Visitors 37
Modified 21-Dec-23
Created 19-Sep-18
56 photos
Arriving at Jasper Ridge before sunrise, I was in time to witness the daily departure of the Canada geese from their overnight refuge -- off for their new day down towards the Bay. A mystery: where did they go for the 26 minutes between takeoff, heading up the lake toward the hills, then later passing overhead in V formation, heading back toward the Bay? OR, were there different groups: two groups taking off from Searsville Lake, and a third passing overhead later?? In any case, the takeoff and the V formation were both good to see.
I was able to see a great egret wake up, stretch, and get ready for the new day. And dawn over the lake is always nice, fog over Skyline, birds and deer out in the morn...
Next came the semi-annual ant survey. This is fun. We visit sites spaced on a grid, 100 meters apart. So we visit places off-trail, somewhat random in that they were not selected by looking at the local topography or vegetation, but simply because they were 100 m from the other sites. This time, Alice and I went to the "SLAC West" area, near Road B along the SLAC boundary. Here is a cross section of sightings on a semi-random autumn day, at semi-random locations. A dragonfly posing. Petroglyphs -- or at least, interesting markings in sandstone. (The more I think about this, the more I think the markings are natural, not human-made. But interesting.) Poison oak (duh!), fish in the creek, buckeyes losing their leaves.
BTW, you too can help with the ant survey. Google around, and volunteer. The next survey is in spring 2019. And in case you are wondering: Alice and I saw only the invasive Argentine ants in our area. Hopefully, other surveyors could catalogue most of the dozen genera of native ants here, as well as keeping track of the shifting fortunes of invader vs. native.
Enjoy!
