artworms's Journal

2/6

Visited Joseph D. Grant Park, almost lost the friends I was meeting there. We were loosey-goosey about the trail plan and ended up out on the Lower San Felipe. Met up with a trail volunteer who decided to check up on us every 10 minutes to make sure we didn't die. Was funny at first, then patronising. Saw a bunch of either quail or grouse-- whichever is an incredibly messy flyer.

2/10 Began writing a poem about a mushroom, only to find out it wasn't real. I'd drawn a fake mushroom a few years ago next to some real ones. I guess they made me feel creative and I drew a "clown wig mushroom". Glad I looked it up on iNaturalist. Wonder how far I could have gotten away with it. (Looks like a more wavy lion's mane mushroom with purple gills).

2/13 Went to Rancho Canada del Oro, close-ish to closing time so the ranger warned us. 5:30pm! Dang that's early. From Leticia's mention of salamanders and rain, I wanted to check that off my list. Not a lot of experience with those (at all). Went down the trail towards the creek, ran into a Dog the Bounty Hunter looking fella who wasn't wearing a mask, but looked like he knew things. As he stood motionless on the side of the trail staring into the sky, I asked him what he'd seen. (He looked like he'd seen things as well.) Said, "Mud dogs", pulled out his phone and showed me a blurry photo. I said, 'Salamander?'

"No, mud dogs."

Somewhat discomfitted by being close to a maskless stranger, I thanked him and set off into the creek. I must have looked like an absolutely beginner, so he suggested a spot 100 feet down where we could easily get to the creek and roam around without damaging anything.

Spent some time in the creek listening, looking at bubbles under the water and recording frog noises. Absolutely did not know what I was looking for, and felt rude each time I gingerly lifted a rock to see what was underneath. We took off down the trail again, and didn't go 20 steps before J stopped me. I'd almost stepped on a salamander! Was a California newt (Taricha torosa) cute as well. We watched it cross the rest of the trail to an outcropping on the non-creek side. Found another one further down.

2/14 Went to Alum Rock Park, which was a decidedly bad idea crowd-wise. The anthropophony was quite loud. But I recorded some bird calls, found lots of mushrooms and spotted some horehound (only knew this as a flavoring.) Went the hard way up the Sycamore Switchback and broke a sweat. Got a little overwhelmed by the idea of learning the names of things-- there's a lot of things.

2/20 Was going to Rancho Canada del Oro to look for fungi, but spied the Umunhum cube from 87 and took a hard right. Didn't research how long it'd be, but we had sunscreen, snacks and binoculars and it was a cool cloudy day. Parked at Sierra Azul OS lot (also leads to Bald Mt. trail.) Trail pretty peaceful except for mountain bikes. Oaks, manzanita, madrone, bays galore. Very few noticeable fungi from trail, also didn't notice much bird song. But we loved the hike, got to the top, read about the history, came back down. Ate a very, very, very big lunch.

2/22 Have begun to lure crows to my balcony. Haven't taken the food yet but have started landing on upper railing (had never noticed that close before).

2/23 Am spotting hummingbirds more easily now- really everywhere! Watched one hover around a boring-looking sycamore ball and take little nibbles. Hearing crows all the time now.

2/25 Went with a friend to Castle Rock park. Haven't been in about 5 years- holy cow it's different! New big parking area, ranger station, wifi, electric charging stations and really nice restrooms. I imagine it's impossible to avoid people on weekends now, but a weekday was great. We hiked the Saratoga Ridge trail to the trail camp, then got a little lost and came back through the forest on the Ridge Trail. It's basically impossible to get bad lost there, but we were a little frustrated just not knowing where we were. Kept saying, "That must be goat rock!" at every big rock. Lots of big rocks there.

Beginning of trail is shady and moist, and immediately saw a clutch of sulfur tufts (Hypholoma fasciculare), moss bells (galerina hypnorum) and fair parachutes (Marasmiellus candidus). Saw some hawks and buzzards up reeeeeeal close on the ridge trail. And we came across a family whose kid was freaked out by a bee and wouldn't move forward, so I rushed in with excited questions to distract them from being scared. It turned out to be a "bee fly", which I had never seen before. The kid made it through.

Also saw Lobaria anthraspis, a really cool lichen that looks like the inside of a lung, with cup-like formations on it.

2/27 Visited Rancho Canada del Oro again, but no newts this time. Maybe too dry at this point. We did the Mayfair/Longwall Canyon trail. A few trails are one-way right now, so plan accordingly! Lots of flowers out, spotted gooseberry, fiddlenecks, buttercups, Henderson's shooting star and Pacific hound's tongue. The Shooting Stars really stood out with interesting shapes. Saw two butterflies: Celestrina echo (azure echo) and Junonia coenia (common buckeye). Saw one lizard but not close enough to identify.

Now that I know what oaks look like, dang, they are everywhere.

3/2 Spotted a chestnut-backed chickadee outside my window and saw that it may have a nest in a hollow in the tree there. Checking way more than is sane.

3/3 Crows now visiting the balcony every morning. Trying to discern individual crows. One has a little bit of white poop on its wing but I am avoiding calling it Lil Shitty. Going with Poppy. I'll be curious to see if it stays poopy or will one of their friends clean them off.