Category Archives: Trip Report

A Summer Afternoon in Lime Ridge

By Anisha | Published: 5 July 2011

An Afternoon in Lime Ridge May 2012 It is a pleasant, sunny afternoon in the East Bay. My brother and I are on a nature hike in Lime Ridge open space, an area stretching from Walnut Creek to Concord, and home to a variety of reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, and insects. The landscape is a [...]

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Lizards on a Log at Las Trampas

By ameet | Published: 18 April 2011

It was a nice weekend in early April and Las Trampas Regional Wilderness was beckoning. There was no rain. It turned out to be a good day for lizards and butterflies. And some early wildflowers were already blooming. The most common were the California Buttercups. Then I started seeing the butterflies. The first one was [...]

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Salamanders at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park

By mihir | Published: 20 March 2011

It’s about that time of year again when salamanders become easier to see around the bay area so I took a few hours today in between bouts of severe rain to poke around some logs at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park. We’ve seen several amphibian species here before including California Slender Salamanders, Yellow-eyed Ensatinas, California Newts and Western [...]

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Dragonflies, Amphibians at Morgan Territory

By mihir | Published: 17 August 2010

An afternoon stroll in Morgan Territory Regional Park this Sunday, prompted by delusions of spotting a Puma (aka Mountain Lion, Cougar), turned into an above-average, all-around wildlife outing. During our hike , in addition to several birds and butterflies, we observed in great detail several species of dragonflies as well as a couple nice amphibians. [...]

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Afternoon Walk and Rattlesnake at Briones Regional Park

By mihir | Published: 3 August 2010

A brief walk around noon in the hot sun at Briones Regional Park didn’t reveal much in terms of spotting many different species, but did give some great views of possibly the largest Western Rattlesnake I have ever seen (it must have been close to three feet if not over). It’s not often that you [...]

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Rattlesnakes and Kingsnakes on Mines Road

By mihir | Published: 14 July 2010

As the nighttime temperatures in the east bay moved in a decidedly warmer direction, we took a night drive along Mines Road last weekend to see what creatures, particularly snakes, we could find. Cruising around a few nights earlier revealed a Grey Fox and  a Great-Horned Owl, but no snakes. We hypothesize that the reason [...]

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Dragonflies and More at Shadow Cliffs

By mihir | Published: 23 June 2010

This Sunday (and Father’s Day), we took a short trip to Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area intending to see some dragonflies. Both the summertime and the creekside and lakeside habitat made Shadow Cliffs particularly dragonfly-friendly. Our trip was, by-and-large, a success. Dragonflies were everywhere, swooping, diving and hovering both above and around the water. A [...]

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Mitchell Canyon and the End of a Quest

By mihir | Published: 13 June 2010

Two Saturdays ago, we took a trip to Mitchell Canyon in Mount Diablo State Park in an attempt to finally end our quest to find the Coast Horned Lizards in addition to seeing some springtime wildlife. We were successful on both counts. The park’s flowers were in full bloom, splashing colors all over the landscape. [...]

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San Antonio Valley in Spring

By ameet | Published: 2 May 2010

This trip consisted of a long drive, starting from Livermore via Mines Road, continuing past the junction with Del Puerto Canyon, into San Antonio Valley,  over the slopes of Mount Hamilton, past Joseph D. Grant County Park  and ending in San Jose on Alum Rock Avenue. There is mostly private land on both sides of [...]

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February Finds: Two Species of Salamanders

By mihir | Published: 27 February 2010

On a short walk along South Park Drive last weekend in the hills above Berkeley we made some pretty interesting finds: a Yellow-eyed Ensatina and a California Slender Salamander. Each November through March, South Park Drive in Tilden Regional Park is closed to automobiles due to California Newt and Rough-skinned Newt migration. The newts migrate [...]

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