habitat ~ 01/02/14 ~ Wilder Ranch State Park

Wilder Ranch State Park

January 2, 2014

Like I said in a recent backdated post for Jacks Peak, it feels as if someone pushed the pause button on the seasons.  I can't tell much of difference between the last picture above and the last picture taken July 24, 2013 at Wilder.  Well, okay, some of the foreground green coyote brush now has fluffy seeds, and the drab, dried grass is slightly more trampled.  Under the trees, it's a different story, where everything feels pinched compared to the expansive greenery from the summer (yes, the first photo above and the 3rd photo from July are from almost the exact same spot on the trail). Despite all the hand-wringing going on for our record lack of rain in 2013, we've been making our best efforts to get outside as much as possible to enjoy the pleasant weather.  Both my friend and I were wearing sleeveless shirts, and Andy came across a naked, napping hiker.  Sunny.  Warm.  January.  California.

habitat ~ 09/09/13 ~ Wilder Ranch State Park

 Wilder Ranch State Park

September 9, 2013

Well, I made good on my promise to visit Wilder Ranch sooner rather than later.  I met up with a friend I've known since we were 11 years old.  I love that we've been friends for over 30 years.  She said the bluffs at Wilder have been beautiful lately.  She was right.  The sea breeze was minimal, so it was unusually comfortable hiking along the coastline, something I haven't done since my first visit to Wilder.  The coastal geology reminds me of Montaña De Oro State Park, which is 130 miles southeast as the crow flies.  We were chatting quite a bit (yep, I was one of those I usually despise on the trails), so I wasn't paying too much attention to individual items to ID.  Although, we did see a bobcat on the trail!  This is only my 3rd bobcat sighting (1st at Los Padres Dam, 2nd at Palo Corona Park).  My friend didn't believe me and thought it was a house cat. "No way!  Look how big it is!  Wait until it turns to see if it has a tail."  Sure enough, a bobbed tail.   And, yes, it's pumpkin time. Wilder Ranch is the southern boundary for an area along Hwy 1 up to Half Moon Bay that I like to call "Pumpkinville" for the plethora of pumpkin farms.  I am so looking forward to autumn this year.

habitat ~ 07/24/13 ~ Wilder Ranch State Park

 Wilder Ranch State Park
July 24, 2013

After looking at these pictures and reading past habitat posts (03/07/10 and 09/17/11), I realize that I haven't given Wilder Ranch a fair shake.  For a couple years there, Z kept asking me to go hiking with her here.  I always refused.  From a speeding car along Hwy 1, I totally judged this park by its roadside cover.  It looked like the trails were nothing but hot, sunny, dusty paths through dried grasses (eh).  Plus, it was obviously a crowded place, given the number of cars parked on the side of the road for the common practice of avoiding paying the State Park Day Use Fee. It took Andy's encouragement for me to finally check it out.  While Andy went off to do his typical trail run, I strolled around by myself.  This day's visit was wholly pleasant and meditative with few interruptions by other bikers, horseback riders, or hikers.  Waldeinsamkeit.  The Engelsmans Loop trail currently has a zigzag detour towards Peasley Gulch, which I think improves the interest level of the trail.  The diversity of habitats in such a relatively small area really struck me as being special.  Wilder Ranch has grown on me.  I'll have to visit again, sooner rather than later.

Per our usual when we drive the hour it takes to get to the Santa Cruz area across Monterey Bay, we made plans to eat out for lunch.  This time we went to the Downtown Santa Cruz Farmers' Market, which is my favorite farmers' market for market variety, funky food vendors, and programs, like composting bins just for the weekly event (wish more markets did this!). While we waited for the market opening at 1:30, we discovered a new to us local coffee shop Verve.  Andy liked their short pull, while I enjoyed a refreshing homemade seasonal soda.  For dessert, we also discovered The Penny Ice Creamery, which has a booth at the market despite being located just down the street.  Both are places we will definitely patronize again.  Sometimes I think I could easily live up there, but then the heavier traffic stops me short.

deer mouse ~ 07/24/13 ~ Wilder Ranch

deer mouse
Peromyscus maniculatus

posted 08/01/13 - Even though it's dead, this mouse is pretty cute.  I thought it'd be easy to ID, but I was unaware of how many different kinds of mice there are.  Ignorantly based on the short tail length, I'm ruling out all kangaroo mice (not that they're found near here anyways) and pocket mice (Chaetodipus and Perognathus spp.) in the Heteromyidae family.  That leaves me with the extensive Muridae family. Erg. My only online land mammal references are the Smithsonian and the American Society of Mammologists, which are not very helpful in figuring out an ID, only confirming if you already know what you're looking at.  My CA field guides aren't much help, either.  My best wild guess is a juvenile deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus).  Can you ID?

