Natural History Journal

I have to warn you, the bird in the following photos may not inspire awe and wonder as well as some other species might.  It's just a little brown thing that at first glance looks a bit like a chicken-duck blend.  But this little guy is a special bird, because although they are widely distributed across North America, they are infrequently seen. This unassuming and secretive marsh bird is a Sora ( Porzana Carolina ), of the family Rallidae, which also includes Rails, Gallinules and Coots.  And I will confess, I was extremely excited to get this photo! Soras are not a very well-known species, and even their page on  Cornell's All About Birds  site is rather empty compared to many others.  They are year-round residents of California's Great Central Valley, breeding in freshwater marshes that boast an ample supply of vegetation, such as cattails and tule reeds.  Soras forage on the ground for seeds and aquatic invertebrates...

I love our native sparrows.  They are maddening, frustrating, flighty little things that hardly ever stay still long enough for a positive identification, let alone a decent photograph.  Oh, and they are also mostly brown in color, with cryptic markings and subtle differences between species.  But I love them for their liveliness, and the great birding challenge they present.  Let's be honest, sometimes watching twelve different species of male ducks, all in vibrant breeding plumage, sitting placidly on the water 30 yards away feels a little like cheating for a birder. That said, I have a long way to go before I'm an expert at sparrow identification!  But I'm learning, and that's all part of the fun! This pretty little guy is a Lincoln's Sparrow ( Melospiza lincolnii ), and anything but drab!  Just look at those dashing markings!  Lincoln's Sparrows have a bold rufous crown, often peaked, with a narrow central stripe of...

More accurately, it was the Merlin's day-after-Thanksgiving meal, which is known in my family as "Second Thanksgiving," and involves a repeat of the traditional fare (comprised of leftovers). In any case, I spotted this Merlin ( Falco columbarius ) at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge yesterday during our annual Black Friday protest outing (we hike or bird or otherwise explore and appreciate nature rather than shop, and have done so for a number of years even before REI's brilliant #OptOutside campaign!)  The Merlin was perched in a tree with its lunch, a freshly-killed songbird (or Passerine).  We watched the lovely falcon for about 15 minutes as it plucked feathers from its catch, pausing to look around after every pluck. Merlins are smallish falcons, smaller than the Prairie Falcon ( Falco mexicanus ) or Peregrine Falcon ( F. peregrinus ), but larger than the American Kestrel ( F. sparverius ).  They u...

Double-crested Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax auritus ) Recently, there have been a few newcomers on campus at CSU Stanislaus.  In addition to augmented numbers of Canada Geese ( Branta Canadensis ) and American Coots ( Fulica americana ), the cooler fall weather seems to have brought a small flock of Double-crested Cormorants ( Phalacrocorax auritus ) to campus ponds.  I've counted seven at one time, mixed in with a much larger flock of Canada Geese.  The cormorants, coots, and Canada geese at Stanislaus State lend a rather cosmopolitan feel to the ponds. Double-crested Cormorants can be found across North America, commonly in fresh water.  They sit very low in the water, sometimes with only their rather snake-like heads and necks exposed above the surface.  They have obvious bright yellow skin on their faces, and vivid blue eyes.  If you happen to get a glimpse of the inside of a Double-crested Cormorant's mouth, ...

If you've spent any time in an oak woodland (and I sincerely hope that you have!!) you may have noticed something odd: strange growths on the branches and leaves of oak trees.  You might wonder if the trees are sick or diseased, or plagued with a dangerous pest. But not to worry; these fascinating growths are a normal part of a healthy oak community.  Spined Turban Gall on Valley Oak, with a bonus gall: the tiny orange sphere to the left of the larger gall might be a gall of the California Jumping Gall Wasp (inconclusive) These growths are in fact galls, and are caused by a variety of cynipid wasps.  Galls form when a wasp lays eggs in a plant's tissue, releasing chemicals which stimulate the plant to use its own tissue to form protective structures around the eggs.  As the insect larvae develops, it feeds on plant tissue from within its cozy gall home.  Galls form on a variety of plants, including alders, poplars, willows and even sagebrush....

The kitchen is often referred to as the heart of the home, but the true fact is that the kitchen is more accurately the heart of household waste production.  But this hasn't always been the case.  We can apply some of the valuable skills dear to our grandparents (like composting kitchen scraps) and combine them with a few new innovative ideas (like reusable sandwich bags) to create an efficient, cost effective, healthy kitchen... that produces much less waste. Below is a list of practices that we follow in our kitchen to ensure our waste production and resource consumption are both minimal.  I promise these practices are all completely feasible, with very minimal cost and effort.  In short, these are not just nice ideas; they are rules that work very well in everyday life.  The kitchen toolbox for reducing waste.  Clockwise, from top left: Reusable lunch bag, reusable water bottles and thermos, reusable sandwich bags an...

Yosemite National Park is, for a naturalist, almost too much to describe!  Where to even begin??  There are so many facets of this iconic place, the birthplace of the national park concept.  It is rich in history, and one could easily write about the native people who called this beautiful place home, or John Muir, who immortalized the valley in his poetry-like writings and fought so hard for its protection.  Iconic Half Dome Fire, controlled and wild, has its place in the park; the discussion of fire management continues in the wake of the Rim Fire.  The topic of climate change might be explored, or the effects of California's drought.  Swaths of reddish brown conifers, standing dead trees that have been ravaged by the bark beetle have been a common topic recently.  Water is a perennial topic of conversation and debate all across California, including within Yosemite National Park. Merced River, reflecti...

