February 17, 2023
9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Our first off-campus trip of the semester was a visit to the Ellis Creek Water Treatment Facility in Petaluma. My students (I think 18 of them were in attendance) met me in the parking lot at 9:30 a.m., and spent about 2.5 hours walking the trails around the finishing ponds (total distance traveled: 2.6 km). The weather was clear and cool (but not cold). By the time we’d done about half of our hike, it was too warm for the fleece jacket I’d put on earlier in the day.

We had an amazing day, with a total of 47 species across all observers (although I didn’t personally see all of them; I saw or heard 43 species). Below are my own observations for the day.

February 10, 2023
11:30 to 12:45, sunny and cool

I took my Vertebrate Biology students on a brief (45-minute) campus walk before lunch, to practice our spotting and identification skills. We left out of the western end of Darwin Hall, and walked north, past Carson Hall to Copeland Creek. Along the way, lots of birds were seen and heard, including Northern Raven, Anna’s Hummingbird, American Robin and California Towhee. At least one Western Gray Squirrel was hanging around the lawn and trees south of the Art Building.

June 3, 2022

Our last day at the Bodega Marine Lab, we had only a single workshop session in the morning, and then would be heading home. A thick fog had rolled in while we were tidepooling, which made the landscape eerie and beautiful, especially along the BML road, which is a great place to drive slowly and look for wildlife. 

June 2, 2022

This was the full day of our Virtual Field workshop so I was in the classroom for big chunks of the day, but I did have plenty of opportunities (on breaks and during lunch) to wander around outside and take photos of the amazing wildlife and plant community. 

June 1, 2022

I had the good fortune to spend a few days at the Bodega Marine Laboratory for a workshop (for The Virtual Field project). I’d not been to the marine lab before, and I was looking forward to seeing the facility, but to be honest I was most excited about the promise of seeing the wildlife on site. 

May 20, 2022
09:00 to 11:30

In lieu of a final exam on the last day of the semester, I host a BioBlitz on campus for my Vertebrate Biology class. On this day, we spent 90 minutes on campus identifying as many species as possible, and then went back to the classroom to formalize our lists. The students are able to work in teams of up to 3 people, and all teams are competing not just against one another, but also against me, using a point system to determine the score. We can use any and all identification guides, and both visual and auditory identifications are acceptable.

May 15, 2022
12:30 to 2:00 p.m.

On the way home from Zzyzx, the folks in my van decided to make a stop part of the way home, to see if we could find some desert tortoises at the sanctuary in California City. It was a bit of a drive off the highway that took us away from anything resembling civilization. When we arrived at the preserve, the facilities consisted of two trailers (one for the naturalist, and the other was the giftshop). The naturalist was super friendly, and eager to give us some tips about where we might be able to find tortoises (although she hadn’t seen one in the recent past). It was quite warm – probably around 100° F – so we covered up and stocked up on water, and headed out into the desert landscape.

May 15, 2022
07:00

Our last morning in the desert, several of us got up early to check a series of pitfall traps that had been set the night before. A few very cool animals found their way into the traps, and we were able to get some great photos before releasing them to go on their way. The traps were set up in transects, and I think we ended up checking 40 or 50 traps. Most of them were empty, but here are the things that we did see.

May 14, 2022
13:00

Our next stop was the Mid-Hills Campground in the Mojave National Preserve, where we explored a higher-elevation pinyon pine and juniper forest.

May 14, 2022
21:00 – 23:00

It was our last night in the desert, so of course, there would be night driving as soon as the sun went down. We’d hoped for a bit more action than the previous night, since the temperature had been much warmer today than yesterday. This didn’t really pan out, but in spite of not finding a huge array of wildlife, what we saw was utterly amazing.

May 13, 2022
07:30 to 23:30

On our first full day in the desert, after breakfast I had some time while everyone else was getting ready to head out to the bajada site, so I took a 45-minute walk through an area I’d enjoyed on my first visit here: south past the pool, out through the mesquite trees and along the edge of the alkali flat/dry lake bed. I’d explored this area on my previous visit with good results (Lucy’s warbler!), and was excited to visit it again. No Lucy’s today, but I did see a wide diversity of birds, including at least one I’d not seen before. 

May 6, 2022
11:30 to 13:30
Distance traveled: 2 km

After we were finished at the Palomarin Field Station, while most of the Vertebrate Biology class headed home, a small group of us decided to make a stop at a different part of the Point Reyes National Seashore to forage for mushrooms. We parked at the Bear Valley Visitor Center and took a hike along the Morgan Trail, a detour that only took us about 10 minutes off of the route we were taking home This turned out to be an excellent decision. We didn’t see as many different types of mushrooms as my companions had hoped, but we saw LOADS of other wonderful things: birds galore, some lovely native plants, and a few mammals, as well. I made good use of the Merlin app on my phone to help me sort out the multitude of birds who were singing in the woods (all identifications were verified by me once I returned home).