Saturday, May 15, 2010
saw-whet, saw what?, saw who? hoo-hoo, hahaha
For the funniest commentary on a local sighting of a saw-whet owl nest, check out Don Roberson's Monterey County bird highlights page. I may have to force myself to get over to Point Lobos in the next week.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
habitat ~ 05/13/10 ~ Elkhorn Slough - NERR
May 13, 2010
Simply uploading pics that provide a sense of where I was on this day and what the weather was like. I brushed off at least two dozen ticks while on Hummingbird Island. Oy vey! Well... okay, my usual slick, hiking pants were in the laundry, so I wore my clingy, black workout pants. Bad idea! I think it's going to be a boomer tick year. I tried to take pictures of several small snakes, but they slithered into the tall grass before I could get my camera out. We also saw more rabbits along the paths than we could count. Why do I always think of Watership Down when I see so many rabbits? A couple volunteers cornered us and insisted we not go anywhere near the barn due to an owl being down. Huh? They have a couple owl nests in there, but I didn't catch what was wrong with the owl.
cliff swallow ~ 05/13/10 ~ Elkhorn Slough
cliff swallowHirundo pyrrhonota
I was amused to see the mass numbers and enclosed shape of the cliff swallow nests compared to the single, open barn swallow nest I found in Oregon last year. These cliff swallows look stern to me; maybe it's the white brow.
Growing up in the Central Valley, we had "mud" swallows attempt to build numerous nests on our house. Every weekend my dad would wash off the mud from the eaves with a hose. I'm guessing they were cliff swallows now that I know cliff and barn swallows are the only ones to build mud nests in California and the differences between the two.
It seems to me Elkhorn Slough folks used to try to keep the swallows away from the nature center and research buildings with reflective strips of ribbon. Now, there's a "Shhh!" sign to caution visitors from disturbing the nests. I can imagine by the end of the nesting period, that artistic splatter of droppings could well end up being a significant pile of poop.
I usually don't link to IPM sites, but both links in the common and scientific names above are for management. In a previous entry I gave the Cornell-supplied genus of Petrochelidon. I'm not sure which name is now most commonly used.
Growing up in the Central Valley, we had "mud" swallows attempt to build numerous nests on our house. Every weekend my dad would wash off the mud from the eaves with a hose. I'm guessing they were cliff swallows now that I know cliff and barn swallows are the only ones to build mud nests in California and the differences between the two.
It seems to me Elkhorn Slough folks used to try to keep the swallows away from the nature center and research buildings with reflective strips of ribbon. Now, there's a "Shhh!" sign to caution visitors from disturbing the nests. I can imagine by the end of the nesting period, that artistic splatter of droppings could well end up being a significant pile of poop.
I usually don't link to IPM sites, but both links in the common and scientific names above are for management. In a previous entry I gave the Cornell-supplied genus of Petrochelidon. I'm not sure which name is now most commonly used.
milk thistleSilybum marianum
Asteraceae
Just looking at photos, you'd think this plant is attractive. However, I could really do without milk thistle on hikes. The leaves are extremely prickly and hurt through thin hiking pants. I wasn't surprised to find out it's an invasive plant.
ps 04/14/11 - Found this blog post from FeralKevin about preparing thistles as food. See comments below for how I got to this.
ps 04/14/11 - Found this blog post from FeralKevin about preparing thistles as food. See comments below for how I got to this.