tylernelson19's Journal

This weekend I took a visit to El Palo Alto Park. It is a small little park right by the Stanford Mall. Although there was no water, usually the San Francisquito Creek runs through the park. I was able to find two lichen species and many plant species during my time there. I had no luck in finding any fungi, but that is most likely because of the lack of rain, not the location. One of the lichen species was found on top of a rock and the other along the metal part of a bridge. If I need more plant species for this project, I will probably go back to this location because there were so many plants that I didn't take pictures of. I think it would also be interesting to visit when the creek has some water in it.

Although I was not able to make it out to any parks this weekend, I did some planning for a future visit to Pillar Point. I went to Pillar Point as a field trip during my senior year and enjoyed it so I really want to go back. I remember seeing many anemones and sea urchins which will be great to add to my observations as they aren't easily found anywhere else. When I looked at the low tide predictions, both Saturday and Sunday have low tides in the afternoon, around three or four. Both the tides are predicted to be around 1.7 feet. Although the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve website recommends the tides to be 1 foot or less, to clearly see the organisms, I still think that I will be able to find a fair amount of organisms near the coast. I may also go early to Pillar Point because there are many birds species, which could help me with the animal kingdom requirement.

On Thursday, I was able to take a quick visit to the Windy Hill Preserve. I didn't have much time but I was able to capture 5 observations. The park was very nice and had multiple 5+ mile long trails, but I only went about 1/4 of a mile in. I was able to find a lichen and 4 other plants. Unfortunately, one of the plants that I observed wasn't able to be identified by iNaturalist, so it most likely won't become research grade. But out of the other 4 observations, 2 have already become research grade, so I am very happy about that. I started taking 2-3 photos per observation, so I think that is helping my observations become research grade. This is somewhere I would definitely go again, because there was so much of the park that I didn't explore. I was disappointed because I saw a deer, but unfortunately my phone was not able to get a clear photo from the distance. Overall, I was glad that I was able to get a quick 5 observations and also find a new park to visit again.

Over this last week, I was not able to go to a park and make any observations. I already have my Saturday planned out to go out to parks and I am hopeful to also be able to go out one other day during the week as well. This Sunday the 24th, we just had a massive rainstorm, the first consistent storm since the spring. I think that this storm will help moisten some environments and make some organisms more abundant such as fungi. One park that I plan on visiting this week is Pescadero Creek Park. With this heavy rain fall, I think the creek should be flowing at a decent height. In addition, I've seen many pictures of banana slugs found in this park and slugs definitely tend to be more apparent in moist environments. I also plan on going out to Sam McDonald Park because of its proximity to Pescadero Creek Park. One of my main goals for this trip is to get multiple animal observations because I lack any observations from the Animal Kingdom.