I have to say, I'm feeling a little like this mouse right now.  I had a spectacular spill off my bicycle on Tuesday.  Andy claims I tumbled 20 feet downhill.  With a grade 2 shoulder AC separation and a badly road-rashed knee, I won't be going out for a while.  Bummer.

ps 08/03/13 - I've added in the ID with links under the picture.  Ken confirmed the ID in the comments.

woodland skipper ~ 07/24/13 ~ Wilder Ranch

woodland skipper

Ochlodes sylvanoides

Two little skippers sitting on a leaf, k, i, s, s...  Right before I took this picture, these two were flirting and dancing in the air.  Well, at least that's my guess.  It could have been a territorial fight?  However, I'm further guessing the individual on the bottom of the frame is a male, while the one above him is a female.  Look at the color of the antennal hooks.  The bottom one's is orange, while the top's is black. I couldn't find any references specifically to woodland skippers and sexual dimorphism in antenna color, but I did find a couple references stating they are apparently the most common butterflies to be found this time of year in western North America.  That's good to know.

Despite my love for butterflies, I generally tend to write off skippers.  Partly it's because I find them so difficult to ID on the wing.  There are so many different kinds of little orange and brown skippers out there, many found in the same location, perhaps only separated by temporal spaces.  I wonder why.  I mean, why aren't there many different kinds of buckeye butterflies, e.g.?  Or swallowtails?

Actually, before looking this ID up, I never heard of woodland skippers.  They're new to me.  For those who know of my proclivity for Lepidoptera, I first use Jeffrey Glassberg's Butterflies through Binoculars: The West, then confirm details online at sites I've embedded in the ID above.  This book is just the right level for most people who simply like butterflies.  Another Lepidopterist complained to me about the accuracy of his books, but they're field guides, for goodness sakes, not exhaustive checklists.  Jeffrey Glassberg broke new ground 20 years ago with his first Butterflies through Binoculars book covering the Boston-New York-Washington Region, which has since been reformatted into The East.  Without ever having met him (well, maybe I did once, but I don't recall specifically), he has influenced my appreciation for nature.  Thank you, Mr. Glassberg.

habitat ~ 09/17/11 ~ Wilder Ranch State Park

Wilder Ranch State Park
September 17, 2011

I haven't been taking care of myself this past month like I should, and my hormones kicked in with a vengeance. I fully admit I was the grouchiest, foulest person around. To Andy's relief he quickly left on a trail run for a few hours, while I meandered through the ranch and then up a new trail on my own.

There were more people than we expected, even for a Saturday. It happened to be a special "farm day" at this State Park. Everyone was trying to talk to me about homemade ice cream and hand-churned butter. Leave me alone! I posted a couple of pictures on flickr, if you're into that kind of organized stuff.

So, up a new trail I went hoping to escape the people and spot some herps or even a bobcat. Dang dry grasses! Can't see much. I don't particularly like hiking this time of year because of all the dried plant matter. It's much more pleasant under the redwoods like at Nisene Marks, but there's also the increased possibility of yellowjacket stings there this time of year. Erg!

Then I encountered more people than I wanted to be around. First there was a large group of bikers with little kids. It became a game of walk past them as they rested, have them pass me with some of the little boys nearly knocking me over, even though I stepped off to the side of the trail to let them pass, then me walking pass them again, over and over. When a fork in the trail came, I made sure to take the one they did not. Big mistake! Second came several large groups of horse riders. The lead lady assured me their horses saw me and that all would be okay. The fifth horse decided my hat looked tasty and came right at me. Once they passed I had to watch my step for the prolific trail of horse poop they left behind. Crap! After becoming tired of more dry grasses and not a single tree available for shade, I looked at my map and realized the big group of bikers had taken the trail I had wanted for a decent loop to meet up with Andy in time. Like Andy, I rarely backtrack on the same trail, but this time I turned straight around. Sure enough, just my crabby luck, most of my return path was filled with a strolling lolling social hiking club consisting of at least 70 people, all chattering so loudly I couldn't believe they were even aware they were outside in nature. Blasted people!

Sigh... I did one small final loop to visit my favorite Wilder Ranch stream and encountered a buckeye butterfly. For whatever reason, that was enough to calm me down and feel okay about everything. Our timing was perfect and I met up with Andy on a return path to the farm.

