back to Nature Notes table of contents
March 1998 July 1998 November 1998
March
1998 The other day I took a "shortcut" up a steep
grassland to the top of Highlands Ridge. The ground was soft and
springy and there were millions of small plants, including the
wild oats that will overgrow everything in a couple of months.
There were lupines, clovers, storksbills, and bunchgrasses. Rarely
there was a gopher mound. I tried to avoid crushing any plants
as I walked - doing this seems to give me energy so I don't get
tired.
Near the top of the ridge I saw the back of a brownish-gray animal,
about the size of Kim's little dog Pulguero. At first I thought
it was a badger because of the low, flat shape, but finally I
saw its striped face and tufted ears and realized it was a bobcat.
It was digging low, probably trying to catch a gopher. As I watched,
it stood up and scanned the area nearby. It had beautiful spots
on its chest. It then walked slowly toward me but looking intently
at the ground about 10' ahead. It seemed to hear or see something,
because it froze momentarily, then slowly moved forward, gathering
itself to spring. It waited maybe 15 seconds, then pounced on
something on the ground. After a couple of seconds it stood up
and looked around, as if to see if someone was watching. The bobcat
repeated this kind of activity for about 10 minutes.
All the time this was happening, I was in full view of the bobcat,
maybe 150' away, sitting in the open grassland. When it finally
saw me the bobcat sat up and stared at me for a second. Then it
"politely" looked away, then back at me, then away again.
I remained motionless, except for handling my binoculars and occasionally
looking away, copying the bobcat. After half a minute it calmly
walked up the hill and over the ridge.
I sat for about 20 minutes, very moved by the intimacy and grandeur
of the ridge top setting and the hunting cat. Then I walked up
to the ridge top. At the top I barely caught sight of the bobcat
slowly walking east down a swale of grass. Keeping some bushes
before me, I found another watching spot and waited. Sure enough,
the cat went back to its hunting technique. Comparing it to the
incredibly patient hunting of our house cats, it seemed that the
bobcat lacked concentration and patience. It never waited more
than 60 seconds to pounce, and never caught anything.
After 10 minutes of fruitless hunting, the bobcat crouched low
in the grass. At the same time, a doe and yearling fawn walked
into view, looking straight at the cat. The cat hunkered down
even lower while the deer walked by about 50' uphill. The doe
looked intently and the cat, and stamped her feet. I thought she
was going to leave the cat behind, but when she was directly uphill
for the cat she faced toward it and started walking down the hill.
When she leaped forward the cat bounded down the slope, the deer
following rapidly. The cat escaped into the thick brush and escaped.
I jumped up to see the chase, and the fawn saw me. It stared up
the hill as I crouched low behind some bushes. After the doe finished
with the cat she walked a few steps up toward me, without ever
getting a good lock. She stamped her feet and huffed at me several
times, then, perhaps catching my scent, turned quickly and ran
off into a gully. She and the fawn appeared miraculously soon
on the other side of the steep brush filled gully and disappeared
into the brush again. I moved out into the open to sit on the
grass, waiting.
After about 15 minutes the bobcat walked to the edge of the brush
and sat for a while. It looked at me, and after a few more minutes
walked out into the grass and began hunting again. It began to
drizzle and the cat sat upright with its eyes closed, waiting
for the rain to stop. After more fruitless hunting it began to
rain some more and the cat slowly walked out of sight up the ridge.
I wonder if the bobcat was such a "lazy" hunter because
it never really detected any prey. Perhaps it was just "practicing"
while hoping to actually find a gopher. The cat has been a resident
up there for a while and always looks well-fed. It doesn't really
make sense to me because, as shown by the deer, hunting is a risky
activity. The cat is not looking out for enemies and is in the
open, vulnerable. Maybe, like me, the cat was just out enjoying
a beautiful day.
Other notes: Big Creek rose to 9' on the gauge and moved logs
that have not moved since 1986 when I moved here. Right now it
is 4' deep and running crystal clear. It never rose at all after
the 1" rain yesterday afternoon. (2/16/98)
July 1998 The "El Nino"
weather has brought us rain and humidity to an unusual degree
this year, and the ocean surface temperatures were unusually warm
for winter and spring. I have been looking for effects on wildlife
and plants for some time, but only recently have the changes become
apparent. The most obvious difference this year is in the phenomenal
growth of herbaceous plants; everything from dandelions to wild
oats has grown to enormous size. I have seen purple star thistle
15 feet tall, and wild grasses growing over my head. Shrubs and
trees have grown also, including long branches of poison oak and
ceanothus.
The redwoods near my cabin suffered brown-off caused by salt spray,
but are sprouting new pretty green shoots and will recover soon.
