Yet Another Hike at Shoreline

It sounds like I'm in a rut, and maybe I am, but I really tried another venue.  I got up a little late this morning (7:10-ish), but in this case that's OK. The skies were quite overcast. I shoveled a bowl of cold cereal down my neck, bundled up in layers (it was 40F out back), and headed off to Rancho San Antonio Park.

I have now issued myself an edict: Forget Rancho San Antonio! This is not the first time I've gotten there BEFORE the stated opening hour of 8 AM only to find the OFFICIAL "LOT FULL" sign already deployed. And they weren't kidding. The lot was FULL. And, contrary to the notation on the LOT FULL sign, many cars were parked in undesignated spaces.  And there was a stream of people heading out as I was heading in and a stream of people heading in as I was heading out.

So, I headed for Terminal Ave for some Shoreline birding. I parked at the far end because (a) I wanted to try something slightly different and (b) I wanted to try to see the American Bittern that lives in/near the culvert at that end of Terminal Ave. 

I'm sad to report, no bittern. *sigh* BUT! While I didn't get an ID on the bird of prey at the time, I'm totally stoked in retrospect to say that I got a [crappy] photo of a Peregrine Falcon in the top of a dead conifer.

These bad boys were down to less than a handful of mating pairs in the US back in the 60s and 70s, but aggressive intervention has brought them back in a big way.  Woohoo!

I also made a stop by the hummingbird nest I posted about earlier, but the nest is now empty.

On the other hand, there was this one male Anna's hummingbird who kept leap-frogging me on the trail doing the whole posing thing.

He cocked his little head to flash his gorgette at me...

He gave his wings a little stretch...

And he found an itchy eyebrow to scratch.

And the Surf Scoters were on the lake...

The tide was a-way out in the Charleston Slough and this Marbled Godwit was out drilling in the mud for breakfast, thickly coating his bill (and face) in fine, thick, gloopy mud.

I had been hoping for some wildflowers at Rancho San Antonio, but I probably would have been sad. The only things that I saw blooming at Shoreline were invasive aliens. (No, not the kind with probes.  :-)

The mallows (aka cheeseweed) have a pretty, though tiny, purple flower.

The field mustard was imported from Europe and used as a "green manure" crop in the orchards that once dominated the valley.

Then there's the tiny purple flowers of the Crane's Bill -- named for the seed head.

When I first arrived and was getting myself pulled together, a lovely white-haired lady arrived and asked if I was part of "Freddy's group." (No, I wasn't.) Well, it turns out that Freddy car-pools a gang of birders out to various places for bird hikes from her Wild Bird Center in Los Gatos. I met up with them farther along the trail (they went one way, and I the other) and Freddy's a nice, knowledgeable, friendly lady. The Santa Clara Valley chapter of the Audubon Society also has frequent bird walks. If you're interested in learning about the birdies, there are opportunities a-plenty!

Oh, and if you want to learn about the wildflowers, try the California Native Plant Society.

The Penstemon is Blooming

Spring has sprung. Or maybe it's just mildly sprained. :-)  No, really, we had a few days of sun after a number of days of rain and all of a sudden, one of the pensetmons in my Natives Bed is trying to bloom!

Yes, the penstemon is the little purple-y thing in the middle. It's Penstemon "Margarita BOP" (the BOP standing for Behind Our Porch and is named for the porch at Las Pilitas Nursery in Santa Margarita).

I took the longer shot because I wanted to capture the environs. the greenery at the top of the photo is the penstemon. The greenery sticking its fingers in from the bottom and left side is Ceanothus hearstorium. The broad-leaf thingy below and to the left of the penstemon flowers is a lupine sprout. And all those other little green speck-lets are some combination of California Poppies, Tidy Tips, and/or Goldfields.

That's just one tiny slice of the microcosm that is my Natives Bed.  Woohoo!