For lunch we went to our favorite new Santa Cruz spot: burger. Their milkshakes with Marianne’s ice cream are super yummy. Given that I'm a cheap bastard, I had the idea to hit several State Parks on the way home, since we had already paid our $10 entry fee to Wilder Ranch. Here in CA, day use paid entry entitles you to visit as many State Parks in the same day as you want. We hit Seacliff State Beach (way too crowded with those picnic-type people who prefer to pack their entire house along for a day at the beach, and the "camping" is limited to a lengthy bare parking lot for RVs only), New Brighton State Beach (I have fond memories camping here as a kid with my uncle and aunt, and Andy and I might try this some time), Manresa State Beach (an unpopular day use only parking lot), and Manresa Upland State Beach (hike-in tent camping only that may be lovely in the spring, and despite what the link says, we are not in SoCal). Finally, we hit the relatively new Farm Fresh Produce in Moss Landing along Highway 1. What a pleasant surprise! They have seriously fresh produce for super cheap, and we ended up with more than we had intended. All in all, a day that started off not so pleasant ended up being a really fun outing.

variegated meadowhawk ~ 09/17/11 ~ Wilder Ranch

mating variegated meadowhawk
Sympetrum corruptum
Libellulidae

I love the intricate pattern on this red male's abdomen. Odonates have unique mating position and behaviors. The above is known as the "wheel position", something that could be taken straight out of any ancient sex manual, if only human males also had two sets of genitalia.

Pacific aster ~ 09/17/11 ~ Wilder Ranch

best guess Pacific aster / common California aster
best guess Symphyotrichum chilense (formerly Aster chilensis)
Asteraceae

Maybe someday I'll know how to properly ID flowers. I've looked at hundreds of CalPhotos and even resorted to trying to decipher Jepson this morning - I simply cannot get my mind wrapped around terminology like "± oblanceolate", "cyme" and "phyllaries." It doesn't help that names and distribution records vary widely depending on the source. For the time being, I think I'll stick with S. chilense as one of the most common asters in this part of CA, which doesn't mean the above ID is correct. Regardless of the ID, I welcome seeing this autumn flower. Last year I made a virtual collection of fall aster love.

common ringlet ~ 09/17/11 ~ Wilder Ranch

common ringlet on coyote brush
Coenonympha tullia california on Baccharis pilularis
Asteraceae

It's not unusual for me to see ringlets, nor is it unusual to see coyote brush. However, it is unusual to see coyote brush literally covered in ringlets. These butterflies were skittish and flew away from me as soon as my camera dinged when I turned it on (it makes me wonder about butterfly sensory of sound). The best I could do is capture 5 butterflies in the last picture, but I would guess there were upwards of 50 butterflies on this single bush. Interesting to note, I kept my eye out for every coyote brush after this encounter, and not a single one had a ringlet on it. Art Shapiro states on his website, "The second brood emerges in May-June, enters reproductive diapause and estivates until September-October, when it reemerges to breed." Yep, you read that right. Perhaps in other places animals reduce their activity during harsh winter months, but here in CA the summer can be equally harsh. I guess it's now the season of love for these nondescript smallish butterflies.

bull thistle ~ 09/17/11 ~ Wilder Ranch

bull thistle
Cirsium vulgare
Asteraceae

Cal-IPC lists bull thistle as a moderate invasive. By what I saw, I'd say it's taking over many areas of Wilder Ranch. No wonder, look at the sheer volume of seeds it disperses. In some areas, the fluffy seeds reached about 16" in depth and looked much like a fresh dumping of snow.

Heavy sigh... is it autumn already? Ever since I was sick this past spring, I feel like I lost a month and a half and am still trying to catch up with the rest of the world and nature's cycles. In any case, an older friend and I were recently debating when autumn officially starts. Is it on the autumnal equinox (this year it's 09/23/11), or does it start earlier with the equinox being somewhere in the middle of the season? I've come to the conclusion that seasons are nebulous relative terms, regardless of where the sun is located to the earth's equator.

common buckeye ~ 09/17/11 ~ Wilder Ranch

common buckeye / northern buckeye
Junonia coenia grisea

Buckeye the tree or buckeye the butterfly? As with the tree, CA has a different kind than is found east of here. The CA buckeye tree is Aesculus californica and the American buckeye tree is Aesculus glabra. The buckeye butterfly found in CA is Junonia coenia grisea and elsewhere it is known as Junonia coenia coenia or other Junonia spp. entirely (according to Butterflies of America, a particularly anal-in-a-good-way butterfly site if you really, really want to know your butterfly species). As far as I know the buckeye butterfly caterpillars do not feed on buckeye trees.
Buckeye butterflies are bold-eyed, medium-sized butterflies that I often encounter sunning themselves in the middle of paths. This is my first entry on Nature ID of this familiar and easily approachable butterfly, because I regularly forget to post common finds. It was pretty easy getting a clear picture as this individual was mud-puddling near a creek. I was hoping to get a ground level shot to show its proboscis stuck in the wet goop, but it suddenly got shy and lowered its wings. Then, it had enough of its candid photo session and flew away.

