Start Time: 7:30 am
Start Temperature: 54ºF
End Temperature: 61º F
Weather: Overcast, no rain
Total Hours in the field (includes travel time): 4 hours
Miles Walked: 3.5
Number of Individual Species Noted Today: 47
I got up around 7:30 am and headed out to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve. I REALLY needed to get outside and walk. My car, Vincenzo, is still in the shop today, so Melissa let me borrow her car. It was 54º at the river and overcast. The cloud cover all day but we didn’t get any rain.
I only got periodic glimpses of the deer at the preserve, but there were a lot of different bird species around, the lichens were all fluffed up from the rains, and the fungi are starting to make an appearance like the crust fungi, jelly fungi and some spent Barometer Earthstars,
CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.
I get excited about weird things… like the first slime mold sighting of the season! Woo-hoo! I found a small specimen of Red Tube Slime Mold (Stemonitis fusca), also called Brown Tube Slime Mold or “Birthday Cake”. It starts out pure white, then the tubes lengthen and stand up on threads and the whole group turns red or pink or burgundy. Then as the mass goes to spore, it all turns brown and disintegrates into “dust”. ((The “Birthday Cake” variation of this slime mold retains light-colored tops of each of the stems, so it looks like frosting on top of a Red Velvet cake.)) You can see a video of how this slime mold forms at: https://youtu.be/A0__v5nMGaI

I saw a lot of evidence of mole activity on and around the trails, and one spot where it looked like a coyote had dug into the ground trying to get one of them.
I also found a Jerusalem Cricket in one of the puddles on the trail. It was dead, drowned, and I wondered if it had been driven there by Horsehair Worm parasites. I took photos of the cricket but didn’t cut it open to see if there were any worms in its brain or body.

In the river I tracked a huge, well-traveled, worn out Chinook Salmon in the shallows along the bank. There were gulls and Turkey Vultures sitting along the river waiting for the fish to die.
I ended up walking for about 3 hours and then headed back home.
Species List:
- Barometer Earthstar fungus, Astraeus hygrometricus
- Bewick’s Wren, Thryomanes bewickii
- Black Fan Fungus, Thelephora cuticularis
- Black Jelly Roll fungus, Exidia glandulosa
- Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans
- Brown Jelly Fungus, Jelly Leaf, Tremella foliacea
- Bryum Moss, Bryum capillare
- California Ground Squirrel, Otospermophilus beecheyi
- California Quail, Callipepla californica [heard]
- California Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma californica
- California Towhee, Melozone crissalis
- California Wild Grape, Vitis californica
- Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
- Chinook Salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
- Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus
- Common Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
- Common Snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus
- Cottonwood, Fremont Cottonwood, Populus fremontii
- Coyote, Canis latrans [scat]
- Eastern Fox Squirrel, Sciurus niger
- False Turkey Tail fungus, Stereum hirsutum
- Gold Dust Lichen, Chrysothrix candelaris
- Golden Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla
- Green Shield Lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata
- Golden Shield Lichen, Xanthoria parietina
- Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizeni
- Jelly Spot Fungus, Dacrymyces stillatus
- Jerusalem Cricket, Stenopelmatus fuscus
- Mallard duck, Anas platyrhynchos
- Mazegill Fungus, Daedalea quercina
- Mole, Broad-Footed Mole, Scapanus latimanus [holes and piles]
- Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus
- Oak Titmouse, Baeolophus inornatus
- Oakmoss Lichen, Evernia prunastri
- Ocre Spreading Tooth Fungus, Steccherinum ochraceum
- Pipevine, California Pipevine, Dutchman’s Pipe, Aristolochia californica
- Red Tube Slime Mold, Stemonitis fusca
- Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula
- Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus
- Stereum Crust Fungus, Golden Curtain Crust, Stereum complicatum
- Sulphur Shelf Fungus, Western Sulphur Shelf Fungus, Laetiporus gilbertsonii
- Sunburst Lichen, Xanthoria elegans
- Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima
- Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura
- Valley Oak, Quercus lobata
- Western Gray Squirrel, Sciurus griseus
- Western Gull, Larus occidentalis
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