Hit & Run Birdy

No, no. Nobody hurt any birdies. Late yesterday afternoon, I peeked out the bedroom window and watched a male Yellow-Rump Warbler having a nice bath in the hanging bath. My camera was too far away (at the other end of the house) for me to get a photo and the photo would have been suboptimal taken through the very old glass anyway. And, he was gone within a minute. 

But he was sure pretty while he was there!

Yet More Sprouts!

Each of the species that have been featured in the sprouting entries (Tidy Tips, Goldfields, Lupines) have continued to sprout still more sproutlets, but as of this morning, we've added California Poppies!  Woohoo!

However, the neighborhood cats have gone berzerk in using that bed as a litter box. HELP!

The sun is gone again, replaced again by rains ranging from brief showers to constant mists. It's not a *lot* of water, but it's ongoing, continuous water with little chance for evaporation. It may not be doing much to fill the reservoirs and percolation ponds, but it's adding slowly to the soil and plants. This we like.

Oh, I keep forgetting to mention the wacky seasonal cycles of a couple of the plants in the Natives Bed. Recall that I planted both a Western Redbud and a Blue Elderberry in that bed last spring (April or May). These are both supposed to be deciduous.

Well, the Elderberry still has not shown any signs that it ever heard of winter or deciduousness. The Redbud finally decided that it was time to shed its leaves (well, most of them) and kinda shut down for the winter. 

But, HEY! All the other little Redbuds out there are starting to re-bud. Mine's just staring at me with bare sticks, no bud-swell, and a very few, *very* tired, leftover leaves. 

I had a talk with the president of our chapter of CNPS about both of these plants (before the Redbud started losing its leaves) and the technical term he used for the two and their wonky cycles was "weirded-out." So, they continue to be weirded-out. Hopefully they'll take hints from all the sprouts around their respective feet.  :-)

House Plants, Lawns, and IPM

Imagine my surprise this morning when I noticed that the "Corn Plant" (Dracena something-or-other) in the living room has sprouted flower buds! I snapped a couple of photos, but I'll see what they look like when open and post a photo then. On some level, I assumed that these things bloom, but I'd never actually seen on in bloom, so...

We've had a few days of sun, no rain, and very light air movement, but the rains are due back this evening.  And they're supposed to be heavy and last for most of a week. Mind you, I *love* the rain. I like the sound, the smell of the air, the clean look of everything between showers, and the fact that it means I have to worry less about drought. But, between last week's rain and this week's sun, the weeds growing in the lawns are going berzerk and are starting to throw seeding parties. Conclusion: Today's the day to mow the lawns.

Mind you, I'd rather *not* have lawns, but I inherited them with the house and I don't have the strength/endurance to replace them myself and I don't have the $$$ to hire it done. At least they're relatively small. And they're mostly Bermuda, so they *rarely* get watered. The back lawn gets a soak a couple of times in the height of summer and the tiny front lawn gets watered, at most, once every couple of weeks. One of these days, I'll come up with the money and the plan.

I'd like to have a small meadow out front and a mix of raised vegetable beds, a [non-native] fruit tree or two, and a collection of native flowers, native flowering shrubs, native scented shrubs (e.g., salvias and mints), native trees, ... (Seeing a trend? :-)

One of the blogs I follow is The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. The other day, Town Mouse posted about an Arboreal Salamander she found in her yard that seemed ill. She gave it a couple of days of putting it back in moist shade among native sorrel, but it seemed to be getting worse, so she took it to a rescue center. Sal seemed to be getting better, but suddenly died. It seems that a neighbor's herbicide or pesticide leached out of the soil and ran to TM's yard, sickening and killing Sal. 

I'm sad to hear of his passing. Not so much because I knew Sal, but because there's really no good reason for using x-icides when there are so many options for IPM (Integrated Pest Management). As a general rule, I don't use x-icides. I use a little RoundUp on the weeds in the crack between the gutter and the street because they cause the pavement to heave and break up. I spray the huge ant trails (and the golden aphids) with a little dishwashing liquid mixed with a lot of water. When wasps start building nests on the house, I spray them down with a jet of water. The rest of the bugs in the yard are kept in check by the birds. The snails and other pests in the back yard are kept in check by Shelley (for whom the blog is named). Weeds are pulled by hand, tho' those in the lawn are generally just mowed.

