Saturday, 17 September 2016
Five of us cleared three areas of Fremont Older open space preserve of stinkwort, all of it that we could find. The day was bright and sunny, but started out cool and gray, with wonderful condensation patterns on the cobwebs and indeed, on their proprietors.
Garden spider season, and no mistake.
Sunday, 18 September
Speaking of which, it’s also getting on into the time of year when the tarantulas come out. Do you suppose, if I go trail patrolling in the open grasslands, I’ll find one? So I drove up Page Mill road and hiked a loop through Montebello, Coal Creek, Russian Ridge and Skyline Ridge open space preserves.
No tarantuli, but I did find two gopher snakes and a garter snake. That’s three-up from the usual count.
Only recently did I learn that the forked tongue is actually a stereo sensor, able to differentiate the taste of the air left to right and help the snake locate smelly things such as, well, me.
A spare the air day here, not much breeze, highs estimated at 90 in San Jose, 100 in Livermore. Maybe a bit cooler on the ridge over the ocean, but still a hot day. Glad I have water.
A week ago, Ellen, Tom and I scoured Mindego Hill for purple star thistle. It was part of my hiking plan anyway, so I took along a trash bag and scoured it a second time. If we got 90% of it last week, and I got 90% of what was left today, we’re down to 1% remainders. Hard to estimate these numbers, of course, but I think they’re not too far off.
This left me with a trash bag to carry out. I tied it to the back of my backpack, where it probably looked silly, but didn’t get in my way. Dropped it off at the Midpen Skyline Field Office (always known, confusingly, as SFO), where I talked with Ranger Frances for a few minutes.
I used up all of my water before I got there, but I was able to tank up again at Alpine Pond. A life-saver, and no mistake. Too bad there are so few sources of drinking water up there, but that’s how it is.
As to big spiders, the season is yet young, and I’ll be out there looking for them next week, and the next and the next.
Tags: Coal Creek open space preserve, Mid-peninsula Open Space District, Montebello open space preserve, russian ridge open space preserve, Skyline Ridge OSP, tarantulas
Dave's Blog 
September 20, 2016 at 10:05 pm |
I think a general name for those spiders is Argiope. I’ve heard the timing for seeing tarantulas are generally evening at this time of year. But I actually have a picture of one from years ago in the daytime on the chamise trail at RSA.
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September 21, 2016 at 6:16 am |
Argiope indeed. As to tarantulas, during the season, the males leave their burrows and never go back, so they are out there somewhere 24×7. My personal best is to find six in one day (daylight hours).
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September 21, 2016 at 5:00 pm
WOW seeing six is great
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