Ramblings with Rebecca May 16, 2005 FINAL ISSUE

Wow! Can you believe it is already the end of the spring hiking season? And what a great season it has been! Please check your backpacks for nets and hand lenses, and so forth before leaving the preserve on your last hike day of the season. Sister, bredowii This is my very LAST official issue of the Ramblings! I’ve been honored to write these field notes for you for the last 8 + years! Thanks for everything you give to these programs. I know you’ll join me in encouraging the incoming Bouverie Biologist to find his or her own way to share trail highlights with you next Fall. By the way - I’m looking forward to the June 2nd evening celebration and to the Annual Meeting and Night Hike on June 7th! I hope to see you at both! I just ordered new black lights for the night hike! Look out scorpions and fungi, here we come!! And, there are new books being processed for the library (summer reading?) and old books available for sale to support it…. So be sure to cruise through the stacks when you next come to Gilman Hall. Have a great summer, and let us all know what you see out there (Remember, you can post interesting natural history sightings to the Bouverie Docent page of the ACR Website… all summer long)! And, as you enjoy the changing seasons, please continue to spread the word far and wide about the GREAT opportunity for friends, and colleagues to become Bouverie Docents this fall! Karen Sommer and Barbara Ramsey would love to tell you more about how you can help support the upcoming training. Applications are being accepted NOW!!

GILMAN HALL / NATIVE GARDEN / PARKING LOT AREA As you hike through the garden take note of how amazing it looks and join me in thanking Susan Trembley for all of her diligent gardening efforts over the past few months, and in particular for leading a crew of Monday morning volunteers (including Ken Ackerman - thanks Ken!) in a recent purge of invasive weeds that were making a concerted effort to crowd out the carefully cultivated natives here! As a result, the garden looks absolutely GREAT!

Calycanthus occidentalis, Western Spicebush, is in full flower right now, so you will probably see many of the gorgeous –if tropical-looking flowers and buds on these native growing under the Gilman Hall office windows. Spicebush flowers are well adapted for pollination by beetles, which can enter the flower through its many petals, but have a hard time escaping through the floral parts that function like prison bars. Once the beetle drops off the pollen it picked up from another flower and picks up pollen from the flower it is trapped in, the inner parts of the flower fold back, allowing the critter to escape with the goods! What’s in it for the beetle? The stamens and other flower parts produce food bodies, which attract and feed the beetles. Often on warm late spring days ( but not yet this year…), we have watched in wonder as Yellow Jacket wasps flew in and out of the spicebush flowers… apparently after the same protein-rich repast. After the flowers fade, look for the brown, woody, urn-shaped container

Spicebush capsule. that forms around the small fruits. This container develops from the receptacle which surrounded and supported the flower parts. The individual fruits that form within contain poisonous seeds, which are unlikely to appeal anyway, since each is surrounded by a fruit the size, shape and color of hairy mouse droppings! ON THE TRAIL: YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Trifolium campestre is the tall yellow Hop Clover blooming along the edges of the Yellow Brick Road trail.

ON THE WOODLAND TRAIL: Here, I noticed a California Sister (Adelpha bredowii) sunning on the trail. The greenish-yellow caterpillars

Hop Trefoil; a.k.a. Hop Clover, Trifolium campestre of this feed on oak trees, and emerge after about a week from eggs that have been laid singly on the tips of Quercus foliage. Caterpillar photo from Each phase in the lifecycle of any butterfly is so Caterpillars in the Field and Garden remarkable that it is easy to begin thinking of that single used for this educational purpose only. stage as an entity in itself. It’s helpful to remember what this crawling stage of life is all about, though. Caterpillars have in common with the young of many species, the attributes of voracious feeding and rapid growth. An individual flutter-by-baby might outgrow three or four increasingly larger skins in the course of a two to three week period… reminding me of the rapidity with which our kids outgrew shoes and jeans when they were wee fry. As this lepidopteran larval phase matures, there can be other notable changes, including changes in coloration – in some species – even before each vermiform juvenile takes the irreversible leap into the “here-comes-the-transformation” chrysalis (I must be waxing nostalgic… my own larvae have morphed into awesome adults of late, and the transformation is no less wondrous, if a bit less dramatically externalized, in human form)! Although the late season rain has made me wonder a few times, I’m now, finally, convinced that it must indeed be May: The Mariposa Lily, luteus, is a bright yellow chalice against a backdrop of grain-brown annual grass thatch, on the west (right) side of the trail just before the junction with the wildflower preserve overlook spur. After the Woodland Trail curves, on the down-hill side just past the broken Blue Oak branch, there are many true Brodiaea lilies in flower!! I know some of you have been waiting for the chance to call a Brodiaea a Brodiaea… and these are not Calochortus luteus, only Brodiaea, they are Elegant Brodiaea (Brodiaea elegans)! note the pollinator, wings outstretched. Mariposa Lily The golden days of summer are nearly upon us… and this is a wonderful time to appreciate a few of the native grasses of the preserve. One of my favorite perennial grasses at Bouverie is the California Brodiaea elegans, Melic, Melica californica. On the uphill side of the Woodland Elegant Brodiaea trail – about half way along the “straight-away” parallel with the A true Brodiaea at Bouverie! southern property boundary, watch for a large stand of tall Soaproot (Chlorogalum pomeridianum) flowering stalks, thick with unopened flower buds… and then notice the delicate, papery- textured spikelets of California Melic nearby…. Looking something like this:

California Melic close up

California Melic As I walked in the open oak woodland, Violet-green Melica californica Swallows were making quite a racket overhead. A native perennial grass These colorful swallows feed on a range of flying with a papery texture. , including leafhoppers, beetles, wasps, ants, flies, and bees. Unlike most other swallows, Violet-green Swallows often forage above the tree canopy. This is the behavior I see most often at Bouverie. They’re also known to forage off the surface of ponds and occasionally on the ground as well. If there is a lot of food, Violet-green Swallows forage in small flocks together and with other species. May is peak breeding season for these iridescent songbirds. The female does most of the nest building, using stems, twigs, grasses, fur, and sometimes horse hair. The male brings feathers for lining the nest. Nest building can take from about one week to as long as three weeks. Females lay one egg per day. A typical clutch holds four to six white, unmarked, smooth eggs… (unmarked white eggs are common among hole-nesting birds – while ground nesting birds more typically produce eggs marked with spots and streaks … why do you , and the kids, think that might be???). The female VGSW incubates the eggs, and, the male guards the nest when she takes breaks. After about 15 days, the eggs hatch. About 25 days later, the young fledge. Female Violet-green Swallows are very loyal to their nesting area… about 80% return to the same nesting area each year, and about half use the same nesting spot as in prior years!

Í A number of insects can cause damage of this kind to oak leaves. One such critter is the California Oak Moth, Phryganidia californica, in its early larval stage. As the larvae mature, the damage they do to leaves increases. These effects also compound as the seasons progress and leaf damage can be more pronounced in summer than in early spring. Another possible leaf-eater is the Live Oak Ribbed Casemaker, Bucculatrix albertiella, which has larvae that chew out leaf-miner style tunnels when young but skeletonize the leaves as they mature…. So, different species of can cause a very similar effect on leaves while at opposite ends of the larval maturation spectrum! I saw a few leaves showing evidence of this Blue Oak with skeletonized leaf. kind of feeding as I moved from the open oak woodland under the canopy of Blue and Oregon Oaks just before the Woodland Trail Lunch Spot. I only saw a little “damage” on this tree, which was very healthy. As I approached the Loop Trail which connects the Bark House area and the Yellow Brick Road, I saw scads of Blow Wives (Achyrachaena mollis) in fruit. A classic example of a wind- dispersed seed, this is also a typical example of a member of the sunflower family, and as such, has chaffy (papery-parachute) fruits which each contain a single seed. These fluffy fruit-balls are Blow Wives deconstructing as I write, falling apart and being caught by passing gusts of wind, to start anew somewhere else.

LOOP TRAIL Coming down the Loop Trail toward the Yellow Brick Road, I was pleased and startled (“Is it really late enough for these already?!”) by Wine Cup Clarkia, Clarkia purpurea, in flower to my right (east). Usually when this Clarkia begins to flower in the lower regions of the preserve, some of the more showy Clarkias begin flowering higher up the trail… Although I didn’t get that far, I’d suggest that you look also for Red Ribbons (Clarkia concinna) and Elegant Clarkia (C. unguiculata) along the fractured rock wall en Wine Cup Clarkia, route to the waterfall overlook. Clarkia purpurea Watch for active Harvester Ant holes here too!

Between Josephine’s Rock and Canyon Trail: You’ll probably come across a partial deer skull on a rock on the east side of the trail… what can you talk about with a skull that doesn’t even have any jaws? How about the cranial sutures? Did you know (did the kids?) that when mammals are forming within the mother, the bony plates that make up the skull are not yet stuck firmly together the way they will be after birth? If you look at this partial deer skull, you can see the places where the bony plates fused as the deer developed. After the fawn was born these “seams” between bony plates hardened up to make the skull firm so it could protect the brain. While the fawn was being born though, the plates could still move – just a little – so that the head could squeeze more easily through the birthing canal. The same thing happens to many other kinds of mammals- because for mammals to be born live, they generally have to pass through pretty narrow birthing canals. AND- where this skull is broken, you can see the edges of the orbital rim where the eyes were, and you can also see, along the front, where the nasal passages would have been. It is very interesting to look into the region of a deer skull which connects with the sinuses. In a relatively new skull, you can see layers of thin bone infolded throughout the sinus region. Some species show much more of this than others. When these thin bony plates are covered with moist skin- mucus membranes - they provide more surface area for the gas exchange that occurs when breathing… so it is more efficient than it would be if the air only moved over a single surface in a smooth tunnel. Of course, the reason a skull is so interesting is because it protects the brain- the “nerve center” of the … so why not look for the point where the brain connected to the rest of the deer’s body through the spinal cord? If the kids aren’t sure where to look for this, have the kids imagine their own heads with very long noses and jaws that stick out in front – the way a deer’s do… and then feel where the spine / backbone comes into their own head - way at the back of the skull, well behind the jaw and nose. And, finally, don’t walk away from a big piece of bone like this one without looking to see if any local rodents have been chewing on it for calcium! Often I find tiny tooth marks indicating just that. I didn’t check this skull for them – so you’ll have to tell me what you find. Rodents only chew on bones for calcium in places where plants don’t provide enough of this important mineral… which is usually related to soil characteristics. YELLOW BRICK ROAD TRAIL BETWEEN LOOP AND WOODLAND TRAILS Walking back toward Gilman Hall, I heard a familiar songbird call that kept eluding me. Suddenly all of the training I got from Karen Nagel and Diane Hichwa years ago came back! Of course! It was a Western Wood Pewee singing! If you haven’t ever tried to learn to “bird by ear” I highly recommend it. Birds, as you may have noticed, rarely stay put! Watching them is lots of fun, but listening to them… is sometimes much easier! It takes practice – continually – to know what you’re hearing, but it is a very satisfying skill to develop. When I first learned some of the songs and calls of common birds at Bouverie, I found visual cues helpful as well as recordings, but nothing beats birding with an expert when you’re trying to tune your ear. The Western Wood Pewee is a late season singer here at BP. It is usually in residence only for a few months every late spring and summer and will be gone again in the fall. Fortunately, it has a song that sounds something like its name.

