Up at 6:45 am on this totally overcast, chilly and rainy morning. No vertigo today.  I got Esteban fed and pottied and then headed out to the American River Bend Park again but this time with my friend and fellow naturalist Roxanne.  She wanted to see the owls’ nest and get some fresh air and exercise.

It rained for the first hours or so we were out there, but then the rain tapered off, so we didn’t get too wet – except for our shoes.  I’d brought my umbrella with me and used it when needed, but then I accidentally left it behind somewhere along the trail.  D’oh!  By the time I realized that, I was too tired to go back and look for it, so, I hope that someone else finds it who really needs it.

We started our walk near where the owls’ nest is.  The mother owl was on a different side of the nest today than she was yesterday, so there was a slightly clearer view of her.  She didn’t look too thrilled about sitting in the rain, and we couldn’t see her owlets.  I assumed that she was shielding them from the wet and cold.

In that same area, we found a large flock of Wild Turkeys, including a pair of leucistic females.  The males were in full strut, wings down, tails fanned, snoods extended.  Some of them were snorting under their snoods, too.  A kind of “tsk!” sound. 

• 

• 

At one point, we also saw some of the males fighting: jumping up and kicking one another with their spurs, chasing each other, gobbling harshly.  I think there were rival “gangs” of males there running off guys who didn’t belong on the main group’s stomping ground. I couldn’t tell if the males were avoiding or ignoring the leucistic females, but all of the females were pretty much ignoring the males.  No one got down into a crouch while we were there.

There aren’t a lot of wild flowers up yet, but we did see some Blue Dicks and some Hillside Woodland Star, but that was about it. We DID come across, however, what I think was an Oracle Oak tree.  I’d passed that tree dozens of times and never really paid attention to it until today. Oracles are a cross between a Black Oak and an Interior Live Oak.  Both trees are considered “red oaks”, based partly on the color of their wood and what the interior of their acorns look like.

Lots of Destroying Angel mushrooms all over the place, and some Black Jelly Roll fungus.  On one of the pipevine plants, Roxanne found a flower overflowing with fungus gnats.  The gnats are one of the major pollinators of this plant, so that was fun to see.  I got a video snippet of them emerging. 

Oh, and we found a crop of Compressed Elfin Saddle mushrooms, Helvella compressa.  They look like dark brown fortune cookies mounted on white sticks.  Very cool.

CLICK HERE to see the full album of photos.

Roxanne also found two other things I’d never seen before.  The first one was Curling Moss, also called Bonfire Moss, Funaria hygrometrica. It was made up of stingy bits of plant material laid out in stiff curls.  Rox joking referred to it as “river scrubbie”. Hah! 

• 

• 

The other thing she found was a Tussock Moth cocoon covered in newly hatched caterpillars.  I’ve found the cocoons all over the place before, along with the mature caterpillars, but I’d never seen the caterpillars at this early stage.  The mother moth lays her eggs on top of the cocoon from which she emerged and then covers them with a sort of self-hardening foam that protects them until they hatch.  Each caterpillar was totally black and covered in sparse long hairs.  There were about 30 of the tiny things occupying the exterior of a cocoon that was about an inch long.

We walked for about 4 ½ hours before heading back home. 

Species List:

1. Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus
2. Audubon’s Warbler, Setophaga coronata auduboni
3. Bark Rim Lichen, Lecanora chlarotera [looks like Whitewash Lichen but has apothecia]
4. Barometer Earthstar fungus, Astraeus hygrometricus
5. Bedstraw, Velcro Grass, Cleavers, Galium aparine
6. Bewick’s Wren, Thryomanes bewickii
7. Bittercress, Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta
8. Black Jelly Roll fungus, Exidia glandulosa
9. Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans
10. Black Walnut, Eastern Black Walnut, Juglans nigra
11. Blessed Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum
12. Blue Dicks, Dichelostemma capitatum
13. Brown Jelly Fungus, Jelly Leaf, Tremella foliacea
14. Bufflehead Duck, Bucephala albeola
15. Bur Chervil, Anthriscus caucalis
16. California Camouflage Lichen, Melanelixia californica
17. California Ground Squirrel, Otospermophilus beecheyi
18. California Manroot, Bigroot, Marah fabaceus
19. California Mugwort, Artemisia douglasiana
20. California Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly, Battus philenor hirsuta
21. California Pipevine, Dutchman’s Pipe, Aristolochia californica
22. California Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma californica
23. California Towhee, Melozone crissalis
24. Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
25. Click Beetle, Limonius canus 
26. Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus
27. Common Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
28. Common Fiddleneck, Amsinckia menziesii
29. Common Goldeneye, Bucephala clangula
30. Common Merganser, Mergus merganser
31. Common Vetch, Vicia sativa
32. Coyote Brush Stem Gall moth, Gnorimoschema baccharisella
33. Curling Moss, Bonfire Moss, Funaria hygrometrica
34. Dark-Winged Fungus Gnat, Bradysia sp.
35. Destroying Angel Mushroom, Amanita ocreata
36. Dove’s-foot Crane’s-Bill, Geranium molle
37. Eastern Fox Squirrel, Sciurus niger
38. Elfin Saddle, Compressed Elfin Saddle, Helvella compressa
39. European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris
40. False Turkey Tail fungus, Stereum Ostrea
41. Farinose Cartilage Lichen,  Ramalina farinacea [like Oakmoss but very thin branches]
42. Fluffy Dust Lichen, Pacific Fluffy Dust Lichen, Lepraria pacifica
43. Giraffe’s Head Henbit, Henbit Deadnettle, Lamium amplexicaule
44. Giraffe’s Spots Fungus, Peniophora albobadia
45. Gold Dust Lichen, Chrysothrix candelaris
46. Golden Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla
47. Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus
48. Green Shield Lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata
49. Hillside Woodland Star, Lithophragma heterophyllum
50. Hoary Lichen, Hoary Rosette, Physcia aipolia
51. Hooded Rosette Lichen, Physcia adscendens [hairs/eyelashes on the tips of the lobes]
52. House Wren, Troglodytes aedon
53. Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizeni
54. Lace Lichen, Ramalina menziesii
55. Lesser Goldfinch, Spinus psaltria
56. Mazegill Fungus, Daedalea quercina
57. Mealy Pixie Cup, Cladonia chlorophaea
58. Miner’s Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliate
59. Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura
60. Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus
61. Oak Apple Gall Wasp, Andricus quercuscalifornicus
62. Oakmoss Lichen, Evernia prunastri
63. Oracle Oak, Quercus × moreha
64. Petty Spurge, Euphorbia peplus
65. Poison Oak, Pacific Poison Oak, Western Poison Oak, Toxicodendron diversilobum
66. Red Phanerochaete pathogen, Phanerochaete sanguinea
67. Red-Tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis [heard, saw in flight]
68. Rio Grande Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia
69. Ruptured Twig Gall Wasp, Callirhytis perdens
70. Santa Barbara Sedge, Carex barbarae
71. Shepherd’s-Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris
72. Shingle Moss, Neckera pennata
73. Shrubby Sunburst Lichen, Polycauliona candelaria
74. Split Gill Fungus, Schizophyllum commune
75. Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus
76. Star Moss, Syntrichia ruralis
77. Stem Rust Fungus, Puccinia evadens [on Coyote Brush]
78. Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica
79. Strap Lichen, Western Strap Lichen, Ramalina leptocarpha
80. Streambank Springbeauty, Miner’s Lettuce, Claytonia parviflora [small]
81. Sunburst Lichen, Xanthoria elegans
82. Termite, Reticulitermes sp.
83. Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor
84. Turkey Tail Fungus, Trametes versicolor
85. Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura
86. Valley Oak, Quercus lobata
87. Velvety Tree Ant, Liometopum occidentale
88. Western Bluebird, Sialia Mexicana [caught a glimpse of one]
89. Western Redbud, Cercis occidentalis
90. Western Tussock Moth, Orgyia vetusta
91. White Horehound, Marrubium vulgare
92. White-Breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis
93. Whitewash Lichen, Phlyctis argena
    
94. ?? Tiny mushrooms on twig
95. ?? A kind of crust fungus

I got up around 5:30 this morning, got the dog pottied and fed, and then headed out to Auburn with my friend and fellow naturalist Roxanne Moger to look for newts. We’d been told by another one of my naturalist class graduates, Pam Hofsted, that California Newts had been found swimming and mating in the Shirland Canal by the China Bar Trail in the Auburn State Recreation Area, so we had to go see if we could find any.

It was about 46° at the Rec Area and rain was threatening but we thought the cooler weather and wet might make the newts more apt to come out.  It’s been too hot and too dry lately for them.

After a quick stop for coffee and a breakfast biscuit, we got to the Rec Area in about an hour and found the main gate. 

