habitat ~ 01/19/14 ~ Morro Bay State Park - Black Hill

Morro Bay State Park - Black Hill

January 19, 2014

This was purely a social visit, so we barely got out on a short section to Black Hill before the football games started.  The road access is located above the Morro Bay Golf Course, a San Luis Obispo County Parks on CA State Parks land.  Confused?  Yeah, me, too.  It looks like they've been cutting back on watering the greens, because there was quite a bit of yellow.  Good.  I think golf is a gross misuse of precious water for an exclusive recreation.

I love the 360° views from on top this volcanic peak and am sorry my uncle didn't join us.  Every visit I worry may be the last time I see him or my aunt, so I try to make the most of our time together.  Even though he still hikes like a mountain goat for short periods of time, he wasn't really aware of the trails here.  I'm not surprised, because for all the years I've been going to Morro Bay, too, it took Andy's wandering trail running ways to discover this little gem a few years back.  

It wasn't until I started Nature ID that I wanted to learn more about Morro Bay, which I discovered is actually part of the larger Estero Bay.  I appreciate the estuary more than ever now, but finding information online has been challenging, especially 5 years ago when I started this blog.  I don't know if google has customized my search properties and/or if the sites have just gotten better.  Two that I like are Morro Bay National Estuary Program and grad student Eric Mohler's Morro Bay Watershed site.

Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival

January 17-20, 2014

Oh, while we were there, this was going on.  Everywhere we went there were folks with good sun hats, binoculars, and cameras so big that I'm surprised they didn't walk all hunched over from the weight around their necks.  The festival was completely not on my radar, so I was not prepared.  Still, I'm not sure I would have participated anyways.  Every time I stopped an obvious birder to ask them what something was, they weren't very helpful or accurate.  Avid birders are a strange bunch.  Talk about another exclusive recreation, which reminds me of the topic of lack of minorities in birding. While I can't say I feel uncomfortable among affluent, retirement-aged, Caucasian nature folks, after all my uncle and aunt fit quite neatly in that category, I am aware I am "other" or the designated minority friend in most groups.  Hmm, maybe that's why I tend not to join things?  My favorite bird blogger is Steve of Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.  He crushes birder stereotypes.

ps 02/13/20 - I removed several embedded links thanks to Ryan Blundell at Tideschart.  Here's his tidechart for Morro Bay: https://www.tideschart.com/United-States/California/San-Luis-Obispo-County/Morro-Beach.

habitat ~ 11/19/13 ~ San Francisco Bay

 San Francisco Bay

November 19, 2013

Of course, it finally rained on the one day I had scheduled to return the lighting equipment to Pete Oboyski, the Collections Manager at UC Berkeley's Essig Museum of Entomology.  Three out of the last four times I've been to San Francisco, it's rained. The superstitious in me thinks I could have helped end this drought if only I had planned more trips to San Francisco.  The rain followed me home to Monterey about 7 hours after it first started as I passed through Oakland.  The local Herald claims this has been the driest year since 1949.  

After a leisurely lunchtime walk in the rain with Pete, I was a little concerned about the traffic for getting home.  I'm not a fan of the multiple lane highways in the Bay Area with everyone going 80 mph. Then, add in the wet, slick roads, and an accident is just waiting to happen.  Since it's getting dark earlier around 5:00pm, I decided I barely had enough daylight to do a scenic driving tour of San Francisco through to the much slower and less crowded Hwy 1 down the coast.  I stopped to take a look along the way.  The second picture was taken at the end of University Avenue in Berkeley at Shorebird Park looking across the Bay to San Francisco on the left and the famous Golden Gate Bridge on the right.  The first picture is a closer view of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken from near the Warming Hut at Crissy Field.  I enjoyed my drive home. Yay, rain!

ps 12/17/13 - Looks like the Herald misquoted.  Local t.v. station KION states Monterey records have only been kept since 1949, ergo "on record", which is different than saying "driest year since 1949" that implies 1949 was a dry year, too.  I had a little blog chat with John Wall comparing San Francisco and Monterey weather records.

habitat ~ 09/19/13 ~ Tilden Regional Park

 overlook to San Francisco Bay from Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley

