The recent rains made for a nice surprise on my hike last weekend. I went to Pleasanton Ridge in the afternoon. It was refreshing to see everything turning green after the hot, dry days of summer. Soon I came across my first California Newt as it was crossing the trail. I find their determined plodding quite […]
Over the Fourth of July weekend, I got a pleasant surprise. A California Kingsnake showed up in our garage (in southern Alameda County) in the middle of the afternoon! Perhaps the hot weather had something to do with it. Somehow it ended up picking the right house to visit. It was about a meter long […]
It was a nice warm afternoon in the East Bay this weekend. I was delighted to see butterflies flying around in my neighbors front yard, which has lots of flowers and catches the afternoon sun. There was the usual multitude of Fiery Skippers. They are very active and playful as they fly around and chase […]
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. […]
Something about the month of May brought out the garter snakes, both in the wild and even at home. While I thought seeing what could have been either a California Red-sided Gartersnake or a Coast Gartersnake (frustratingly hard to identify, especially if you only get a quick look) at Tilden Regional Park was fortuitous, our […]
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 […]
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 […]
Last weekend we noticed a flurry of bird activity in the backyard. The perpetrators were a large number of American Robins feasting on a bush which was loaded with red berries. Closer inspection revealed a number of smaller birds – Cedar Waxwings – were also partaking of the feast. There must have been over 50 […]
In early November, I came across an interesting inhabitant of our backyard. It was a Sharp-tailed Snake. We see them every once in a while, usually in summer. This was a small one, lying still under some leaf debris because of the cold weather I suspect. At first I thought it was dead but it […]