ps - Cool! Google's blogspot/blogger has a new photo feature if you click on any picture. Check it out... Oh man, my photos are really going to show how poor quality they are now. In that case, never mind.

pss 09/20/11 - For more colorful posts of those other buckeye butterflies from across the continent, check out ohio birds and biodiversity or the garden-roof coop.

pss 09/23/11 - Well, that didn't last very long. Google switched back its new cool feature of gallery-like photo displays. Quite frankly, I don't care enough to check out the discussion boards as to why this was reversed.

habitat ~ 03/07/10 ~ Wilder Ranch State Park

Wilder Ranch State Park
March 7, 2010

Thanks to stumbling upon an incredible blog post about fern ID from Town Mouse and Country Mouse, I was determined to see Fern Grotto in person. My pic looks significantly less lush than hers, which were taken only 9 or so days prior to mine. Recent high tides could have killed the ferns.

We had already made plans to hike at Wilder Ranch for my husband's big 40th. Yep, that's my favorite Mr. TrailRunner - instead of a big party, we went for a big hike and a quiet dinner at Asian Rose (a yummy - IF you know which items to order - Sri Lankan vegan restaurant in Santa Cruz that sadly no longer serves budget-conscious lunches... btw, we're not vegan, but we seek tasty food).

I've never been to Wilder Ranch myself; previously, I visited the monarchs at nearby Natural Bridges State Park while he started his runs from NB's Nature Center parking lot. Based on TM&CM's pics, I expected lush fern and redwood trails like those found at another nearby State Park, Nisene Marks... which reminds me I have yet to post any hiking pics from either place. Instead, I found windswept, coastal bluff trails similar to those found at Montaña de Oro State Park, much further south.

Did I mention it was very windy on the bluffs at Wilder Ranch? It's amazing how strong winds can drain you of energy. This was the same trail where we spotted anise swallowtails.

After a light lunch and a nice visit with the farm house's orange cat, we crossed through a tunnel under Highway 1 to checkout the Cowboy Trail. Fortunately, after confirming the bridges were indeed flooded on that small trail, we proceeded up the Engelsmans Trail. Then the clouds started rolling in. This pic was taken looking back towards the ocean and where we had been hiking along the bluffs a couple hours earlier.

At a trail crossing (which always reminds me of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"), we took a short side loop on the Wild Boar Trail. This is where I spotted irises, a yet-unID'ed blue flower, warty ceanothus, and more. We greeted several mountain bikers, but no other hikers.

We didn't take the trail in this pic, but I loved the vista and the old stone wall. For some reason, it reminded me of my fantasies of what the UK countryside might superficially look like.

One last addition... The summer of 2008 was the year of massive and prolific fires in the area and across California. Search online for Bonny Doon or Big Sur fires if you're interested in the details. The only evidence of fire that my novice eye noticed was a length of charred fence posts. I was hoping to spot fire poppies, but I think I'm a year too late to see these rare, post-fire flowers.

wavyleaf soap plant & sun cup ~ 03/07/10 ~ Wilder Ranch

wavyleaf soap plant and sun cup
Chlorogalum pomeridianum and Camissonia ovata
Asparagaceae (formerly Agavaceae, Hyacinthaceae, & Liliaceae) and Onagraceae

posted 07/30/11 - I'm posting this as evidence that I've seen soap plant growing just down the trail from where death camas also grows.

Fremont's star-lily ~ 03/07/10 ~ Wilder Ranch

Fremont's star-lily / Fremont's death camas
Toxicoscordion fremontii (formerly Zigadenus fremontii)
Melanthiaceae (formerly Liliaceae)

I wanted to call this Fremont's star lily, but now that I've looked into it some, I can't be sure of the species. Anyone have any suggestions for positive ID? It's also called death camas, because the leaves and bulbs are apparently toxic to humans and livestock. And, it was everywhere along our hike at Wilder Ranch.