According to their website: “…In the heart of the gold country, the Auburn State Recreation Area (Auburn SRA) covers 40-miles of the North and Middle Forks of the American river. Once teeming with thousands of gold miners, the area is now a natural area offering a wide variety of recreation opportunities to over 900,000 visitors a year… Black tailed deer and rabbits can be seen during the daylight hours, while raccoons, opossums, gray foxes and coyotes rule the night. Black bears, rattlesnakes, mountain lions and bobcats live in the park. The riparian habitat host California quail and canyon wrens. Red tailed hawks and bald eagles soar overhead, seeking their next meal… Auburn State Recreation Area Auburn Dam via Shirland Canal and Cardiac Bypass Trail is a 5 mile moderately trafficked loop trail that features a river and is rated as moderate. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash…”

We arrived there around 7:00 am but found that the main gate didn’t open until 8:00… but then were confused by the fact that there was a sign on the gate stating that there was supposed to a runners’ race there from 6:00 am until 9:00 am.  How could the runners get in if the gates were locked? Weird.

Right next to the gate was a small parking lot, a water fountain, payment kiosk (there’s a $10 fee for parking), and porta-potty. While I made use of the facility, Roxanne studied the lichen on the nearby boulders and paid the day-use fee. 

Then we both did a little bit more lichen hunting and looking for galls on the nearby coyote brush (and found a few). We decided that since the gate was still closed, we’d try walking down to the trailhead we wanted, but after walking just a few yards, my body needed to get back to the porta-potty (Bad breakfast sandwich, I think. *sigh*), so I headed back there and told Roxanne to look for “cool stuff” while I was ocupado. TMI, I know.

While I was in the porta-potty, I could hear someone drive up, and heard Roxanne talking to whoever the driver was. It was one of the park maintenance crew, and he opened the gate for us.  Woot!  Once we got back into the car and started driving in, we were sooooo happy that the gate had been opened. The drive to the trailheads was downhill and relatively long.  If we had tried to walk it, I would have been exhausted by the trip down and probably not too able to make the walk back up to the parking lot. So, that was Nice Happenstance #1 today.

I had forgotten to bring the map with the trails on it, d’oh!, so we followed the maintenance truck – which led us down to the river, below the trailhead we were actually looking for. Along the way we spotted a few wildflowers making their debut including some Bush Monkeyflower, Filddlenecks and some sort of Paintbrush.  ((We’d seen a few Lupin along the highway on the way into Auburn, but nothing around the trails.)) We took a few photos and headed back up the road, turning in to the little parking lot where the Cardiac Bypass Trail was.  Yes, that’s really its name. Hah!

There was a woman (with her two UNLEASHED dogs) setting up a table for the runners there, and we did eventually see maybe 20 of the runners as they passed through. While we were there we checked out the lichen on the trees, and found what we thought might have been some kind of dodder (red-orange thread stuff) on an old Cottonwood Tree. 

There was also a lot of Buckbrush in bloom there, and the pine trees were all doing their “male thing” sending out pollen all over everything. 

We were also a little surprised to see rust fungus, similar to what we found elsewhere on Coyote Brush, emerging from galls on some of the pines.  We’re assuming it’s from the same genus but a different species.

After a short while, we looked down the cliffside at the trail and figured it wasn’t one I’d be able to navigate at all – and it didn’t show any signs of hooking up with the canal anywhere, so we decided to nix that and go looking again for the China Bar trailhead. As we were loitering around, though, we met an older gentleman named Richard who was also deciding against taking the Cardiac Bypass Trail.  He said he knew where the canal was and offered to lead us there with his car.  So nice!  So, we followed him over to that trailhead and thanked him profusely for his help. That was Nice Happenstance #2.

The Shirland Canal was right off a little parking lot and we were finally able to start walking the trail there.  We came across another gentleman who was walking his elderly dog back to his car, and he asked us if we were looking for the newts. We told him, yes, and he said, “They’re here! I saw some balls of them.  Look for them in the more still shallow parts of the canal.” That was Nice Happenstance #3.

As we walked along, I was so focused on the water in the canal to my right that I’m sure I missed a lot of stuff along the left-hand side of the trail. I DID note the Golden Dwarf Mistletoe, Western Buttercups, a few Blue Dicks, and Turkey Tail Fungus, though.

The canal didn’t disappoint, and Roxanne and I counted 10 newts, some of them single, some in pairs, and some in en masse in a mating ball of four.  Because they were in the water it was hard to get any close-ups of their faces, but I was still pretty satisfied with the photos and video clips I was able to get.

CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.

Rant: I WASN’T pleased when someone let their UNLEASHED dog jump into the canal, lay down and splash around in there right next to where the newts were. Unleashed dogs in wildlife areas is a pet peeve of mine – and I was especially upset by the fact that the humans made no effort whatsoever to clean up after their pets on the trail even though the Rec Area provided free doggie-dooley bags at the head of each trail.  There was dog crap EVERYWHERE. Guh!

