Natural History Journal

Tucked away in the southeastern corner of California is an ecosystem like no other: the vast Mojave Desert. While it may not look like much to passing motorists, the arid Mojave Desert is brimming with wildlife.  Birds, mammals, reptiles, insects: It's all here, thriving against the odds in an undeniably harsh environment.  Cold winters bring snow flurries to high elevations as temperatures drop well below freezing, and summer highs can soar to more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit, baking the desert pavement.  The wind is fierce and rainfall is minimal all year, a scant three to nine inches annually.   Clearly, living conditions are tough. Yet despite the odds, here in these wide open spaces lives a very special suite of characters, all perfectly designed to make the most of life in this inhospitable place.   This is the wildlife of the Mojave Desert. Last week, we spent a couple of days exploring Mojave National Preserve, enjoying lovely desert scenery an...

You've heard about our state bird, the California Quail . You know about our state flower, the California Poppy , and perhaps you're aware that we have not one but two state trees, the Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia.  Maybe you even know that our state rock, Serpentine, is green (not gold - that's the state mineral) and that our state mammal, the Grizzly Bear, has been extinct in California since the 1920's.   But have you heard about California's state amphibian?? Meet the California Red-legged Frog ( Rana draytonii ). California Red-legged Frog, Pinnacles National Park Once common in California, red-legged frogs are now listed as federally threatened. California Red-legged Frogs are the largest frog native to the western U.S., coming in at up to five inches long.  Apparently, many were eaten by miners during the Gold Rush, and this is the species immortalized by Mark Twain in his "Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County" (possibly).   Today, ...

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...