ps 03/10/11 & edited 07/26/11 - I'm finally getting around to posting a firm ID and correcting the changes in genus and family names. I think I originally had this posted as a generic Zigadenus sp. I have to say I'm not 100% positive about this or any of my Fremont's star-lily posts. I'm not a botanist and don't generally key out, so I compare lots of pictures. There seems to be just as much variation within species as there is between species. Thanks to NatureShutterbug for explaining the relative lengths of stamens and perianth are key to a few. Here's a list of Toxicoscordion found in CA with embedded links and my made-up notes:

desert death camas (T. brevibracteatum)
- south/desert, yellowish-green, flowers sparse and spread out, nothing else looks like this

giant death camas (T. exaltatum)
- scattered/Sierra Nevada foothills, flowers spread out all along stalk, or large individual flowers

marsh zigadene (T. fontanum) used to be Z. micranthus var. fontanus
- *coast ranges, stamens ± = perianth, flowers spread out, taller than T. micranthum

Fremont's death camas (T. fremontii)
- *western 1/3 of CA, stamens ± 1/2 perianth, variable, often with small unbloomed cone hat

smallflower death camas (T. micranthum) use to be Z. micranthus var. micranthus
- north coast ranges, stamens ± = perianth, flowers loose, shorter than T. fontanum

panicled death camas (T. paniculatum)
- north, each branch has a bunch of flowers, often ragged edged petals

meadow death camas (T. venenosum)
- *north/coast/Sierra Nevadas, stamens = or > perianth, often with long unbloomed cone hat

* Found in areas I'd likely hike from home, south of San Francisco to Big Sur and inland to Pinnacles.

rosy sandcrocus
Romulea rosea var. australis
Iridaceae

ps 05/15/10 - I've been looking for this ID ever since a friend from Santa Cruz wondered what it was last year. Thanks to Flickr Califlora's (NOT the Calflora) CA Wildflower ID Help Line, I discovered the identity. It's a native of South Africa.

Coast Range fence lizard with a tick
Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii

This fellow was pretty content sunning himself on a bridge and didn't seem to mind me taking pictures so close. Since I've added so many posts recently, I'm starting to get lazy and not actually look things up for scientific name and links to info sites. It's probably a run of the mill western fence lizard, but I have such a hard time identifying them.

ps 05/04/10 - Thanks to a series of blog comments, I started looking into my lizard IDs. What confused me before was trying to ID for Mariposa and San Benito Counties where there are other species, and I tend to make things harder than they need to be. I'm fairly confident about this ID, a subspecies of the western fence lizard.

So, what got me looking into this, was John Wall's tick post. He provided a link to one of his pics of a lizard with ticks on it! Way cool! I reveiwed my lizard pictures and wouldn't you know it, I think the one above has a tick, too! Thanks to my handy dandy new iMac, I can zoom in on the picture. Or is that just some odd lizard anatomy where an ear should be? I had a hard time finding any solid information on lizard ears. Everything is so generalized that the information really isn't information at all. I did find this odd site Absolute Astronomy that actually said the ticks like to feed near the lizard ears. One last note, apparently when ticks feed on lizards, the Lyme disease bacteria dies. Why?

Douglas iris
Iris douglasiana
Iridaceae

There were only a couple small spots of the Douglas iris on the Engelsmann and Wild Boar trails at Wilder Ranch. I am amazed by the color variation for this species.

bull thistle ~ 03/07/10 ~ Wilder Ranch

bull thistle
Cirsium vulgare

Asteraceae

I never really paid attention to thistles before this year. They're not as difficult to identify as I first thought. I was surprised to find out this is not native.

anise swallowtail ~ 03/07/10 ~ Wilder Ranch

anise swallowtail
Papilio zelicaon

Shown here is the yellow-form anise swallowtail. This butterfly appeared mostly black when flying with strong flashes of buttery-yellow stripes, which is interesting because I generally think of anise swallowtails as being black butterflies anyways. Apparently, the black-form is not as common. I dare anyone to find me a correctly identified black-form anise swallowtail through google images. (Sorry, Art Shapiro, but google thinks your image of a P. indra is a P. zelicaon!)

We spotted three anise individuals along the path to Fern Gully at Wilder Ranch. Like some other butterflies and many dragonflies, they seemed to be a bit territorial to me. They flew very quickly back and forth in a jagged flight over a fixed, sunny 30 yard spot, coming to check us out (even flying between us), and swirling in frantic pairs off the cliff until one would finally fly away. Check out Glassberg's comparison of hilltopping to singles' bars in Butterflies through Binoculars: The West - it's very entertaining! I'm sure I've mentioned previously on Nature ID my frequent observations of how humans act similarly to the animals they love to describe.

As a side note, I've linked to Art's site again in the scientific name above. I'm finding that I prefer his site over the Butterflies and Moths of North America site (linked in the common name), because Shapiro provides better details specific to CA.