As to the birds, I have found that offering a source of fresh water is quite sufficient to keep them coming around. When I first moved here eleven years ago (OMG!), I had a 4-legged child named Sparky. Sparky "mined" the back lawn quite liberally. This, of course, drew flies no matter how often I scooped. Lots and lots and LOTS of flies. That first summer was The Summer of the Flies. They were EVERYwhere. The following spring I put in a hanging bird bath with a slow dripper. The birds started showing up for the water, but they *stayed* for the flies. Black Phoebes even built nests on and around my house. The flies disappeared by the end of summer, as did moths, gnats, etc. 

My yard and plantings are virtually bug-free simply because I put in a water source. In the morning I wake to birdsong. I can peek out my bedroom window and watch hummingbirds bathe in the morning dawn and all the rest of them bathe the rest of the day. They come for a drink and a day at the spa. And they stay for the bugs.

So, yes, I have bugs. But not enough to do any noticeable plant damage. 

AND I have salamanders.

More Sprouts!

Well, we've now had a couple of days of sun and the wildflower sprouts are even happier. 

Even the lupines are sprouting!

And, some of the earlier-sprouting seeds are coming up in other areas and thicker!

OK, so the pictures don't quite do them justice, but soon the place will be rampant with green the rampant with spring color. I have hopes.  :-)

Sprouts!

What with all the rain we've been having in the last several days, I have been taking some closer looks at the natives bed for sprouts. Score! There are herds of itty-bitty-teeny-tiny sprouts. They are SO tiny that both cotyledons (the baby, non-true leaves) together would not cover the head of a pin. I take it as a good sign.  I also noticed that the lupine seeds are now uncovered of soil, but are swelling nicely.  (Hopefully they'll put a root into the soil before the rain dries up.
)

I note that, when it's raining (or recently stopped) puddles form in the natives bed, but a half-hour after the rain stops, the puddles disappear. I have a downspout at the corner of the house at the center of the top of the bed, so it also gets that extra-added water.

On the other side of the driveway, a previous owner paved over a large area, but nicely put four rectangular holes in the concrete for planting. Three of the four ceanothus plants died the first year I was here and I replaced them with Uva-Ursi plants. Right now the holes are filled with standing water. Earlier they were overflowing with massive quantities of water. They, too, have a downspout uphill from them.

I'm SO happy for all the rain!  I'm not entirely sure about the birds, tho'. I was watching a towhee and a sparrow shopping for groceries on my back lawn earlier. Hop. Peck. Shake! Peck. Hop. Shake! Hop. Peck. Shake! They didn't seem like they were having a lot of fun, not like hopping through the sprinklers in the summer.  :-)

Again, not much hiking, but...

Despite indications from the weather radar when we headed out for a hike, the sky ended up mostly spitting, raining, and everything in between. We did have a nice drive and we did venture out of the car a few times into the blustery, damp weather. We also found a spot by the "river" to take pictures of a small herd of black-tailed deer and hike around a bit.

By the time we drove from Ellen's house to the lot from which we planned to hike, it was raining pretty firmly, so we stopped and talked with a ranger car window to truck window. Since it was raining, we wanted some info to motivate us to hike in the rain or, lacking that, someplace interesting out of the rain.  Well, he allowed as how there wasn't much blooming yet, just a few buttercups.

OK, a *very* few buttercups. I think I only saw three all day. And the museum had recently closed for "a facelift," so that was out.  We ended up mostly driving around the park looking at snow and trees and litter and...

... and shoes on a wire.  I'm thinking these are looking pretty fresh and all masculine sizes.

So, even tho' it was rather a gloomy day, it was an enjoyable afternoon with a friend sort of out in nature. 

