Diario de kueda

Went for an uneventful walk in Tilden on Sunday, starting at Big Spring, up to the ridge trail, and back down again (can't remember the name of the trail down). Was kind of hoping for owls, but got skunked, and not in the good way that involves actual skunks. Oh well.

Hadn't been to the coast in forever, so I went out to Duxbury Reef to catch a moderate minus tide on Sunday. Lots of wind made for poor viewing conditions (too much turbulence), murky waters, and probably higher water than one might expect on a calmer day. So the usual crew of egrets and oystercatchers, purple shore crabs, porcelain crabs, gunnels, anemones, not too much out of the ordinary. Only slug was a single Triopha catalinae stranded on a rock out of water.

Went for a second try at an Oceanic Society whale watching trip to the Farallons and had pretty much the best whale watching experience of my life to date. Whales. Lots and lots of whales, doing crazy things.

This was my second attempt to go whale watching with the Oceanic Society, the first being thwarted by high seas. The first also ended unhappily because no one from the Society showed up at the launch site to let us know about the cancellation. There was a number we were supposed to call to check the status, but my crew and about 8 other people didn't notice this little addendum to our receipts. I was very sour.

This time the ocean was flat, we called the number, and everything was good to go. Launched from Sausalito, picked up the rest in SF, then headed out under the Golden Gate Bridge. Harbor porpoise and tons of grebes around the Gate, and we started seeing murres just outside.

The humpbacks were very active around the islands. The first group we found were breaching like no one's business, and the last swam right up to the boat and played with us for about an hour. Pretty amazing stuff.

Saw some new-for-me sea birds too. The shearwaters were especially hard to pick out from a distance. They look a lot like gulls, and IDing them was sort of a process of elimination based on range, amount of whiteness on the underside, and beak color.

Went up to Huckleberry for a quick stroll last weekend. Was kind of hoping for some mushrooms, but saw almost zero fungal activity, save a nice big chicken of the woods growing on a eucalyptus stump along Claremont. That was ok, though, as it gave me a chance to focus on perennial plants. Many things were fruiting, including the huckleberries and honeysuckles. I learned a new tree: the golden chinquapin, a pretty common small tree with nuts like a chestnut and beautiful, thick, willow-like leaves with golden undersides. I need to learn more of my western trees. It's very comforting to walk through the woods at any time of year and and silently recite the name of each tree.

Went out in search of fungal friends last Saturday, but didn't find much. Hit up Huckleberry with pretty much nothing in the way of fungus aside from anonymous LBMs. Went to Chabot next, found some interesting Agaricus that didn't stain that yellow and some oysters, but otherwise not too much activity. Yet.

Went to Briones on Sunday to test out my new copy of the Sibley Guide to Trees. Was somewhat disappointed in the guide, esp. when compared to Biedelman and Kozloff, but had a grand time of it nonetheless, with some nice scenery and myriopods to pass the time. Oh, and did I mention the Common Poorwill? Saw another, but this time I knew what I was looking at, so I approached with caution and ended up within 6 ft of the thing! Got some find pics out of it too. The other highlight was hearing many Western Screech Owls calling in the woods. ID'd the call with iBird, no less!