Archivos de Diario para abril 2015

domingo, 19 de abril de 2015

Update on Hacienda

It's been a long while since we've had any rain in Hacienda. I haven't been journaling the way I was last year so I wanted to note a few things. It seemed like the water levels were going down more quickly this year. Just this week the bigger pools have come down quite a bit and they are mostly isolated now. At this point now that the stream isn't flowing through the pools to refill them, it won't be long before it's completely dry. We didn't see any large fish spawning this year, but we also had near flood stage levels before Christmas. It might have been easy to miss them. In any case, baby fish appeared in all of the pools except the biggest. We haven't seen any crayfish this year either. The baby fish disappeared a few weeks ago after the last rain and we assumed maybe they took the opportunity to swim away. Otherwise they may have died as the pool levels dipped lower. A few things have stood out this year: Everything is still green in the shade and wildflowers, mostly forget-me-nots are blossoming. But hardly any redwood sorrel, calypso orchids or trilliums this year. Last year was the first year we saw any cherries on the old cherry tree in the meadow - this year it is loaded. The severely pruned apple trees haven't quite bounced back and are just now blossoming a little. Last year we had almost no wild plums, but it remains to be seen this year. We had five figs on our tree in the shade, which is a record for us! We've never had more than 3. The only difference is that I did a little pruning so I'll try again this fall. No blossoms on the spice bush plants and still no acorns showing on any of the trees - third year in a row. This winter the woodrats built houses all over the meadow (well over 20) but now the blackberry and poison oak are so thick you can't even see their houses anymore. The creek continues to flow and should remain that way all year beyond the meadow and the little bridge that crossed Skyline.

Publicado el domingo, 19 de abril de 2015 a las 12:02 AM por bjoelle bjoelle | 1 observación | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

miércoles, 22 de abril de 2015

Walked the Whole Trail

Two days ago I walked the whole Joe Rodota/ West County Trail from Santa Rosa to Forestville. That was a good 12 mile walk! I didn't expect to log any observations but of course I couldn't help myself. While most of the way there were a lot of non-native plants to be seen and many mysteries, I was surprised that so much was still green and blooming. Stopping in Sebastopol for breakfast and coffee at Coffee Catz was relaxing and I wasn't hungry or ready for another break by Graton so I carried on to Forestville. By then I was happy to celebrate at Backyard where they made me a fresh strawberry lemonade with local fruit and everyone came out to say "hi" to my exhausted pup. I wasn't a fan of the stretch along Highway 116 and especially down Occidental Road right alongside traffic, but after 3/4 miles you're back on a nice trail. My dog was a trooper and trotted the whole way. Next time I would definitely bring binoculars because I really missed out on the bird-watching the whole way. I'll definitely do it again. I left my car in the big dirt parking lot in Forestville and got dropped off at the trail entrance at Hwy 12 and Fulton (the interior parts of the trail in Santa Rosa are a bit sketchy and not so pretty anyway, in my humble opinion). The whole trip took six hours including my leisurely hour-long breakfast/coffee break and several longish chats with other walkers.

Publicado el miércoles, 22 de abril de 2015 a las 02:32 PM por bjoelle bjoelle | 18 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

domingo, 26 de abril de 2015

Tide Pools

Quick trip to Shell Beach at low tide 1035 hrs on Friday. Tide was only at 0.1. Two schools were there, one class on each side of the beach. I mainly went to check how the seaweeds were doing and to see if I could find any sea stars. The seaweeds were more robust but less varied. I saw no cystoseira at all, very little kombu or sea lettuce, no wakame (that's probably a good thing) and less feather boa and Turkish towel than I'd seen before. I forgot to look carefully for any sea palm in the distance, but didn't happen to see any. Nori/Laver was doing very well, covering many boulders. Saw other species that I wouldn't generally collect but practiced ID'ing them. Lots of small anemones on the rocks, but the only large one I found open I photographed. Usually I see more. Also, I didn't see a single sea star. Last visit I found three, which was very low. I'd like to learn more about the disease taking out the sea stars. This trip didn't seem all that rich overall; it could have been that I was moving too quickly past each pool, trying to stay ahead of the loud and destructive groups of kids, but it seemed like a less productive walk than usual. I only stayed a little more than an hour, picking up the trash left behind from the kids in the tide pools and decided to leave.

Publicado el domingo, 26 de abril de 2015 a las 07:11 AM por bjoelle bjoelle | 15 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario