Oso Flaco Teacher Field Reports

Mrs. Rivera @ Taylor School: . . . . Mon, Jan 21, 0:31PM PST (-0800 GMT) Visit To Oso Flaco Lake and Dunes Tom Neuman, our wonderful guide, greeted us at the parking lot (N35.02901, W120.61759). Meet Tom Neuman…

We headed down the causeway and it wasn’t long before we found a Dusky-footed Wood Rat’s nest. These nests look like piles of leaves and debris. They can grow to be 7 or 8 feet, because the wood rats add on to it every year. This is what these nests look like…

Just down the way we found

Hooker’s Primrose (N35.03085, W120.62005) And some Russian Thistle (N35.03085, W120.62041) (The photograph was too blurry to post). We saw some American Coots on Little Oso Flaco lake before going on to Big Oso Flaco. The bridge over big Oso Flaco lake begins @ N35.03113, W120.62041 and ends @ N35.03052, W120.62555. This is a view of the bridge heading west towards the ocean with a little island to the right. There are several islands like this one on the lake. They are mostly covered with sedges like these…

From the bridge we saw Double Brested Cormerants

Flocks of birds in flight

and an American Bittern The workers who built the bridge had some fun leaving their mark. Here is one of the happy faces they left as a record of

their work… This happy face is located @ N35.03052, W120.62333. On the other side of the bridge we get into a Dunes Scrub Habitat. This is a photograph taken from the west end of the bridge @ N35.03052,

W120.62555. Along the walkway we found

Blue Lupine as well as Silver Bush Lupine and Beach Primroses and some very dainty Western

Asters There are a lot of exotics (imported, non-native plants) on the dunes. A lot of these are remains from when the Dunites (people living on the dunes) inhabited this area. The department of conservation is trying to control these “exotics” . At N35.01899, W120.57604 and N , W we spotted Sand Treadder Cricket tracks. They almost look like bicycle

tracks… At N35.01899, W120.57604 we also

found a Kangaroo Rat hole and tracks Not far up the path we encountered a group of people from Menlo Park who had come to do some bird watching. They had a powerful scope with them and had a bird focuses in their viewer. I have yet to find out what kind of bird it was, but here is a photograph of the bird through the scope…

View of the dunes and the

ocean Our final destination was a grand dune. To be more specific, a Barkan dune. This is a crescent shaped dune formed in this shape because of the wind and how the sand bounces off of the ground. At this point our location is N35.03460, W120.62788

Barkan Dune at Oso Flaco On our way back we found a Dune strawberry From the bridge we spotted a Kingfisher (no photo available) and a couple of Cinnamon Teal

Ducks At the end of our journey we arrived back at the bus and could not catch a satellite to post our reports : ( Maybe next time : ) Mrs. Rivera You can email me @ [email protected] or [email protected]

Nancy Ortiz, Los Olivos Elementary School: . . . . Mon, Jan 21, 8:54PM PST (- 0800 GMT) Oso Flaco Lake and Guadalupe Dunes Hike by Nancy Ortiz (www.dunescenter.org) Our small group was greeted by Tom Neuman, the Dunes Center Education Coordinator. Mark 1: N 35.02912, W –120.61740. He generously opened up his car and presented each of us a free CD about the Dunes Center. He loaned us binoculars too! We shared our use of GPS, with marking points of interest, so he aptly directed our tour to plants and tracks unique to the Dunes area. Mark 2: N 35.0293, W –120.61798. A pair of dusky- footed wood rats have built a first-floor house. Tom told us that each year the houses get larger and taller by an addition ofa new “floor”. He told us these houses were like the Motel 6 in the animal world. Voles and other small animals took up residence in the layers under the newer floors. Mark 3: N 35.03086, W – 120.62008. Hooker’s Primrose. The tall yellow plant is one of the few remaining flowers in the dunes. We asked about the tall skinny plants on both sides of the main walk and Tom taught us a rhyme for remembering them. “Sedges have edges, reeds are round, grasses live near the ground” (or something like that). Mark 4: N 35.03119, W –120. A cute Ruddy Duck, a male because of the blue beak, floated in Little Oso Flaco Lake. We turned left, onto the man-made bridge(of recycled plastic boards). Mark 5: N 35.03053, W –120.62329. From the middle of the bridge we were able to use our binoculars to identify some unusual water birds, like the Bittern, King Fisher, and the Western Grebe. In the distance, a hill is covered with Giant Coeopsis, the Dr. Suess plant. The area is on private land, so is preserved. Tom said that in the spring that you can find 50 different kinds of wildflowers there. He also pointed out the transition zone from the Riparian habitat to the Chaparral habitat. Willows mark this habitat change, where animals hide until they venture into the lower plant habitat of the Chaparral. Mark 6: N 35.03060, W –120.62476. Our tour of the chaparral plants began with some familiar plants, like yarrow, lupine, and buckwheat, and some unfamiliar, like the Senecio (groundsel), yellow arboreal lupine, false heather and an African invading plant, the slender-leafed ice plant. Mark 7: N 35.03060, W – 120.62476. This was a quick trip to a Barkan sand dune, where the wind was showing its’ ability to create the moon-shaped dune. Tom told us that these dunes usually had a 38 degree angle, because of the sand particle sizes unique to this area. We went back to the cars and played with our GPS units to see how fast we could walk on our return trip. Birding people shared sightings of other birds. It’s neat that these “birders” share their enthusiasm, with novice learners and experienced alike.