Natural History Journal

Technically, according to the calendar, it's still spring.  Technically.  However, as temperatures push toward 100 degrees Fahrenheit here in California's Great Central Valley, it is rapidly beginning to feel much more like summer than spring! In the bird world, spring migration has pretty nearly wrapped up for the season, as birds settle down on their breeding territories.  Many of our local resident breeders have been hard at work raising their young for a couple of months now, many of whom have already fledged their first brood this season.   Across the wetlands, riparian woodlands and grasslands, even throughout urban and suburban neighborhoods, the air is full of singing males defending their territory and the sound of hatchlings and fledglings begging their parents for food.  Yes, the nesting season is well underway indeed! Singing Marsh Wren: because nobody defends their territory quite like these little mites of the marshes! We've been fortunate eno...

Last November, while harvesting sweet potatoes in the garden, I inadvertently unearthed a rather sleepy Western Toad who had been quietly going about her own business, hibernating in the damp soil of my garden bed.  Drowsy and cold, placid and plump, she let me hold her and photograph her before  I  gently returned her to the soft, moist soil of an out-of-the-way corner of the bed, where I hoped she would spend the winter.   Over the winter, I thought about my toad friend a number of times, wondering how she was getting along in her hibernation, when she would wake, and what she would do when spring came, seeing as there is no body of water suitable for toads, to my knowledge, within hopping distance of our garden.  As a toad, she is able to survive and go about her life out of water; only the breeding stages of toads, which include egg-laying and tadpole stages, require water.  So, I surmised that she would be just fine provided the soil remains adequ...

Is there a better time to be a birder than spring migration?  I think there is not! Spring migration is in full swing here in California's Great Central Valley, but it won't last for much longer!  Much like our brief window of pleasant spring temperatures, this period of migration will be over before you know it.  Now is the time to get out to local patches of habitat - especially shady riparian habitat - to see what goodies turn up on the wind and wing.   Take a minute to  read about the vital role the Central Valley plays in spring migration  and  learn more about bird migration in general . This morning, while birding along the Tuolumne River in Waterford, I spotted a Western Wood-pewee perched on a snag over the trail.  I had been hoping to find an Olive-sided Flycatcher, so while I watched the wood-pewee, I described to Eric the differences between these two closely related  Contopus flycatchers: the Olive-sided is bigger, with a ...

Meet the Grasshopper Sparrow.  Five inches long, half an ounce in weight, and washed in subtle yet striking shades of buff, fawn, chocolate and gold, the Grasshopper Sparrow is tailor-made to disappear into its grassy home.   A bird of dry grasslands, the Grasshopper Sparrow ( Ammodramus savannarum ) is an uncommon breeding bird across what is left of California's prairies.  Its song, for which it is named, is a high-pitched insect-like buzz that is easily overlooked in a land of swaying grasses and blowing winds.   But it was only due to this bird's humble song that I was able to find it at all! Driving slowly while birding across private rangeland, following a creek deep into the grasslands, birds sang and called all around: Western Meadowlarks in the tall grasses; Red-winged Blackbirds in the cattails along the creek; California Quail in a thicket of brambles; a Red-tailed Hawk soaring above; a Bullock's Oriole in a distant cottonwood.   As the...

Because who doesn't love turtles?!  Turtles and tortoises, members of the order Testudines, are by far my favorite group of reptiles (though I am a fan of lizards as well!) and it is always a treat to come across one of our native turtles in the wild.  California's native Northwestern Pond Turtle But first, what is the difference between a turtle and a tortoise? Worldwide, there are fourteen turtle families (taxonomic groupings below order) and one tortoise family.  The turtles, which include such disparate families as the pond turtles, the sea turtles and  the snapping turtles, are generally at least partially aquatic, while tortoises are differentiated by their entirely terrestrial lifestyle. All turtles and tortoises are protected by architecturally advanced shells, rivaled by no other animals in their structural complexity and durability.  Hard shells provide a measure of protection for adult turtles, compensating somewhat for their slow speed which would ot...