I know even less about astronomy than I do about geology.  But here and there, I pick up tidbits of information, reading an article in National Geographic, flipping through a book, or, quite honestly just using Google at times! Last night was a "Supermoon," occurring as the full moon coincided with the closest the moon has been to earth since 1948.  (Yup, I Googled that.  Not very scientific of me!)  Basically, the supermoon gave me a chance to try out some lunar photography (new to me) and check out some maps of the surface of the moon.  At least I used a book for that! In the photo above, the lunar crater Tycho can be seen in the lower right.  The darker areas are "seas," called maria.  The largest sea on the Moon is on the western (left) half, called Oceanus Procellarum.  The two most obvious craters within this area are Copernicus, which is slightly larger, and Kepler, to the lower left of Copernicus....

Over the last several weeks, an incredible phenomenon has been taking place in California's Great Central Valley: the fall salmon run.  Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) have been traveling many miles from the Pacific Ocean upstream to their spawning grounds in freshwater rivers, like the Stanislaus.  This weekend, the salmon were celebrated at the annual Knight's Ferry Salmon Festival. Female Chinook Salmon Something about watching these large fish, this magnificent keystone species, swim slowly up-river to suitable gravel spawning grounds is captivating, mesmerizing even, as you realize you are witnessing a timeless dance in the circle of life, an event that has taken place in our local rivers for thousands of years.  And these days, many of us have very little idea of the fascinating and intricate circle of events playing out in our nearby streams.  It almost seems like a miracle that in this ag...

The Acorn Woodpeckers ( Melanerpes formicivorus ) that live along the rivers in our area are busy this time of year!  Acorns are ripe and ready for collecting, and these busy woodpeckers are capitalizing on an abundant crop. Male Acorn Woodpecker ( Melanerpes formicivorus ) dining on a favorite: a flying insect. Acorn woodpeckers are a rather rowdy bunch, living and breeding in large community groups.  Though famous for their acorn gathering, they also feed on sap, fruit, grass seeds and other nuts, as well as flying insects when they are abundant during the warm season.  They may stash uneaten insects in crevices.  Acorns are stored in communal granary trees, thousands at a time.  According to Cornell's All About Birds site, acorn woodpeckers can store up to 50,000 acorns in one granary tree, each snuggly wedged in its own hole.  Granary Tree I've read that when stashing an acorn, a woodp...

Several times this year I have been lucky enough to see North American River Otters ( Lontra canadensis ) in both the San Joaquin and Tuolumne Rivers.  They have been too leery of me to allow for any great National Geographic quality photos (let's be honest, that's not entirely the otters' fault!) but I have gotten a few shots in which they are at least recognizable as river otters, not just obscure brown blobs on the riverbank! River Otter along the banks of the Tuolumne River. The presence of otters in our rivers is a wonderful thing.  As a top predator species in the ecosystem, river otters are often heralded as indicators of the health of the entire watershed.  Like their seafaring counterpart, California's Southern Sea Otter ( Enhydra lutris nereis ), the North American River Otter was once hunted extensively for its thick pelt.  Where otters once thrived, over hunting, followed closely by habitat loss and degradation, has taken a toll...

And now for something completely different... Well, not completely.  It is entirely in keeping with a main theme of this blog, conservation, which is a favorite topic of mine.  In posts titled "At Home With A Naturalist," I will endeavor to give a brief glimpse into the day-to-day lifestyle of a naturalist or conservationist, since naturalists ought to be, by definition, environmentally conscious, green-living individuals.  It think it's necessary and important to set a good example through our actions, and it would be hypocritical of me to write about the beauty and grandeur of nature, as well as the harsh reality of environmental issues, but not live accordingly.  No one wants to see a "naturalist" drinking from a plastic water bottle!! (At least I sure don't!) These posts will address issues related to environmental degradation, especially those brought on by our general over-consumption as a society, and w...

I may never (correction: will almost certainly never) scuba dive in a kelp forest.  But with the help of the world-class facilities at Monterey Bay Aquarium, naturalists of all ages and skill levels can experience the wonder of the magnificent ocean ecosystems, from an underwater forest to the open seas, to rocky shores, without even getting wet (unless you really want to).  Yesterday, I had the privilege of spending the day exploring the ever-fascinating Monterey Bay Aquarium. For a naturalist, there is nothing more thrilling than exploring nature hands-on, in the elements, feeling the raw power of nature, the delicate balance of ecosystems.  A close second, however, is exploring nature in a more controlled setting that is designed to facilitate learning, such as a museum, aquarium, or lab.  And because most of us are not marine biologists with scuba certifications, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is our portal to the fascinating underwate...

For sheer dramatic beauty, there is nothing quite equal to the eastern Sierra Nevada, where 14,000 foot peaks rise from a sea of gray sagebrush and billowing clouds roll in for summer thunderstorms.  It is the product of some incredible geologic activity, and home to a handful of rather "secret" hot springs. Travertine Hot Springs is a popular, easily accessible point of geologic interest near the town of Bridgeport on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada.  The hot springs lie on the northern edge of a region known for its tectonic activity, roughly 50 miles north of the Long Valley Caldera .  The region is alive with geothermal activity, as recent lava domes and flows, and active hot springs and fumaroles will attest. The pools at Travertine Hot Springs The travertine for which these springs are named is actually limestone, a calcium-rich rock which forms as calcium carbonate precipitates , or forms a solid from a...