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.

sea otter ~ 02/12/12 ~ Coast Guard Pier

southern sea otter
Enhydra lutris nereis

I was really excited to see this sea otter so close to the boat loading ramp near the Coast Guard Pier. I've been keeping an eye out for them, because babies should be appearing anytime now. As usual for around here, this one was tagged on its foot. What was especially fun to see was how it wrapped itself in kelp as it took a snooze. It kept one paw over its nose for the 20 or so minutes I watched it. So cute!

Heavy sigh... Most of my sea otter pictures are crappy little blobs of brown floating in the water. Thanks to Ingrid of The Free Quark, I realized my pride for staying on trails and respecting distance with animals may be deluded at times. I probably got too close to this sea otter (maybe within 15 ft.) to take its picture. There are plenty of incredible photographs of sea otters out there done by people who know what they're doing and with cameras equipped with lenses as long as my arm, so why did I feel the need to take a close picture with my pocket point-and-shoot for my blog? I don't have a good answer. Ingrid also has a very good page on Wildlife Photography Ethics & Philosophy. I find it very easy to point my finger at others and question how they got such a great photograph of an animal, but really I need to look at my own behavior. In some respects, I am still very proud of my crappy photos.

As I was searching for different links for the ID above, I discovered the subspecies Enhydra lutris nereis is listed as "threatened" by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, but the species Enhydra lutris, including the two northern populations, is listed as "endangered" by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Can anyone explain this discrepancy to me?

ps 12/22/15 - I honestly can't recall why I thought the otter pups would show in February.  Maybe I was assuming they're similar in timing to the harbor seal births?  It's likely I may have made an incorrect assumption as to when sea otter pups are birthed.  I've been seeing pups this year since before Thanksgiving at this exact spot near the Coast Guard Pier.  The MBA had one birthed a couple days ago in their tide pool.

habitat ~ 02/04/12 ~ Monterey Harbor & Marina

Monterey Harbor & Marina
February 4, 2012

Often on our days off when we don't want to be in a car and deal with the traffic to get out of town for a hike, we will walk along the Monterey Bay Recreation Trail from Pacific Grove to Monterey. From home it's about 1/2 mile to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Cannery Row and 2 miles to the Monterey Municipal Wharf No. 2 (shown in the second pic above). The Rec Trail is great for tourist watching (I love hearing all the foreign languages), but after a while we get fed up with all the rented bike surreys and dawdling tourist groups that hog up the trail, especially on weekends and area special events like the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf hoopla. On our way back home, we sometimes take a shortcut through the Monterey Presidio. Very few people seem to know that the lower part of the Presidio is still open to the public. From this little hill, there are incredible views of the Old Fisherman's Wharf (shown in the first pic above), the Municipal Wharf II (shown in the second pic above), the Monterey Harbor, and the Monterey Coast Guard Pier.

Sheez, I'm starting to feel like a tourist guide. Considering I haven't decided if I want to use google maps due to my own blog policy that I not use others' graphics (although, the background of this blog is part of the templates google blogger offers), I realized I haven't done a habitat post of the area that I most frequently visit. So here it is. To see my past posts of this area, check out the following links:
Monterey Municipal Wharf No. 2.
Monterey Fisherman's Wharf
Monterey Coast Guard Pier
Monterey Bay Recreation Trail (for the areas shown above)
Monterey Bay Recreation Trail (all)
Monterey State Historic Park Secret Gardens

almond blossom ~ 02/04/12 ~ Cooper Molera Garden

almond blossom

Prunus dulcis

Rosaceae

Given my total confusion about early blooming blossoms (is it a cherry, or plum, or cherry plum?), I had no difficulty identifying this particular blossom tree. Why? Because there was a handy-dandy ID sign at the Cooper Molera Garden, which is filled with various fruit trees restored or representative of the 1860s. Really, I should be able to recognize this tree anyways, since I spent many CA winters playing underneath 2 almond trees that my dad planted next to my swing set. I used to pretend the white fallen petals were snow. Aw, fond memories!

I liked harvesting almonds with their split fuzzy hull and especially liked eating them. So, it came as a bit of surprise that I haven't liked almonds purchased at the store for a while, and I couldn't figure out why. Then, a friend recently gave me almonds from his dad's farm. They taste fresh like how I remember from when I was a kid. He said they're unpasteurized. As I was researching this post, I learned that there's now a mandatory pasteurization program for CA almonds shipped in North America. Who knew? Like with fresh apple cider, I do think some foods do taste better unpasteurized.