Not much hiking, but

This morning wasn't very cloudy at all, so I decided to get out and see about doing a little hiking and photo-ing.  Well, I ended up not doing much of either, but it was a nice drive up the length of Stevens Canyon Road. My! but things have changed since my high school days!

Today I was shooting with my short lens, so the photos I took of a couple of birds were NOT publishable in any way, shape, or form.  But they were good enough for me to identify a pair of Hooded Mergansers on Stevens Creek Reservoir. Wow!  There was also a small flock of cormorants, tho' I couldn't make out the species... probably Double-Crested.  There was also a Red-Tail Hawk being severely harassed and chastised by a pair of crows on the far side of the lake.

There wasn't much blooming up there, but I found an area of Grand Hounds-Tongue blooming near a picnic area where I was hiking.

Also known as Cynoglossum grande, "the book" says that this isn't supposed to be blooming until May, but this has, for the most part, been quite the warm winter. Hmmmm... Allow me to rephrase that. The weather and temperatures this winter have been all over the map! But they have, for the most part, been leaning toward warm.

Here's a better view of the flowers of the Grand Hounds-Tongue.  After I snapped the photos, not knowing what these were called, I was driving toward home thinking, "I'll bet that guy's name start with or includes 'cyno'-something." Well. There it is.  :-)

Weed Seed Bank NOT Fully Depleted

I'm sad to note that weeds are already sprouting (at least a couple already over an inch high) in my Natives Bed. And the soil is now so moist that, to step on it would be unconscionable, destroying the soil structure. I'll worry about pulling one or two weeds later.

In the meanwhile, the verdammt neighborhood cats have been using the bed as a litter box.  (Also my vegetable garden bed.) If anyone has any suggestions for keeping the cats out, I'm open.

But I had a fine time overnight listening to the rain. And it was definitely different (for here) this morning listening to the thunderstorm pass through. It was particularly nice listening to the birds enjoying the aftermath of the storm after the sun came out. I'm happy to see the moist weather continuing. It's still not nearly enough to be able to call the drought broken, but it helps.  

But it also is trying to interfere with plans for getting in a hike this weekend. The weather guy has suggested that there'll be a break between 10 and 2 Saturday, but that kinda leaves out hiking on trails that were dirt and dust a couple of weeks ago cuz they'll be nothing but mucky mud. Sandy, gravelly, rocky trails would be nice.  :-)

My focus of late has been on birds (particularly water fowl), but it's getting to be wildflower time. I hear that the Shooting Stars and a variety of lilies are already out at Henry Coe. I'm looking forward to seeing the Purple Mouse Ears again.

Mimulus douglasii ©Stephanie Fenton 2008

Just in Time

This past Sunday I got off my butt and finished pulling all the weeds in one of my planting beds. (I also pulled a lot of other weeds, but that's not part of this story.) 

The planting bed in question is between a low fence and my driveway and gets FULL south and west exposure, plus reflection from the garage door (to the southeast), the concrete of the driveway (to the south), the sidewalk (to the west), and the low fence (to the north).  So, LOTS of sun and warmth. Being that the space is also very open to the north-south corridor of my street, it gets plenty of wind exposure from both the prevailing wind out of the north and the storm winds out of the south. On top of all that, it is most inconveniently placed with respect to easy irrigation.

A couple of years ago, that particular bed had to be at least partially torn out when I upgraded the plumbing in my house from completely clogged and corroded galvanized iron to copper. Most of the plants were fairly invasive and a challenge to keep in check. The good news was that they didn't actually need to be watered (once they were established). 

Since I've been interested in converting (albeit slowly) my yard to [mostly] plants that are native to California, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get rid of all those invasive, non-native plants and start replacing them with Calif. natives. However, life intervened and the bed went to weeds. I went through a few cycles of pull-the-weeds, let-em-grow, pull-the-weeds, ...

