California Buttercup

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 the Pipevine Swallowtail. This was a lifer for me (I am still a novice butterfly watcher).  I saw several more later but they all proved elusive for photography.

Next was a Margined White – a lifer.  This was identified later by experts on our flickr group and bugguide, based on this photograph. And soon after that I saw a California Ringlet which is a subspecies of the Common Ringlet. This is a fairly common species in grassy, open areas.

Margined White butterfly

California Ringlet

Following the Bollinger Creek trail, which runs parallel to the creek, I had tall trees on my left and grassy slopes on my right. The next species to show itself was the Anise Swallowtail which is a really pretty butterfly.

Anise Swallowtail

Under a fallen tree branch I found this millepede. If you know its identify, I would love to hear from you.

At the point where the trail turns left to cross the creek, I stopped to check out an interesting log. I saw a scurrying movement and then spotted a Western Fence Lizard.

There were several Fence Lizards on the log. To try and get good photographs of the lizards I went a bit close and then stood still for a while. My patience was rewarded by an uncommon sighting. A head poked out of a crack in the wood. Checking it out with my binoculars, I was thrilled to see that it was a Western Skink.

Later I was able to see its blue tail during the few glimpses I got while it foraged under the fallen log and the rotting debri around it. I also saw another skink which had lost its tail. Once before we had a great sighting of a skink at Las Trampas. Spring is a wonderful time to be out on the trail – go out and see what lucky sightings you might get!

We started our hike from the main parking lot and staging area around 12:30 p.m., already late in the day – not ideal for wildlife watching. The sun was somewhat tempered by a cool breeze every once in a while, but the temperature remained high throughout the hike.

Morgan Territory Regional Park habitat

Passing through a shady patch, we spotted three interesting species of warblers – small, jumpy birds – flitting through the oak trees. The Black-throated Grey Warbler, Hermit Warbler, and Wilson’s Warbler captivated us for some time, but we pushed on hoping to reach a spot where Pumas had been known to be seen during the day.

Earlier in the month, at the Martinez Beaver Festival, a person we met standing at the Bay Area Ridge Trail booth recounted two daytime Puma sightings at Morgan Territory around a campsite there. Needless to say, we didn’t see any Puma. We also missed the campsite entirely as the trail signs were a bit confusing.

Instead we spent our time around two ponds in the park: one was a cattle pond on the West side of Morgan Territory Road along Clyma Trail, the other was the pond I had visited before near the parking lot. The richness of animal life in and around the ponds was, as always, amazing.

Several species of dragonflies zig-zagged across the cattle pond, including Common Green Darners, Widow Skimmers, and Flame Skimmers. Occasionally, we would spot pairs mating or laying eggs in the pond. Most exciting was seeing several dragonfly nymphs cruising around in the water like some prehistoric underwater creatures.

As I circled the edge of the pond, I noticed several California Red-legged Frog and Sierran Treefrog tadpoles in the water, clustered near the edge of the pond. Some appeared to be feeding on the algae in the water. At one point, the dragonfly nymph swam over to an area with several tadpoles lounging, but as the nymph got close to any of them, the tadpoles zipped away.

After walking a little further around the pond’s perimeter, I found a grown Red-legged Frog sitting semi-submerged and seemingly unafraid of the human observers.

Red-legged Frog at Morgan Territory

Walking back towards the staging area along the Coyote Trail was tough due to some steep uphill stretches and a relentless sun, but our spirits were buoyed by a Western Skink which slithered up the side of the trail from some leaf-litter. We saw several species of butterflies along the trails as well, including the California Sister, Western Tiger Swallowtail, Common Ringlet, and Common Buckeye.

After a few miles, we arrived at the second pond near the parking lot. A quick survey of the ponds surface revealed hundreds of amphibian heads poking up out of the water (and one unidentified cranium – perhaps a Garter Snake?). The pond was teeming with Red-legged Frogs.

As we neared the pond for closer inspection, we were surprised by another amphibian. Small Western Toads started popping up around our feet everywhere – we had to be careful not to step on them.

Western Toad at Morgan Territory

After watching the toads and several frogs in the pond for a few minutes, we walked back to the parking lot after a surprisingly good, albeit Puma-less, four hours.

Manzanita tree along the trail

Las Trampas Regional Wilderness

Las Trampas is one of the few parks which is accessible early in the morning. We started our hike at about 7 am with high hopes for spotting wildlife. There was the faint hope of seeing a Puma (Mountain Lion) since they have been seen here. We decided to take the trail leading to Las Trampas Ridge. Along the way we saw some of the usual birds. One interesting sight was a dead tree with 2 Acorn Woodpeckers and 2 Nuttal’s Woodpeckers foraging very close to one another.

Being amongst the early ones on the trail, we saw many animal tracks on the patches with loose soil. We were able to pick out Deer, Coyote, Fox, Bobcat, Raccoon and some bird tracks. We also saw Gray Fox scat, indicating a diet of seed and berries.

As it got warmer we started seeing Western Fence Lizards. Our hopes were to see the Coast Horned Lizard, especially since we saw sandy soil and many ant colonies. Instead we were rewarded with another lizard species, its scales glistening in the morning sun. We got great views of a Western Skink, a new species for me!

Western Skink

Once we crested the ridge, we got great views of Mt. Diablo, Highway 680 and Walnut Creek. The view westwards was still a bit hazy. We noticed a stock pond, a bit off the trail and proceeded to check it out. Some cows came by to drink water but the pond life seemed to tolerate their presence.

Pond at Las Trampas

There was bird activity near the water and we saw Lark Sparrow, Goldfinches, both Towhees and a Hermit Warbler. I managed to get two new species – a dragonfly – the Common Green Darner – and a damselfly – the Familiar Bluet.  There were also some Variegated Meadowhawks.

Variegated Meadowhawk

After scanning the edges of the pond for a while we started noticing the Pacific Tree Frogs that were well hidden. There were some almost grown up tadpoles. We were puzzled by air bubbles rising up every once in a while. Then we noticed something coming up to the surface and disappearing again. It was a real treat when we were able to make out that they were California Newts.

Pacific Treefrog

The rest was all downhill, literally and figuratively. The long walk back, in the heat, was rather uneventful. We did notice a lot more activity from the Western Fence Lizards along the edge of the wide trail (a dirt road) including an abundance of small, baby lizards which should have been a lot warier of potential predators. And the quest for the Horned Lizard continues …