habitat ~ 08/04/12 ~ Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
August 4, 2012

The only reason why we were up at Henry Cowell, about an hour away from home, was so Andy could volunteer for the relatively new Inside Trail Racing group. For his time, he'll get free admission to another race. I'm glad he didn't run this race, because invariably people get stung by yellowjackets anytime an organized trail run goes through redwoods. Sure enough there were a handful of people who had stings by the finish line. We believe the repeated disturbance by runners agitates nests in the soft ground. Andy once had to cut short a 50K to "only" 30K at nearby Big Basin Redwoods State Park since he was stung a couple dozen times within the first half hour of his run and was quite uncomfortable. Yet, given a choice of trail mischief, he would rather have stings over poison-oak. Um, no thanks to both.

The last time we were here was 7 years ago when we took our nieces to ride a train in the adjacent Roaring Camp Railroads. It was an enjoyable visit with a staged train robbery and a short jaunt through the Redwood Grove Loop Trail. This time I wanted to explore other parts of the park on my own. It's definitely a family friendly place with a carnival-like atmosphere at the railroad, shallow and wadeable San Lorenzo River, car camping up the hill, and a great nature center. Thanks to the nature center, I learned about stump sprouts, which explains why redwoods are often found growing in a circular pattern even if the stump is no longer present. It also had a nice presentation of the lime kiln and logging history of the area. Once I got away from the kiddie crowds and the race trails, I enjoyed my hike a little more. Near the observation deck at 800 ft, I was surprised to find the burned area of the Santa Cruz Sandhill Chaparral considering all the houses in the area. I'll be curious to see if their winter/spring fires will actually achieve their goal of preserving rare plants and animals. Overall, unless we have kids in tow, I doubt we'll return to Henry Cowell, because its habitat is so similar to several nearby parks with fewer visitors.

golden chinquapin ~ 08/04/12 ~ Henry Cowell Redwoods

golden chinquapin / giant chinquapin
Chrysolepis chrysophylla
Fagaceae

posted 08/06/12 - Chinquapin. I'm amazed at the various pronunciations of this word, just like I was surprised at how quinoa is inconsistently pronounced. The etymology of chinquapin supposedly has an Algonquian reference to chestnut.

Unfortunately, I will now always associate the word with inexplicable mass shootings. Why? On our way home from camping at Mt. Madonna on Friday, July 20, with thoughts of blogging about the pictures of chinquapins that I took there, we heard on the radio of the mass shooting in a Colorado movie theater. Then, yesterday morning Sunday, August 5, as I was about to blog on the pictures shown above, I found the news of another mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. What is wrong with people!?! Add in the current chaos in Syria, and I barely want to go online to check e-mails, blogs, or Olympics upates.

Nature is starting to cease being a comfort to me. I can't seem to bury my head in the sand deep enough. I can feel the currents of tension in the air. It is filled with sadness and grief. Chinquapin.

western gull ~ 07/27/12 ~ at home

western gull fledgling

Larus occidentalis

Ever since we got back from our road trip in early July, we knew we had a gull nest on our roof from all the calls that echoed down our kitchen vent and evening stomping on the ceiling that sounded like a production of Lord of the Dance. This is the second year in a row we've had a nest, and I worry it won't be the last. It's not well publicized online, but western gulls here have taken to nesting on rooftops in addition to their typical rocky island breeding spots.

We woke in the middle of Tuesday night from such a ruckus of screeching and trampling that we wondered if a raccoon had managed to get on the roof and attack the nest. The next morning, I had to shoo 3 fledglings out of the driveway while 2 adults cried and looked down at me from the roof. Western gull fledglings are not the swiftest at moving out of the way of moving cars. Lighthouse Avenue through New Monterey (a business district just up from the infamous Cannery Row and is one of only 2 publicly available roads out of Pacific Grove) is frequently littered this time of year with flattened fledglings. It fascinates me that drivers will patiently stop for a family of Canada geese crossing the road but will not even slow down for young gulls wandering aimlessly around.

Fluffy feathers rained down from the roof for a couple days like some sort of pillow fight had occurred while the 3 fledglings stayed at the end of our driveway. One of them could barely stand up, let alone fly.  Maybe it broke its leg from the fall?  The one shown above was testing its wings out and had awkwardly managed to perch in our oak tree and then to the Douglas-fir. One of the parents watched from the roof and called out as if in encouragement. Shortly after I took these pictures, this young gull crashed through the branches to the ground.

fallow deer ~ 07/19/12 ~ Mt. Madonna

white (aka leucistic) fallow deer

Dama dama

Hey, I thought these deer were separated to prevent breeding. The perimeter fencing is impossibly tall topped with electric wires to keep mountain lions out, but the gate separating the males from the females is not as tall and potentially jumpable. We only spotted one male's large horns in the distance, but in the past we've seen at least a couple young males. I wonder if the County Parks moves males around to keep the herd going for display. These two fawns were not twins and followed different mothers.