What started out as a passing idea turned into a little adventure for me.  For our upcoming camping trip to Rocky Creek, I thought it'd be a fun activity to white sheet light for moths, so I asked around if anyone had DC (no electrical outlets available) equipment that I could borrow.  Of course, as usual, the only "local" moth person anyone knows of is Jerry Powell at UC Berkeley. Since he plans on using his equipment, he put me in touch with the Collections Manager at the Essig Museum of Entomology. Before I knew it, I was making the 2 hour drive north to Berkeley to pick up a UV light, two 12V batteries, and a charger, all in the name of fun.  Given the cost of gas and the money spent on food, I could have purchased a lighting set for cheaper.  However, I would have missed out on the adventure of visiting UC Berkeley, meeting Pete, touring the Essig, finding Tilden Regional Park, discovering Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes on Telegraph Avenue, and enjoying Ethiopian cuisine for lunch and Japanese cuisine for dinner.  Yum!

Regional Parks Botanic Garden

I am so unfamiliar with the East Bay area that I used google maps to find a park not too far from the University campus.  Obviously I didn't zoom out far enough, because once I got to the Botanic Garden, I discovered it's only a small part of a much larger Tilden Regional Park, which itself is only one of a whopping 65 parks in the East Bay Regional Park District.  What an incredible find!  It's an impressive park system.  I spent most of my afternoon walking through the Botanic Garden.  They took much of California's flora and squished it into 10 acres.  I noticed many well-established plants weren't faring so well.  Maybe given the drought we've had the past 2 years?  They had sprinklers going, which I ran through to cool off (always gotta do it... er, only if it doesn't smell like mixed fertilizer).  I'm so looking forward to the upcoming rains.

 incredible stonework by the CCC

There's a distinctive style of stonework frequently found in our National, State, and regional parks and forests.  Whenever I look to see who did it, it's almost always the Civilian Conservation Corps. Those young men certainly left an indelible legacy in only 9 years of work, a much better use of human resources than fighting wars.  As turbulent as the first half of the 20th century was, I'm continually amazed at what came out of those years compared to the seeming counterproductivity of today.

Lake Anza

If I lived in Berkeley (don't think I haven't considered this), I would probably come swimming here regularly.  The beach was crowded by young and old alike.  I also went to a place called "Inspiration Point", which didn't really inspire me.  Maybe in the spring?

Little Farm

It doesn't matter how old I get, I still like seeing farm animals, be it at the county fair or attached to parks.  I was very impressed with the variety of recreational opportunities in Tilden.  All in all, it was a good day, complete with a full belly.

habitat ~ 07/18/13 ~ Morro Bay State Park

 Morro Bay State Park

July 18, 2013

Wanting a shower, we headed over to the main Morro Bay State Park camping area to use their facilities (this access is included with a stay at the Strand).  While Andy went for a pre-shower run, I strolled around to see what was new.  It's weird to think of my life in decades, but I've been coming to this spot for close to 4 decades.  The very first time, I remember coming home from Morro Bay and not understanding why we were returning to our old house after vacation.  I thought we had moved!

Despite all the financial difficulties the CA State Parks have faced in the last many years, I've been impressed with the improvements they've managed to implement here.  The housing for employees is very nice, with one growing native plants in the backyard for what I assume will be park landscaping.  I sometimes fantasize working at a state or national park with housing provided in the actual park would be awesome, but then you've got to be careful what you ask for.  Like health insurance for many out there, if you lose your job, you end up loosing way more than a paycheck. Maybe when we retire, we'll try the whole camp host thing.  The groomed trails around Black Hill didn't exist when I was a kid; there used to be only an exercise loop with stations and a painted pole-style frisbee golf course. There's also a new boardwalk along the estuary. It's artistically laid out, zigzagging through the muddy parts, but it'll mean no more looking for native horn snails for me.  I have mixed feelings about that.  On one hand I know things need to be protected, fenced, signed, etc., but it comes at the cost of us humans not allowed to get in touch with nature.  In the act of saving, it's also distancing from raw human experience, which is ironic.  Hey, lady, put that shell down and step away!