Anyway, we walked the trail until we came to a “slide” area where the canal started its downhill tilt.  I felt it was unsafe (for me), and figured the water would be running too fast for the newts to be settling in, so we turned around and headed back to the car.  Nice Happenstance #4 was that throughout our excursion the rain had held itself off, and didn’t start until just before we got back to the parking lot.

I figured we walked about 4 hours all together, but I still felt pretty good and energized because of the adrenaline rush I got from seeing the newts.

Species List:

1. Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus
2. Bark Rim Lichen, Lecanora chlarotera
3. Blessed Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum
4. Blue Dicks, Dichelostemma capitatum
5. Buckbrush, Ceanothus cuneatus
6. Bur Chervil, Anthriscus caucalis
7. Bush Lupine, Lupinus albifrons
8. Bush Monkeyflower, Diplacus aurantiacus
9. California Towhee, Melozone crissalis
10. Canada Goose, Branta canadensis [flight overhead]
11. Chinese Praying Mantis, Tenodera sinensis [ootheca]
12. Common Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
13. Common Fiddleneck, Amsinckia menziesii
14. Common Gold Cobblestone Lichen, Pleopsidium flavum [bright yellow]
15. Common Mustard, Brassica rapa
16. Common Vetch, Vicia sativa
17. Common Water Strider, Aquarius remigis
18. Coyote Brush Bud Gall midge, Rhopalomyia californica
19. Coyote Brush Rust, Puccinia evadens
20. Coyote Brush Stem Gall moth, Gnorimoschema baccharisella
21. Cumberland Rock-Shield Lichen, Xanthoparmelia cumberlandia
22. Dark-Eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis
23. False Turkey Tail fungus, Hairy Curtain Crust, Stereum hirsutum
24. Giraffe’s Head Henbit, Henbit Deadnettle, Lamium amplexicaule
25. Gold Dust Lichen, Chrysothrix candelaris
26. Golden Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla
27. Golden Dwarf Mistletoe, Western Dwarf Mistletoe, Arceuthobium campylopodum
28. Golden Hair-Lichen, Teloschistes flavicans
29. Gray Pine, California Foothill Pine, Pinus sabiniana
30. Green Shield Lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata
31. Hoary Lichen, Hoary Rosette, Physcia aipolia
32. Hooded Rosette Lichen, Physcia adscendens [hairs/eyelashes on the tips of the lobes]
33. Ink Lichen, Placynthium nigrum [pitch black, fine grained]
34. Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizeni
35. Interior Sandbar Willow, Salix interior
36. Jointed Charlock, Wild Radish, Raphanus raphanistrum
37. Killdeer, Charadrius vociferous [heard at river]
38. Mazegill Fungus, Daedalea quercina
39. Mistletoe, American Mistletoe, Big Leaf Mistletoe, Phoradendron leucarpum
40. Mud-dauber Wasps and Allies, Subfamily: Sceliphrinae
41. Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos
42. Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Picoides nuttallii [heard]
43. Oleander, Nerium oleander
44. Pin-cushion Sunburst Lichen, Polycauliona polycarpa
45. Pine-Pine Gall Rust, Endocronartium harknessii
46. Ponderosa Pine, Pinus ponderosa
47. Popcorn Flowers, Plagiobothrys sp.
48. Purple Sanicle, Sanicula bipinnatifida
49. Pyracantha, Pyracantha coccinea
50. Red-Shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus
51. Rock Shield Lichen, Xanthoparmelia conspersa
52. Rock Tripe, Emery Rock Tripe, Umbilicaria phaea
53. Scattered Button Lichen, Buellia dispersa [gray/off white on rocks with black spots]
54. Shepherd’s Purse, Capsella bursa-pastori
55. Short-lobed Paintbrush, Castilleja brevilobata
56. Shrubby Sunburst Lichen Polycauliona candelaria
57. Sidewalk Firedot Lichen, Xanthocarpia feracissima  [bright orange, on rocks]
58. Sierra Newt, Taricha sierrae
59. Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus
60. Strap Lichen, Western Strap Lichen, Ramalina leptocarpha
61. Streambank Springbeauty, Miner’s Lettuce, Claytonia parviflora
62. Tile Lichen, Lecidea tessellata
63. Toothed Crust Fungus, Basidioradulum sp.
64. Toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia
65. Turkey Tail Fungus, Trametes versicolor
66. Western Buttercup, Ranunculus occidentalis
67. Western Chorus Frog, Pseudacris triseriata
68. White Leaf Manzanita, Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. viscida
69. Whitewash Lichen, Phlyctis argena
70. Willow Pinecone Gall midge, Rabdophaga strobiloides