sparrows ~ 02/12/12 ~ Hopkins

white-crowned sparrow (left) and song sparrow (right)
Zonotrichia leucophrys and Melospiza melodia

I love hearing the songs of these sparrows every time I walk past this 30 yard stretch of blackberries on both sides of the fence between the Rec Trail and Hopkins Marine Station. It's such a surprising and stark contrast to the sounds of Monterey Bay waves, gull cries, traffic, and jabber of tourists. Sparrow songs immediately transport me to a woodland's edge back in Ohio, even though they are quite common here in CA.

ps - I'm posting this 02/18/12 in honor of the Great Backyard Bird Count being held this weekend, even though I'm not participating in it myself. I'm learning about one bird at a time, and I think it would be an exercise in frustration for me to do a count on my own. The February Checklist for Pacific Grove is daunting.

elephant seal ~ 01/08/12 ~ Hopkins

northern elephant seal
Mirounga angustirostris

It looks like a sandy sausage, eh? I almost didn't post this, because I have much better pictures of elephant seals down at Piedras Blancas near San Simeon. However, I wanted to note the unusually large size of these beached elephant seals near home. In the past week or so, I've heard their distinctive grunts at night, even over the roar of the winter waves. While we've had some elephant seals at Hopkin's West Beach (I like to affectionately call it seal beach) in the years past 9 years, these are the largest males I've ever seen here. I'm fairly sure we have harbor seals all year round on this beach (those rock-looking slugs in the lower-left of the last photo above), but the appearance of a couple elephant seals seems to be seasonal and new.

Here are a couple decent local elephant seal links with original information:
http://elsealnotes.blogspot.com/
http://www.elephantseal.org/

habitat ~ 10/29/11 ~ Hopkins Marine Station

Stanford University Hopkins Marine Station
October 29, 2011

This past Saturday, they held a rare Open House. Andy heard they do this about once every 5 years. It was a treat to go behind the scenes.

Up until now, the only Hopkins Marine Station location posts on Nature ID have been done outside the fence, essentially from the Monterey Bay Recreation Trail. Being neighbors to the very popular Monterey Bay Aquarium and all the tourists, they're extra diligent keeping people out with fences and coded gates. I know, because I was kicked out during one of my morning walks. Hey, the gate was open one day, and I was curious to see the views.

I haven't yet decided if I'll blog about the different labs I visited, including Andy's running friend whom I've only heard "works at Hopkins." Little did I know he seems to have written half the books in their library. After meeting various people at the Open House stations, I was very impressed with the squid researcher. He took my questions seriously and looked me in the eye when he spoke. Plus, his grad student seemed to be well-versed in his topic and knew when to defer to his PI. I was a bit disappointed to not meet Dr. Watanabe whose SeaNet site I frequently link to in many of my marine ID posts.

It's too bad I get extremely sea sick, otherwise I might consider marine biology as a postgraduate option. Having grown up in CA, Stanford and UC Berkeley were the only two colleges I wanted to attend because of their reputations and prestige. It's interesting for me to see now how it's not so much the university, but each advisor's personality that makes a difference.

barnyard goose ~ 07/14/11 ~ Hopkins

barnyard goose
species unknown (subfamily Anserinae)

I finally got a closer picture of this goose that's been hanging around since before May 31, 2011 at Hopkins. Despite it being the wrong time of year, I was really hoping it was a rare Monterey County sighting of a snow goose. I received confirmation from Don Roberson, author of Monterey Birds, that this is indeed a barnyard goose. Many years of domestication and hybridization with wild geese makes identifying this goose to species impossible to tell by looking at its features.

field bindweed ~ 07/14/11 ~ Hopkins

field bindweed / orchard morning glory
Convolvulus arvensis
Convolvulaceae

This is my best guess and I could be totally wrong as to the ID. It is a low-growing plant with fuzzy leaves and stem. The bloom was smaller than other morning glories I've seen, but that could be due to the growing conditions right next to the Monterey Bay. The other hairy morning glory that grows in this area is the stemless morning glory (Calystegia subacaulis), but that's generally a white or cream flower. I have a feeling once I get better acquainted with morning glories, I'll be revisiting this ID.

ps 08/20/11 - Yep. I think I got this wrong. I discovered my mistake from looking up another morning glory/bindweed from Elkhorn Slough. I initially posted this as a native coast morning glory (Calystegia macrostegia ssp. cyclostegia). I tried to convince myself that despite photos not quite matching, that Jepson's description could apply. I've made the ID correction above for this invasive plant from Europe and Asia. If Wikipedia is to be believed this is the broader leaved Convolvulus arvensis var. arvensis. Seriously, how does one tell the difference between Calystegia and Convovulus?

blackberry ~ 07/14/11 ~ Hopkins

best guess elmleaf blackberry or Himalayan blackberry
best guess Rubus ulmifolius or Rubus armeniacus (aka R. discolor and R. procerus)
Rosaceae

Good golly! I looked at Jepson's descriptions for each species and compared hundreds of pictures. Both species are found here and I'm evenly split as to which this could be. The bright pink blooms makes me think it must be an elmleaf blackberry. However, I can't figure out the difference between "finely toothed" for elmleaf and "sharply toothed" for Himalayan. Online pictures and descriptions seem to vary widely in the amount of leaf toothiness and prickles on the stems. I can't decide. Do you know?

harbor seal ~ 05/31/11 ~ Hopkins

harbor seal

Phoca vitulina

Here's my annual harbor seal pup post, a little later than usual. Most of the harbor seals around here are born mid-April. It's fun living just a block away from the bay, because sound carries very clearly up from the water. I remember hearing pups crying at night, which sound almost human-like, a week before the first reports of births at Hopkins' non-publicly viewable beaches. The pups have had almost 2 months to turn into fat beach sausages. Besides obvious size variations, I don't know how to tell the difference between the older pups, post-nursing moms, and males.

