היומן של kueda

Late post, but I did some fairly fruitful fungal exploring in the East Bay over the Thanksgiving weekend. Deathcaps were blooming everywhere, especially in Anthony Chabot, and I found what I think was my first East Bay Stropharia. I was also trying to pay more attention to the lichens, especially in Huckleberry, where there seems to be a great diversity growing on the oaks and manzanitas along the higher trails. Still at the very beginning of learning anything about lichens though.

Went across the bay to El Corte Madera and Wunderlich on Sunday, figuring if the East Bay was fairly wet, the peninsula should be soaking. So wrong. Both were bone dry, with very little in the way of fungi. El Corte Madera had some beautiful, huge tanoak stands that seemed perfect for a variety of fungi, but it was so dry there wasn't really much in profusion. We did manage to find garlic mushrooms, though, which was a treat. Their smell is so intense! Wunderlich was even sparser, mostly just old deathcaps.

Ok, not quite tidepooling all of SoCal, but I did tidepool in SoCal. Flew down to LA for a company holiday party, which just happened to include a tidepooling jaunt to Leo Carillo State Park! Leo Carillo doesn't have too much in the way of straight-up pools, but it does have a nice cobble field with many cool things living there. Friends told me to expect sea hares and octopi, and we in fact found both! I was so excited about the sea hares. They were enormous (for sea slugs), and just plane cool. Other things I could recognize were a bunch of Pisaster ocraceus, some moonglow anemones, and striped shore crabs. Among the things I didn't recognize were lots of anemones, big calcareous hunks of colonial worm colonies, and lots of other stuff. Would love to go back.

Caught this tide at Pillar Point. Arrived around 3:30ish to hazy, overcast conditions with moderate surf, fairly turbid waters. Low was a -1.5, scheduled for 6pm, about 1 hr after sunset, so things were still fairly high. Not too much happening in the harbor aside from some buffleheads, loons, and scoters out in the harbor, some willets and a plover along the shore. I did, however, meet up with some birders who had a scope on a Long-tailed Duck! The conversation went something like this:

"What are you guys looking at?"

"Well, we think we're looking at a female Long-tailed Duck"

"A Long-tailed Duck?! No shit!"

"Ah, you're a birder!"

Female Long-tailed Duck it was, in winter plumage. New bird for me, very exciting.

The reef was beautiful, as always, and almost bereft of people, which definitely not always the case. The pool of plenty was still pretty deep when I got out there, so I spent some time examining some higher pools as the sun set, finding a cool Giant Rock-scallop, and a few slugs here and there. When the sun was good and gone, though, things really started picking up. Slugs were everywhere! Abundances were higher than I've ever seen them out there, T. maculata everywhere, with D. montereyensis right behind them in numbers. Numerous clown dorids, and some relative rarities, including Limacia and Dirona picta.

All in all a wonderful evening tidepooling. I need to go out at night more often. Had dinner at Barbara's Fish Trap, which was overpriced and kind of mediocre. Still looking for good food in that area...

Went for a hike at Pt. Reyes with my brother, who's visiting for a spell. Spotted a bobcat on the road right by the entrance to the Muddy Hollow trailhead. Auspicious! Sadly the next notable thing that happened was rain, so we hid under a tree. Then it began to hail. Seriously. Hail in the Bay Area. Eventually the sun came out and we went on our way.

The ponds to the north of Estero de Limantour were especially ducky. Ring-necked, wigeons, all manner of things. We also spotted Tule Elk, and saw a handful of mushrooms, mostly slippery jacks and pine spikes.

Hit The Scoop on the way back. Egg nog ice cream!

Had a very pleasant (albeit damp) walk through Huckleberry yesterday, where the recent rains have left a profusion of fungi and lichens.  Deathcaps remained in abundance, but were joined by a number of Lactarius, and a handful of blewits.  Found a number of cladonia that I'm still working on IDing (I'm afraid the pixie cups are a lost cause).  Still no waxy caps, though I did meet someone who had picked one, so they're on their way.