And, finally, I included the eucalyptus tree above, because I wanted to ask my nature-loving blog readers... have any of you ever heard of hummingbirds clustering in 1 or 2 trees?  I could not believe the loud chatter coming from this tree, and I figured there had to be several dozen hummingbirds, if not a hundred.  It was really wild.

habitat ~ 01/02/12 ~ Palo Corona Regional Park

Palo Corona Regional Park
January 2, 2012

For the new year, we wanted to do a new hike. Heading south past Carmel, this is the first big hill one sees from Highway 1 before reaching Point Lobos. In the spring, the green is quite spectacular. I've wanted to frolic around these hills for the past 8 years, ever since I used to work on this side of the Peninsula and take walks during lunch. Through a complicated partnership, Palo Corona was acquired back in 2004, but it was only opened to the public this past year and with advanced permit reservation. Hmph! As I've mentioned before I'm adverse to planning hikes or camping trips in advance due to my typical rain curse. However, this winter season has been particularly dry, and we had overcast conditions with no rain for our reserved hike. While not very far as the crow flies from home, it was markedly windier and colder than at home in the shelter of the Monterey Peninsula on the Monterey Bay side.

The official MPRPD site (linked below the pictures above) is impressive, but it doesn't offer a decent statement of how limited the publicly accessible areas currently are. I found better information on the Big Sur Land Trust site, a new blog I found, and a series of Flickr photos. It's obvious there has been a ton of money dumped into this property, especially compared to our increasingly neglected State Parks. The mere couple miles of trail to Animas Pond (shown in the 4th pic above) are lavish and disturbingly odd with thick, freshly laid DG (decomposed granite, a popular trail covering in our area), more fancy schmancy benches and picnic tables than you can shake a stick at (with only 21 permits allowed per day, why would they need so many every 100 yards or so?), and not to mention the numerous signs and gates stating "not open to the public" or with complicated handicap loopy locks. The views of Carmel Bay (extends from Pebble Beach to Point Lobos) and the chichi Quail Lodge Golf Club are prominent once you get up the hill away from the many cows, which we had the pleasure of watching get fed hay from the back of a truck. I look forward to when more trails are opened.

Oh, I also saw my second bobcat! It hurried away before I could get my camera out of my pocket. Didn't I say now that I've seen one, I will see them all the time?

ps 02/07/12 - For a great video of what the hike to Inspiration Point (0.6 mile before Animas Pond) looks like, check out Walkifornia.

sunrise ~ 12/25/10 ~ San Francisco

sunrise looking over to downtown San Francisco
from Grandview Park
December 25, 2010

This picture was taken oddly enough from the Sunset District. As much as I love the diversity of people in San Francisco and the Bay Area, I'm not sure I'd like living there, er, with all the people and traffic. It's certainly a larger peninsula in many respects than where I live 2 hours south on the Monterey Peninsula. The green strip in the middle on the left of the photo above is Golden Gate Park.

habitat ~ 10/31/10 ~ Morro Bay

Morro Bay
October 31, 2010

This picture was actually taken from Los Osos looking back across Morro Bay and the State Park. I still haven't figured out if it's officially called Los Osos or Baywood Park. In any case, we were there for their annual Oktoberfest. This year they moved the bandstand and beer to the main street. It was a tad too loud and crowded for us, so we ventured through the neighborhood to walk off our full bellies of cheap (i.e., $3) and very yummy brats and tri-tip sandwiches.

Morro Bay feels more like a real bay to me with quiet waters compared to the much larger Monterey Bay at home. It's particularly nice this time of year with sun and very little wind. Around the corner in the second pic is the Elfin Forest. To the west is Montaña de Oro State Park, which Andy likes for the trail running.

white pelican ~ 10/31/10 ~ Morro Bay

American white pelican
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

I'm still attempting to get a closer picture of the American white pelican; certainly, this is much better than what I've posted previously. They're huge! Maybe it's the bright white that makes them seem so much larger, but their 9 ft. wingspan is only half a foot longer than the brown pelican. Depending on the information source, American white pelicans can weigh as much as 2 times the size as brown pelicans. Seriously, how do those things fly?