Home»Gallery»Jasper Ridge Galleries»A Day at a Time: Individual Visits»4/13/2019 From Searsville Lake to the Ridge and Back: Grand Tour with California Naturalists»Before and After the Tour: Deer with Turkeys; Birds in the Visitors’ Valley Oak

Entering the Main Gate well before the scheduled tour, I felt my mind move toward ease and my senses sharpen. There is nothing better than a quiet time at dawn, alone with my senses and my cameras – and the world.

I had thought I might walk down to the dam as usual, perhaps wait for the Canada Geese to leave with their usual racket, then perhaps wander around the lake. But a browsing deer looked out from behind a Coyote Brush, and I was pulled in that direction, “deciding” to hang out for a while with them and see what happened.

A little anticipatory stalking: I looped around the other side of the Sun Research Center and toward the Visitors’ Valley Oak near the parking lot, hoping to end up ahead of where the deer were drifting. Sure enough, there they were, grazing and browsing in the oak-studded field below the building. As far as I could see, this was a heard of bucks, in velvet. Grazing grass and browsing new oak leaves, they wandered and paused. Turkeys passed through, seemingly oblivious to the larger animals.

And this is how I ended up at the foot of the Visitors’ Valley Oak, in the first sunlight of the day. Swallows swooped about. Acorn Woodpeckers chased each other, showing off their skills in flight, then settled down to search the bark – for insects, I presume. There were other birds too – I leave it to my birder friends to leave comments with the IDs, thanks from all of us!

And the turkeys! Males, displaying, facing off. A neat head trick.

Finally I left the activity around the old oak and strolled down to the dam. The warm sun suffused the still air, promising peace. A few deep breaths, then time to head back to the parking lot to welcome the tour.


As the tour was breaking up, a hawk wheeled overhead and flew off around the lake. [A Sharp-shinned Hawk? Cooper’s?? Please leave an ID!] A Great Blue Heron flew westerly, perhaps toward the upper lake. The resident Pacific Rattlesnake dozed in the warm sun, in the end of its hollow log. Claire heard a persistent series of sharp squeaks, and didn’t think it was a bird. She finally pointed out a Ground Squirrel in the hollow of a Valley Oak nearby, raising the alarm. Funny, I don’t think the squirrel could even see the snake from there – but it was certainly warning everyone. The snake dozed on.