tylernelson19's Journal

This week I was able to make good progress on the iNaturalist project. On Monday, I took a short visit to Foothills Nature Preserve in Palo Alto. I felt it was a good quick stop, but I wouldn't want to stay there too long because I didn't feel like there were that many different species there. On Saturday, I took visits to Wunderlich Park, El Corte de Madera Park and Windy Hill Preserve. In both El Corte de Madera Park and Windy Hill Preserve there were many fallen tree, some of which I would have guessed are from the large storm last week. One of my main goals was to find a species part of the Basidomycota group, and although I was able to find a couple, it was much more difficult than I anticipated. Although it was pretty wet, I don't think my timetable was realistic for many fungi to fully grow and develop. I currently have 7 out of the 10 required phyla, so I still need 3 more. I think that I will go for the arthropods and annelids because those should be pretty easy to find, like a house fly and earth worm. In addition, I still plan to go to one more park up in the Santa Cruz mountains so that I can find a banana slug, which will get me an animal in the Mollusca phylum

Unfortunately I was not able to get out to a park this weekend. Early last week, I was able to capture a photo of a western honey bee, which as part of the arthropod phylum, checked off a box for me. As of now, I only need one more phylum in order to complete the requirements. Two of the more common phylums that I think I will go for are the liverworts or mollusks. The weather recently has definitely cooled off and I have noticed more and more tree leaves on the ground. I do think the cooler weather helps damp environment animals show up more often, like banana slugs. Depending on how much free time I have, I want to go to somewhere in the Santa Cruz Mountains, such as Butano State Park, or back to Wunderlich Park. I know that banana slug findings are common at Butano Park and that would count for the Mollusca Phylum. Wunderlich can have banana slugs although less common and it would be easier to find liverworts. Either way, I think I am in a very good spot in this project.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get anymore observations last week. I did take a weekend trip down to the Los Angeles area and it was interesting to compare the Southern California environment versus Northern California. One thing I noticed was that there were still many plants with flowers relative to the bay area right now. I think most of this can be credited to the warmer climate, but I still was surprised how many flowers were still intact in the middle of November. Another thing I noticed was the heavy amounts of smog, which I not sure if they at all affect the plants or animals, but it is so much more noticeable in Los Angeles relative to the Bay Area. This week I need to get out to one last park in order to finish up my observations. I'm still deciding between Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and Butano State Park. No matter where I end up going, I sure I will be able reach the 25 observation mark and 10 phylum requirement. I'm super excited to get back out to a park after a little break and a couple wet weeks!

This weekend I took a visit to Sam McDonald Park to get my final observations before the end of the project. It had rained a little bit on Friday night, so the land was very moist, which was perfect as the main point of going to this park was to find a banana slug. I was very surprised by the diversity of fungi at this park. I was able to find so many different fungi, which is partially because of the recent rains, but the fact that there were so many unique species is what surprised me. In the end, I was able to find the banana slug along with multiple fungi and a couple plants. Besides the drive, I really liked Sam McDonald Park and would definitely go back and explore the other trails. I went on the Heritage Grove trail, which connects right to the parking lot. Lastly, I was able to find a worm in my backyard today after digging up some soil, so as long as it can get confirmed by the community I will have my 10 different phylums as well as 25 research grade observations.