I find the graphic below helpful when I need to review the subtle qualities of this song (usually once each spring!). First published in the 1930’s and reprinted in the 1950’s Aretas A. Saunders’ A Guide To Bird Songs is full of nifty graphic representations, and written descriptions, of bird songs… which can be a help if you’re a visual learner. Although this awesome volume doesn’t include all of the birds we have around here (it has a decidedly eastern U.S. bias), there are a few pearls that have helped me a lot over the years… like the diagrams below distinguishing between the calls of Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks:

Coming close to the culvert where the Yellow Brick Road and Woodland Trail junction, I heard the distinct prrt call, and then the shortened, almost swallowed and repeated sound of the ka-brick, made by the Ash-throated Flycatcher. Saunders’ book doesn’t include this one, and the best advice I can give you if you’re trying to learn it, is to note that the tone of voice is very distinct. The phrases we write to describe bird songs help - as reminders of the general type (buzzy, trilling, warbling, etc) and patterns of sound a bird makes, but they rarely capture the unique qualities of the species’ “voice” very well. For me, the Ash-throated Flycatcher’s voice seems pretty unmistakable, although it took awhile to “get”. It is also a lovely bird. Look for a thin “flycatcher” profile, and then note the reddish under tail color, the pale yellow undertail coverts and belly, the grayish upper body, and bushy crest. Writing this, I realized that most of my favorite “flycatchers” are tyrant flycatchers (family Tyrannidae) – vs – the more difficult Empidonax group. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. Other Tyrants I have known and loved at Bouverie include the Black Phoebe, Western Kingbird, and Western Wood Pewee! At the YBR – Woodland Trail Culvert, look north to see a great, late season bloom of Mimulus guttatus, Seep Spring Monkeyflower, down in the wash. On the uphill slope of the south side of the culvert, White Hyacinth, Triteleia hyacinthina, is flowering- its white umbels of lily flowers nearly overgrown by the annual grasses. This is the same, white - with- green - veins native lily you see when entering the preserve by the main gate. And a last trail note, holdover from last week’s morning reviews (but not yet in 2005 Ramblings ). As you approach the sunny clearing at the Tuff Rock about half way up the Canyon Trail (past the Connector trail junction), watch the trail itself for signs of roughened soil. A closer look will probably show you a series of tiny towers of soil made by subterranean termites. Not inherently evil critters- no matter what they’ve done to your house (sorry though!), termites are important decomposers in nature! These insects make soil towers for releasing their winged reproductives for mating flights. It can be WAY fun to get down on hands and knees with a hand lens, and watch the top openings of these towers for as long as you can keep the kids’ attention… Photo used for this educational purpose only After a few minutes, you might be Winged subterranean termites emerging from mud towers. lucky enough to see the potential flyers emerge!

Black Oak ( to tune of Louie, Louie) Anonymous “Gray squirrel told me just the other day He found an acorn and he ran away Dug a hole and he stuck it in the ground Now tall trees grow across the land. Black oak, black oak Oooo baby, let your xylem flow Yea, yea yea yea! Black oak, black oak Oooo baby, let your xylem flow Yea, yea yea yea! Gray squirrel climbing down Black oak’s leaves have pointed ends the oak tree in my front yard at The conifer trees are their friends Bouverie. Somewhat disturbed In the autumn their leaves fall to the ground to see that there is still a human They’ll be back in spring again goin’ around nearby, it is inadvertently Black oak, black oak posing for the camera. Oooo baby, let your xylem flow *Home range, ~ ½ - 2 acres Yea, yea yea yea! *1-2 litters of 2-6 young / year, Black oak, black oak *Acorns, conifer and bay seeds Oooo baby, let your xylem flow, and underground fungi are Yea, yea yea yea!” primary food sources. Vocal “bark” when disturbed.