Photon accumulation

Thursday, 18 June 2015

I try to minimize jetlag by collecting all the photons available. So of course, I did a trail patrol at Windy Hill today, spent an hour or so removing thistle, and came upon this beautiful alligator lizard.

Alligator lizards are especially good photographic subjects because they freeze instead of running. I was only a couple of cm away from it when I shot that last photo. Just to make sure it was healthy, I then nudged it with my toe, and it took off into the bush.

Good to be home.

Small animals and killer hikes

We could start off the small animals category with birds.

This one has been parked at Moffett field for several days, near the levee trail, where I pass it on my bicycle route home. The tail says Travis (AFB). I have to admit that this bird probably doesn’t count as a small animal.

Well, how about genuine small animals? When Friedrich and Petra were here a week ago, I discovered a mommy long-legs in a corner of the dining room ceiling, complete with egg sac. I was not expecting results so soon, but…

If you don’t mind my saying so, I think this is really cool!

Saturday, 11 May

More small animals later, as we get into the killer hike. Bottom line first: 19.3 miles, 4970 feet of climb. What? It’s less than 20 miles, less than 5k feet? How can that be a killer hike? Maybe because it was 90 degrees plus today?

It didn’t start out at 90 degrees. It was a bit foggy when I started, right at 7. Lots of people out; I had to park almost at Mission boulevard, further from the trailhead than ever before. As always, the street was busy with people who came here to hike, driving up to the parking lot, hoping for a spot, then turning and coming all the way back. For me, I just take the first place available and hike.

I took Horse Heaven trail, as per usual. Most times, it’s practically deserted, but today was fairly busy. I was coming up behind a group of four hikers; we had just made a right-angle turn in the trail below a heavily vegetated embankment, when from behind came a long, loud, melodious Moo-oo-ooo. Startled, the hikers in front spun around. The only animate object anywhere in sight was … Dave.

When I passed them a few minutes later, I remarked that I could claim no credit for the entertainment.

By the time I reached the shoulder of the ridge, it was a sunny, pleasant day. The top of Mission Peak is to the left; I go down the slope to the right, to Sunol.

This is an industrial-grade hike by default, just to Sunol park headquarters and back to Mission Peak. If I go past the park headquarters, on up Flag Hill (above), it becomes a killer hike, at least on really hot days.

This TuVu is today’s first comparatively small animal. It was perched in a tree where I’ve seen them before, sometimes two or three.

Crossing the bridge between Sunol park headquarters and the Flag Hill trail, I see the stream full of mossy pillows. Pretty, but I don’t think I would want to go wading there.

Here’s how Flag Hill looks from near the bottom, about 900 feet above the stream.

Small animals, as in really small.

Coming up just below Flag Hill (above), which was populated with half a dozen other hikers (below). I perched on a rock and enjoyed the view and some calories.

Looking down from Flag Hill. I emerged from the Mission Peak trail into the Sunol headquarters parking lot just above and to the left of center.

The red roof just about dead center in the picture above is a house about 200 feet above the level of Flag Hill. The trail runs very close past it. Mission Peak is the high point about two thirds of the way to the right. I come over the shoulder just to its left, and go back over a trail to the right of the peak.

Came down Hayfield road, which runs past the old JB ranch. I understand the venue is sometimes used as a group camp, but it was not occupied today, except by hikers and a couple of mountain bikies.

Unlike Sunol headquarters, drinking water is available here. Though probably not from that tank.

Ok, small animals we want, small animals we get. There were zillions of earwigs. They didn’t like posing for photos, though, so I didn’t get pictures as good as I would have liked.

While I was shuffling around in the tall grass, I acquired a tiny spider. Here’s my little friend, finding its way through the hairs on my knee.

When I started looking closely at this thistle, I discovered all kinds of small animals in addition to the bee and the earwig.

And just to break the monotony, the Goodyear blimp flew over. This is tail number N10A, named the Spirit of America.

Back to the small animals…

I dropped back down to Sunol headquarters, where I drank as much as I could from the bottled water they bring in, then refilled my water bottle. It was enough to get me back, but I would have liked more. A lot more.

And what should to my wondering eyes appear, but an alligator lizard. Their defense mechanism is to freeze, which makes them good subjects for photographers. Nice colors!

Two things to notice: first, the really interesting shapes to its scales. Second, the blue-ish bulb behind the head is an engorged tick. Often they have more than one. I’m told that there is something in lizard blood that immunizes the tick from Lyme disease. Well, and third, look at the middle toe on the front foot!

Not long after, I found a lizard on a mossy tree trunk. Usually they scurry away, but maybe the alligator lizard had been on the horn to his buddy. “Just freeze. It works every time!”

The shoulder behind Mission Peak is a fire road with a hundred feet or so of ups and downs. A hiker came along, trailed by his dog. At the low point of a roll in the trail, the dog decided it had done enough work for one day, and laid down.

The hiker went back and picked it up. Nice of him. Just as well it wasn’t a really massive dog.

There were quite a number of these little guys. Doris tells me they’re horned larks, with their horns down. Inconspicuous: I might have stepped on a couple of them if they hadn’t moved!

At the bottom, looking back up. Not so much fog at this hour, and most of the people coming down rather than going up. Two or three hang gliders at the top, and another one had just landed near where I took this picture.

A nice day.

The alligator is back

Sunday, 7 April, 2013

I went out on the bike for 40 miles, 2400 vertical feet. Everyone in the world was out enjoying the day. Nice.

Normally, the back deck is full of tiny spiders, busy going about their business. When an alligator lizard took up residence under the deck, a year or two ago, the spider population plummeted! Then I didn’t see the lizard for quite a while, and the spiders began to recover.

Over the last week or three, I see fewer spiders than I would expect, and today, I see why.

Not only is there one alligator lizard, but there are at least two. I saw what I think was a third, same colour as the one above, but much shorter tail. Raising a family, are they! Too bad about the spiders.

I conjectured that the lizards had taken up summer residence from their haunt in the firewood pile. So I went over to the firewood, which is busy, busy, busy, with hundreds of wolf spiders, many of them carrying egg pouches.

It will be interesting to watch the balance of forces here.

Moth season

The temperature is supposed to get to +40 today, in some of the inland areas. So I went out reasonably early and not toward the inland valleys. Windy Hill today, 7 miles. Tomorrow should be cooler, and I may do something more ambitious then.

Not much to see on the climb to Skyline: open, sunny, and I always like to push it on the uphills to maximize the exercise. Once I’m on the downhill in the forest, I can relax and dawdle and look for interesting things to photograph. This alligator lizard, for example.

Notice the blue blobs behind the ears — ticks engorged with the lizard’s blood. Impossible not to have them here. I’m told that when the tick eventually drops off, it is no longer carrying Lyme’s disease.

There were moths everywhere. It is clearly the season for them.

I don’t know whether these caterpillars are the same species as the moths, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Also quite prolific were these pupae (is that the right term for this life stage?) — and it also wouldn’t surprise me if they were also this same moth species. There was quite a variety of colour schemes.

This is the empty husk of a cicada.

And then we get back to the moths, which were busy mating for all they were worth.

The female here was not eager to perform on camera, so she started walking away. The male walked backward at the same pace. No way was he going to disengage!

This looks like necrophilia, but I think the female just has the really good camouflage wing arrangement. She is certainly alive, and as far as I know, healthy.

And then we get into what I’m sure the moths consider to be delightful perversions.

Today’s wildlife was more than just moths, of course. Saw a ringneck snake, a bunny, a deer, and there were several other arthropodae.

Stopped at Sausal pond near the parking lot to see what there might be to see. Two girls speaking French (well, and English, too) thought the frogs must be enormous to make so much noise. I shot this picture from a distance to show them something of the real size of the beasts.