowl that continue their annual migration south. Due to these restoration efforts, we can continue to witness the awesome sights and sounds of masses of snow geese taking flight at once over the Central Valley.

You can order Snow Geese Christmas Cards now from my online store here: http://www.cafepress.com/dcnaturephotos

San Luis NWR, Early November

Not all of my field trips are that productive. Sometimes I head out at the wrong time of the day or the wrong time of the year.

In early November, I was anticipting the arrival of the migrating waterfowl that visit the Central California valley. The fields that are farmed in the area were once vast wetlands and provided a winter home to huge flocks of geese, ducks, swans and other migrating birds. Then farmers drained the wetlands and farmed the land, reducing the habitat for the birds. Fortunately, conservationists and farmers have reached a compromise and now farmers turn their fields back over to the birds after the harvest. After the harvest, they cut down their fields of rice and corn and plant winter grain crops to feed the migrating birds and flood the fields, providing food and habitat for the winter visitors.

Last year I saw large flocks of snow geese and colorful ducks in the area and was hoping to find them again, but I started out a little too early in the season this time. No huge flocks greeted me at the San Luis refuge, but I did see several Red-Tailed Hawks waiting at their posts on the power poles.

A shy Belted Kingfisher watched the drainage ditch near the entrance but never came too close to my car.

Mysterious streams of silk floated on the warm air and caught in the trees, grass and power poles. They may have been from young spiders heading to new homes.

The tule elk, regular residents of this refuge, were no where in sight this time. They may have been resting in the shade on this warm November afternoon. Here's a shot of one from early October.

Even the Great Blue Herons, which hunt year-roud for frogs and fish along the irrigation ditches were playing hard to find. Here's one from early October.

I guess everyone was taking the afternoon off. Too bad, too, since the weather was perfect. Well, at least I had last month's photos to look through. Better luck next time.

If you like my photographs, come take a look at my shop at CafePress:

http://www.cafepress.com/dcnaturephotos

Consumnes River Preserve

Grebe Eating Crayfish
Originally uploaded by Spike n Mouse.

I took a trip out to the Consumnes River Preserve this past weekend to see what kind of wildlife was around this time of year. I have made the trip just about every month to see how the varieties of birds in the area change and I think this time I saw very little variety. Of course in a month or so we'll start to see the migratory birds arrive again for the winter.

I took a hike along the river trail behind the visitor's center. The day started off cool and breezy but quickly became quite warm and I was sorry I forgot to bring some water with me. Along the trail on one side, there were brief glimpses of a stream but the view was mostly obscured by shrubs, vines and trees and was very shady. On the opposite side of the trail, the sun was shining brightly on cattails and wildflowers. I caught several glimpses of bees and cabbage butterflies feasting on purple and yellow flower which I couldn't identify, and dragonflies perching a top tule grass stems. Also in this area were lots of blackberry vines with fruits of green, red and purple. On the stream side of the trail, wild grape vines bore many bunches of small grapes.

Awhile down the trail I approached a larger pond area which was being fished by a great blue heron. Also swimming in the pond was this pair of pied-billed grebes, which darted into the cattails when they saw me approach but later came out in the open to resume diving. I didn't realize it at the time, but they were diving for what turns out to be their favorite meal: crawfish. In this photo you can see the grebe on the right attempting to swallow a fairly large crayfish.

At the pond's edge, I could see tiny fish and an occasional very large tadpole break the water surface. In the mud, there was mosaic of bird and mammal footprints and I believe I saw several river otter prints.

I continued along the trail and came across and area that was blanketed in cotton, like fuzzy snow. Leaves and ground and branches were all coated in the fuzzy white stuff, which I assume was created by some of the cottonwood trees. Also in the area I happened upon a hole in the ground with hornets buzzing in and out and was thankful that I saw it before I stepped on it.

I crossed a small bridge over a stream that connected the pond on the left with another pond on the right hand side and continued down the trial a ways until thirst got the better of me, and since I had no map or indication of where the trail was headed, I turned around to head back. Then I saw what I had missed the first time around: crayfish crawling across the open mud. This was the first time I had seen crayfish that weren't in a pot or on a plate and I watched them for quite awhile as they crawled, swam, and dug into burrows in the mud.