Interesting to note, Stanford Hopkins' seanet site names harbor seals down to subspecies, P. vitulina richardii, and calls them Eastern Pacific harbor seals. Other references spell the subspecies P. vitulina richardsi with an 's', which I chalk off to Gray having really bad handwriting back in 1864.

Oh! There's a funny white goose in the middle of the last picture that we've seen around for a couple of months. For much better pictures than mine, check out local photographer Peter Monteforte's marine mammal shots.

seacliff buckwheat ~ 08/01/10 ~ Hopkins

best guess seacliff buckwheat

best guess Eriogonum parvifolium
Polygonaceae

I can't tell you how many times I've walked past this and wondered what it was. The pink pom-pom flowers are whimsical. Often it's buzzing with visiting bees and flies. Considering there are 266 records of Eriogonum in Calflora, I'm making my best guess as to species. What struck me for ID were the narrow leaves and bush-like appearance. It's along the Rec Trail, but I'm including this post under Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station for location 'x.' The reason being is that there's a section of the trail in front of Hopkins that looks to me like someone, many years ago, decided to plant various CA natives, even ones that would not necessarily be naturally found in this spot. Those tall smoke stacks in the upper right of the last photo are fake; they're part of Monterey Bay Aquarium's nod to its historical cannery location.

ps 03/29/13 - Evan Moor Educational Publishers contacted me for use of these three photos above in a unit that talks about the El Segundo blue butterfly.  I declined their permissions request, and I gave the following explanation for my refusal:

"While I'd love to get a little extra cash for my photographs, I'm afraid I cannot let you use mine for the purposes of illustrating the El Segundo blue.  I'm a stickler for accuracy on websites and educational materials.

Here's why my specific photographs will not be appropriate for your use:
1) I state in my blog post that I was making a best guess as to species.
2) Even if my pictures are indeed the specific Eriogonum out of a possible 250+!!! found in CA, I've seen variations in plants depending on location.  My Rec Trail ones may indeed look different than those found near the LA airport sites, but I can't be sure since I've not been down there.
3) The El Segundo blue has an extremely short flight period when the sea cliff buckwheat is in peak bloom in June.  My pictures were taken August 1 long after the flowers have aged to deep bright pink.  By August I suspect this blue butterfly is in the late caterpillar instar stages. 

My suggestions to you is find photographs actually from SoCal, preferably taken on the same day as ones with the El Segundo blue butterfly in them, such as http://sittingknitting.blogspot.com/2008/06/el-segundo-blue.html.  Or if you'd like, I could ask some of my CNPS contacts for pictures.  I used to be an entomologist, a science content editor, and a rights and permissions coordinator, so I feel for you as you search for publishable photographs."  

elephant seal and harbor seals

We've noticed in the past couple of months that one or two elephant seals have been beaching where the local harbor seals usually hang on the north side of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. We don't know if this is a recently new occurrence or if we're simply more aware of our local nature.

ps 02/11/10 - Two nights ago when I couldn't sleep, I stepped out on our balcony and heard the familiar deep, Harley-Davidson type grunt, grunt from the elephant seal. I'll be curious to see if our local beaches end up being a popular spot for the massive Miroungas.

naked lady ~ 08/05/09 ~ Rec Trail

naked lady
Amaryllis belladonna
Amaryllidaceae (formerly Liliaceae)

You know it's August in the Monterey area when naked ladies pop up everywhere. I just love pointing them out and saying the common name. I was surprised to find out that they are native to South Africa, b/c we have so many in people's yards, empty lots, and even right along the bay. This pic was taken along the Rec Trail near Hopkins Marine Station.

ps 09/09/09 - Naked ladies have all withered more than a week ago. They are truly an August bloom.

red-shouldered hawk

Apparently this fellow likes to hang out on the fence regularly since we just saw him a few days ago.

Brandt's cormorant ~ 05/05/09 ~ Hopkins

best guess Brandt's cormorant
best guess Phalacrocorax penicillatus

This was a very odd scene right off the beach where most of our local harbor seals hangout north of Hopkins. We don't often see cormorants in large groups in the water at this location.

Initially, I wasn't sure which cormorant these were since, we also have pelagic and I think double-crested cormorants. Thanks to a small snippet of info from MBA, Brandt's cormorants hunt cooperatively. So, I'm making my best guess.

red-shouldered hawk
Buteo lineatus

The past two Mays, we noticed a resident hawk swooping down on the rec trail, much to the surprise and delight of tourists and ourselves.

This one we named Jerry. Apparently, Jerry found a mate. Within a month of this photo, we noticed quite a commotion at the end of 5th St. in the trees with a decent nest and squawking, hungry young.

Can you tell we like to give people-names to animals we see regularly? Last year it was Sylvester who liked to perch on the Monterey cypress within view from our place on the rec trail. Unfortunately, the crows and gulls pestered it until it flew away every day before sunset.

I find it fascinating that birds seem to have regular rhythms and preferences, as much as I do.

harbor seal ~ 04/15/09 ~ Rec Trail

harbor seal
Phoca vitulina

It's pup season! The first pic is from one of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station beaches where harbor seals can be seen year-round from the rec trail. The last pic is at the end of 5th street in PG where they fence off the area every year to rock-clambering tourists. There's been concern and some discussion in town around what to do if the harbor seals start moving onto Lover's Point Beach to have their pups. 2009 has been a very productive year for harbor seal pups. Some say their food supply is abundant this year.