But last spring I bought a few plants and got them set out... with mixed success. One of the ceanothus died and one failed to thrive. But the Blue Elderberry went berzerk, the Western Redbud put on a lot of growth, one of the ceanothus put on a LOT of growth, the oak (from a squirrel-planted acorn) doubled in height, and the volunteer Sticky Monkeyflower (from Mom) put out wave after wave of flowers.

After that flush of success, I went out this past fall and got some more plants, all of which are thriving! They included a replacement ceanothus, a few blue Penstemon "Margarita BOP," and a few more Sticky Monkeyflowers. Now, as we are halfway through winter, all of these (including the originals) are thriving!  But so were the weeds!

So, I got out a few weeks ago and started on the weeds, but hurt myself weeding. :-( Finally, this last Sunday I got out and finished weeding. Later that day, I re-smoothed the soil and sowed the batch of California spring wildflower seeds. Yes, yes. Rather late in coming, but... Had I sown them last fall, they would have needed supplemental water and would have been completely overwhelmed by the weeds.

And I got them in JUST IN TIME for this last week of almost daily gentle rain! I'm hoping that much of the weed seed bank has been depleted and the wildflowers will jump up and make for a colorful spring and summer.

Oh! The collection includes two kinds of [blue] Lupines, California Bluebells, Tidy Tips, Goldfields, Clarkia (Farewell to Spring), and California Poppies (both the regular orange variety and mixed colors -- from cream colored to a mahogany color).

Another Morning Hike

I guess I'm just so boring. Another Saturday morning hike at the north end of Shoreline/south end of Baylands.  Ho-hum. Mostly not much new and different going on, but it was a lovely morning. Very "Goldilocks" weather. Not too warm. Not too cool. Not to cloudy. Not too sunny.  Actually, I would have liked a little more sun. But, hey! It was nice out!

I managed to parallel a beginning birding group (I suspect led by an Audubon docent).  the leader had apparently promised them at least 20 species this morning. I'm pretty sure they got all 20.

Among the birds I don't usually see was the Surf Scoter. This duck has a face only a mother scoter could love. It looks like it ran into a wall face-first... repeatedly.

And there were at least a couple of dozen of them!

The other thing I saw that you don't usually get to see: a hummingbird nest with baby hummers at home!

The two little pointy bits poking up at the top are baby bird beaks.  I got another picture of the nest with Mom feeding the younguns, but it's hard to make it all out for the leaves. I didn't want to encroach on her while she was feeding the kids.

Moist Weather Cycle

I was kind of hoping that tomorrow (Saturday) morning would be dry and relatively clear so I could go on a hike with my camera and maybe a friend. It's not looking good for the hiking. Still, I'll check the weather in the morning and make a late decision.

On the other hand, I really do wish that the sky would just open up and dump a very large, protracted load of rain. We need it and we need it BAD.

On the other hand, I need a day or two of non-rain (and an open schedule) to finish pulling the weeds in my [California plant] natives bed and sow the spring wildflower seeds.  THEN a load of rain!  :-)

Late Morning Hike at Shoreline

I usually hike in the *early* morning hours (you know, about the time the sun's coming up).  But today I didn't feel like getting up, throwing on clothes, grabbing the Triple-Cardiac-Bypass-Special Breakfast at Mickey D's, and sprinting off to the park.  Instead, I rolled over and didn't wake up till almost 8, fixed a healthy breakfast of Old Fashioned Oatmeal with flax seed and raisins, dealt with e-mail, etc.  THEN I went by Mom's to see if she wanted to join me for a nice walk.

The day was gorgeous! Bright, sunny, no wind, not too cool, not to hot -- Goldilocks weather, just right!

But the plants are confused. This (I think) Rose Mallow was all abloom as were the Blue Elderberry trees around the lake.

On the other hand, the ground squirrels are happy that the people are out picnicking and leaving crusts of bread around for them.

And the hummingbirds were willing to pose.

More photos (and better versions of these) will be available on Flickr in a bit...