Quote For Tough Times

DON'T FIND FAULT, IMPROVE THE PROCESS!

Spiders Butterflies and the Cycle of Life (or what's left of a lizard)

Here's a real common member of our grasslands locally. It's a wolf spider. This one was really big, and cooperative, so I snapped a few shots. They live in the grass under rotting logs and running through the grass in search of their next meal. really good eyesight helps them as hunters.

This is another one you might see locally flying around in the grasslands. Its a common buckeye butterfly. A beautifully colored medium sized butterfly.

This last one is the cycle of life as illustrated by the partially eaten alligator lizard being finished off by a group of small ants. I saw a king snake in the same situation later this day being fed on by flies. It may be gruesome or grotesque, but it's all part of the cycle of life.

Sand Verbena

There are these low growing plants in the dunes that we call sand verbena. They are in the Nyctaginaceae family and locally we have three different versions. Pink sand verbena or Abronia umbellata, red sand verbena or Abronia maritima, and coastal sand verbena or Abronia latifolia.

The first two pictures show pink sand verbena and the color variation that can occur in it. It grows in the rear dunes and is usually the first sand verbena you see when you traverse the dunes from east to west.

This next picture is red sand verbena which is the darkest in color and grows closest to the water. Viable seeds of this plant are very difficult to find and most of the seed pods will contain no seeds.

These last two pictures of coastal sand verbena show the color variation that occurs in it. A. latifolia is usually yellow in appearance but occasionally takes on this peachy color that I really like (I guess that is the horticulturalist in me coming out). It grows in between the other two sometimes mixed with one or the other.

Nature Blog

Okay, this is not about my job or the parks or the central coast directly, but I stumbled across this blog and I think they describe it best. You can really get lost in this one.

"Welcome to the Nature Blog Network, a nexus for the very best nature blogs on the net. If you're looking for outstanding blogging about birds, bugs, plants,herps, hiking, oceans, ecosystems, or any other natural topic -- or if you blog on those topics yourself -- this is the place for you!"

http://natureblognetwork.com/

I added it as a link as well.

Geese at Estero Bluffs State Park

Sometimes you're not watching where you are going and all of a sudden there's wildlife in front of you. It happens with snakes a lot, but on this day it was geese. Brandt geese at Estero Bluffs State Park enjoying the tidepools. They are often seen out here and are very approachable. Please try not to get too close...when they start to walk away and look nervous, you're too close.
Here's a close up of a Brandt.

Incidentally, today I saw two of the biggest gopher snakes I have seen in a long time. One was on a trail and the other crossing the road, which almost caused a few cars to crash. It was safely moved over to the brush.

Links

I've been adding some links of the sites that I regularly visit. They are great resources in themselves and you can really learn a lot from them. They are over on the right side of the blog as you scroll down below the hello message.

Pygmy Butterflies and Baby Snakes

We've been seeing lots of these little Western Pygmy Blue butterflies lately on Suaeda around the area. They are so small and variable, but very approachable.

We have also been seeing lots of snakes lately, especially king snakes. I saw three yesterday up at Estero Bluffs State Park.

We've also been seeing lots of baby birds around; quail, starlings, plovers, gulls, hummers, swallows and more. It's a good time to get out and see some babies.

Paddling the estuary

During the plover nesting season we sometimes paddle across the bay to place signs and ropes on the inside of the bay. Recently I paddled on my day off, but I was closer to Turri Road. I paddled under the bridge and out the channels into the middle of the estuary. It is such an amazing place to just float around and see what lives out there.  Bait fish, rays and sharks, birds and tires. Oh wait, tires don't live out there. Well I did see over twenty tires amongst other garbage.  It's a shame people think they can dump things into the estuary or creeks and it will just go away. We are making plans to clean up some of this junk, so maybe soon you too can help clean up the bay. But first the planning...

1st pic looking towards the gap between Black Hill and Cerro Cabrillo 

2nd pic looking towards Baywood
3rd pic looking over to the Sandspit
4th pic looking over Turri Rd., Cerro Cabrillo  and Cerro Hutash

A walk in the woods

We took the little one out to one of my favorite hikes recently, Coon creek.  It is such a nice leisurely walk.  Even if you walk the whole 3 miles to the back it is fairly flat and always enjoyable with lots to see.  If you want a more challenging hike, walk to the cypress trees in the back, and then on the return go up to Oats peak.  You can choose to walk out to the back of MdO from there to Alan peak or just head back downhill along the Valencia peak trail.  I think this turns it from a 6 mile loop into a 10 mile trek, plus or minus.  Last time I did it was tired afterwards.  

What the duck is that?

I was up at San Simeon yesterday and in the lagoon near the campground there was this duck. It was larger and much darker than the mallards with dark legs as well. A hybrid of some sort maybe. I really don't know. What do you think it is? Sorry for the poor quality of picture, I was on the wrong side of the creek and the photo is back lit, so the detail doesn't come through. But you can see the size difference with the mallards and the dark legs.

For more info on oddball and mallard hybrids check out

http://10000birds.com/manky-mallards-domestic-feral-or-just-plain-odd-mallards.htm