All the flowering plants are flowering prodigiously, with huge
sprays of monkey flower, lizard tail, and lupines everywhere.
I have discovered some "new" plants for the reserve
species list, plants which in most years are tiny and inconspicuous,
but which have grown large and showy this year. I wish I had time
to take a plant press out for a week or two and collect fine specimens
of flowers.
The cool, stormy weather seems to have reduced populations of
caterpillars, aphids, and other soft-bodied insects. It has also
delayed the onset of spring and summer species. Last week during
our annual "Fourth of July" butterfly count, we observed
greatly reduced numbers and diversity of species. This was partly
because of the cool weather (on the actual count day it never
got over 60 degrees, and we only saw caterpillars - no butterflies),
but on warm days before and after the count day, the reduction
in numbers was evident. The milkmaid butterflies are still flying,
a species that we often don't see this late in the season.
Several bird nests failed. A house wren at Whale Point abandoned
the nest, and the Red-tail nest (also at Whale Point) was partially
blown over. The red-tails tried on two occasions to start a nest
(by laying eggs) but gave up both times, and they have not yet
tried to repair the nest. The oystercatchers never even started
to nest this spring on the Big Creek Cove rock, although the disturbance
from highway bridge construction may have contributed to that
failure.
In previous years the harbor seals have given birth to 20-40 pups
every year on the beaches in the marine reserve. This year I counted
only 8 pups in June. I thought the numbers were reduced last year
(I counted 15 in May, but the birthing season may not have been
over) but this is much worse.
Some animals seem more successful this year. There seems to be
a lot of quail chicks, and on a hike up one of the redwood canyons,
there was a convention of screeching juvenile blue jays. They
make enough noise for ten birds, but still there must have been
dozens. The deer seem fat, although I have seen relatively few
fawns. Perhaps they are well hidden in the tall vegetation. And
there are millions of cottontail bunnies in the dense cover on
the slopes. I suspect the bobcats, horned owls, red tail hawks,
and other predators will have a good year for hunting, if they
can find their prey in the dense brush.
I would be interested in hearing other "El Nino" nature
stories; please call me at 667-2543. (6/19/98)
November 1998 Yesterday Kim
and I saw the first deer of the season on the slopes above our
cabin. In previous years the deer have come down in mid-summer
to feed on the flowers and succulent vegetation on slopes near
the ocean, but this year they stayed away until mid-October. A
buck with long, thick antlers, and two does, one perhaps a yearling,
worked their way along the steep slopes eating flowers and tender
shoots. The lack of deer feeding this year may allow the vegetation
to take a better hold on this rocky unstable slope, and maybe
we'll grow something besides thistles and hemlock.
This is the best time of year to look for tracks in the road,
and there are lots of deer sign to be seen. Just up the canyon
road I could see where males had been facing off and perhaps fighting,
with numerous smaller prints of does and young nearby. I also
saw a set of mountain lion prints, 81 mm wide, striding down the
road, probably checking out the deer sign. The day before I saw
another set of lion prints, 72 mm wide, on the road above Feynner's
cabin. These tracks clearly belong to a different lion, probably
the small-footed female lion we call "the girl". A month
ago Feynner saw sign of 3 and possible 4 lions on one day, within
a two mile radius.
Last month I paddled out in a kayak and measured the ocean surface
temperature. It was 60 degrees, unusually warm for our coast even
in summer. The giant kelp along the coast has not grown much lately,
probably because the water has been too warm for this cold-loving
species. When I filtered the ocean water with a fine-meshed plankton
net, I could see enough plankton to turn the water brown.
When I went out again yesterday, the water was 54 degrees, and
the kelp seemed to be growing more. The plankton was extremely
abundant. I could also see a lot of marine "snow", which
looks like shredded scrambled eggs floating everywhere. When Sonie
and I looked at a drop of concentrated plankton under the microscope,
we saw millions of tiny "ropes", divided into cells
with long hairs extending to the sides and ends. These are a kind
of microscopic golden algae. We also saw some sculptured, spiny,
armored "dinoflagellates," just large enough to eat
the diatoms. We also saw a few other kinds of critters, including
one that sometimes produces demoic acid, a toxin that rarely finds
its way into seafood and poisons people. Every month, I send a
plankton sample to a lab in Berkeley, where they try to keep track
of these and other potentially dangerous organisms.
Other notes: The coast live oaks seem to have produced few acorns
up on the ridges this year. However, the tanoaks and the canyon
oaks have a good acorn crop....I have seen flocks of up to 100
band-tailed pigeons....The creek gauge is now about 2" higher
than normal for this time of year, and about 4" above its
level during the drought years. (10/19/98)