Natural History Journal

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...

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...

What began as a spring break birding trip to Marin County's Point Reyes National Seashore and Samuel P. Taylor State Park quickly shifted its focus to other wildlife and abundant blooming wildflowers .  High winds at Point Reyes made birding difficult, and searching for birds among the redwoods, where we camped at Samuel P. Taylor State Park, is notoriously difficult in the best of circumstances.  In the redwood forest, quite possibly my best birding was done from inside my cozy warm sleeping bag, as I listened to nighttime sounds and the dawn chorus. All told, however, we tallied up 74 different species of birds during our trip, so I would consider that a successful venture!  (For the record, the National Park Service has recorded a mind-blowing 490 species of birds at Point Reyes!) A male California Quail poses on a fence post at Point Reyes Point Reyes National Seashore is renowned for its variety of watchable wildlife.  Not only is it a world-class birding locati...

If you've been with me through Parts I  and II of this series, where we talked about the arguments against damming and flooding Del Puerto Canyon and then looked at a long list of sensitive species that may be displaced by the project, you may have a few questions. You may be thinking,  with thousands of acres of habitat available in the Coast Ranges, why would the loss of a mere thousand acres matter?  Isn't there plenty of available habitat left for wildlife?  What is the point of this, anyway? Progress is progress,  you say,  water is life, agriculture feeds the Valley (and many, many far-flung regions beyond), so what is the loss of a thousand or so acres of habitat in the grand scheme of things? Yet this has been the story over and over and over again in California, for the last 200 years: the relentless march of "progress," taking all we can possibly take with little regard for the destruction left behind.   Habitat fragmentation has plague...

At the western edge of the Great Central Valley, within Stanislaus County, lies a canyon of cultural, biological and geological significance.  A rift in the earth slicing through the Coast Ranges, the canyon exposes millions of years of geologic history, and shows evidence of being occupied by humans long before European settlers arrived on the scene.  A spring at the heart of the canyon feeds into an intermittent stream, bordered by oasis-like pockets of riparian wetlands, cottonwoods, sycamores and ephemeral pools.  In the spring, grasslands within the canyon are verdant with a luxurious covering of new growth and dotted with annual wildflowers, while steep canyon walls are adorned with hardy chaparral and oak scrub habitat.  In the autumn, western sycamores and Fremont cottonwoods lining the creek put on a color show no less spectacular for its subtleness.   This is, of course, Del Puerto Canyon. And this canyon is in imminent danger of being dammed and ...

There are a lot of reasons to love California, particularly as a naturalist. The world's six major biomes, represented in California: Top row: Forest (Redwood State Park); Freshwater (Sword Lake); Desert (Joshua Tree National Park) Bottom row: Marine (Monterey Bay); Grassland (Stanislaus County prairie); Alpine tundra (Yosemite high country) California is a land of extremes, from submarine canyons to alpine peaks, from high heat and aridity to remarkable snow pack.  It boasts the tallest trees, the most massive trees, and the oldest [non-clonal] trees.  Within its borders, one can stand on the tallest point in the conterminous United States (Mount Whitney, 14,500 feet above sea level) as well as the lowest (Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level). In addition to the greatest difference in elevation, California also has the greatest range of latitude, the highest soil diversity, the largest range of average annual rainfall and the greatest range of average annua...

Having grown up not too far from the breath-taking rugged coast of Central California, I will be forever loyal to the west.  From the rocky, fog-enshrouded coast of Washington's Olympic Peninsula and the deserted beaches of the Redwood Coast, to the turquoise inlets of the Monterey Bay, the mild, Garibaldi-spangled waters of San Diego, even the tropical sands of Hawaii, I have swum, snorkled, camped, birded, hiked, rode horseback, collected shells, explored the magical worlds of tide pools, and wandered blissfully - usually barefoot - up and down miles and miles of western beaches.  The Pacific is in my blood. My first experience of an Atlantic beach, at South Carolina's beautiful Huntington Beach State Park. Only recently, I had the privilege of visiting South Carolina and experiencing my first taste (quite literally) of the Atlantic.  Slipping off my sandals and wading out into the sea for a swim, I was pleasantly surprised by the comfortable temperature of the w...

Ah, the swamp.  A stinky, mucky, oozy, icky, bug-infested no-man's land, brimming with creepy crawlies and things you'd never want to run into at night.  A place no one wants to visit; a land without use or purpose.  Right? Wrong. Entirely wrong. (Except for the part about being bug-infested.  That part might be true.*) Eric and I recently returned home from visiting friends, family and a slew of historic sites in the Carolinas and Virginia.  We hiked in gloriously verdant forests, birded in exceedingly productive wetlands, swam in the balmy Atlantic, and toured a plethora of places brimming with history: two plantations, five Revolutionary War battlefields, four Civil War battlefields, two forts, and two historic Colonial settlements.  (Aside: I cannot recommend a visit to Colonial Williamsburg and Historic Jamestowne highly enough!!) Perhaps most significantly (for me), we experienced South Carolina's swamps. Swamps, like all other wetlands...