I backtracked to my car and stopped to photograph a few more dragonflies in the parking lot before heading out to an area down the road where I had seen quite a few migrating ducks, geese and swans last winter. I had seen fewer and fewer birds here as the year progressed and this time there was practically nothing there. I did catch a glimpse of a Northern Harrier diving in the air over the now-dry wetlands, but he soon flew out of range of my camera. I drove further down the road to where I had watched a kestrel and a white-tailed kite hunt from power lines earlier in the year, and had seen in separate occassions a red-tailed hawk and a kingfisher in the same area, but this time only a lone mourning dove was present.

I stopped to photograph a monarch butterfly which had rested on a milkweed plant, then turned to look on the other side of the road, where several curious cattle were watching me.

I was pretty hot and thirsty at this point so I rolled up the windows and cranked up the AC and headed out to the road to find someplace to buy a giant soda.

Getting in touch with nature

During the week I am a cog in the machine of a large high tech firm, working in a climate controlled building insulated from the outside world. The little bit of nature on my desk consists of a tiny bonsai tree and a couple of my nature photos on my cubicle wall. It's gray and quiet and consistent here and can at times lull you into a type of trance that is similar to that reflected in the eyes of a lion sitting in a cage at the zoo. Fortunately, I have the weekends to regain my connection with the natural world.

When I lived in Oregon, nature was always around me, but in the Bay Area of California, people have pushed much of the native wildlife up into the hills where the most expansive and expensive properties sit and look down upon the seething masses of people who live in their closely packed houses in the valley below.

In areas where the houses still have a little bit of backyard green, some wildlife holdouts have found their niche, nesting in shade trees and attics and garages and feasting on fruit from our trees, garbage and food we leave out for our pets. Usually the relationship is mutually beneficial, such as when we set out feeders and for birds which also enjoy eating the bugs from our garden. There are times, however, when our lives and their lives clash.
That is where the wildlife centers come in.

I found out about wildlife rehabilitation first hand two years ago thanks to my cat, who brought into the house a young finch. The bird was still alive and I managed to get it free from the cat's grip before it was able to do damage. I kept it overnight in a small cage and looked for help on the web the next day. I had heard about centers that take care of larger animals like bobcats and eagles and marine mammals, but wasn't sure about small birds. Luckily, I found a center that would take even the commonest little finch in and rehabilitate it.

The Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley is located next to Penitencia Creek in San Jose, on the road to Alum Rock Park. The WCSV is open 7 days a week and cares for a wide variety of injured and orphaned wildlife, from Red-Tailed Hawks to Eastern Gray Squirrels to House Finches. The center does not allow tours of the wildlife because every effort is made to rehabilitate the animals to the point that they can be released back to their homes in the wild. What a great idea. I brought in my little finch and was given a phone number and a tracking ID should I want to find out the status of the tiny patient. Then I decided I wanted to find out more about the place so I attended an orientation session the next week. I was so impressed, I signed up as a volunteer on the spot and started my first day of work that weekend.

Let me say up front that I had limited to no experience caring for wildlife. I witnessed a couple of failed baby bird rescues when I was young and I have had my share of pets (dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, ducks, hamsters, mice, and tropical fish) and a few "pet" lizards and frogs, but had no veterinary experience. Fortunately, the wildlife center provides on the job training. There are some experienced staff on hand all the time to help with the examinations and regular training classes are offered to those who want to learn more. After 2 years on the volunteer staff, I have learned how to clean and bandage wounds, how to splint legs, how to tube-feed a dove and various other animal care activities. Then there's the cleaning, and there is so much to clean: food dishes, towels used in the cages and carriers, cages, carriers, tabletops, syringes and nipples, floors, …. It's hard work, but once in a while you get a chance to see the rewards: when you release an animal back to its wildlife home. That's what makes all of the work worthwhile.