Estero Americano

The 4-day Presidents' Day weekend allowed for a type of adventure that I am hoping to embark on more in the future: waterway exploration.

Recently, my co-teacher and I both became boat kayak inflatable craft owners, opening up areas on the map we have been dying to explore.

The first voyage was to be the Estero Americano/Americano Creek, an estuary that begins as a trickle in Cotati. We were to launch from Valley Ford, where the creek starts to get deep. Estero Americano then defines the boundary between motherland Sonoma and beautiful, but vile Marin.

After collecting some snacks and supplies at the fine deli in town, the craft was prepped and ready to get wet.


It was a chilly, but calm morning and we eased down the estuary enjoying the peaceful surroundings, the green hills and the occasional Bufflehead skimming the water's surface.

About 3 miles in, a medium-sized burrow was spotted. We decided to stop to investigate, and eat lunch.

the burrow

Nearby our landing spot and the burrow, on a small stone rise, remnants of a feast were discovered.



Alongside with the wing and entrails, several pellets were also found.

wing detail

Questions:
Is this the feast of one creature? A dining spot that they frequent? Was this spot connected to the burrow -- Burrowing Owls had been reported in the area the previous week.

Or were there two feedings here? A raptor surprised by another bird or mammal?

This was our conversation as the weather began to turn. The wind picked up and the sky darkened with the threat of rain. Additionally, we feared a lowering tide would make travel upstream difficult, so a return to the launch point was in order.

This fear was realized, as a third of the way back we were grounded several times. We decided to take to foot, deflating our craft and hiking through farmland.


Here, hovering White-tailed Kites and curious Northern Harriers watched over our march through the mud, capping our inaugural aquatic journey with fantastic aerial displays.

Local Condor Talk

Slightly out of focus Condor photo by JK. From Grimes Point on the Big Sur Coast.

From the Santa Cruz Bird Club listserv

On Thursday March 10, the Watsonville Wetlands Watch is hosting award winning environmental journalist John Moir’s presentation “The Race To Save the California Condor From Extinction" as part of our Speaker Series.

By 1982, only 22 CA condors remained in the world. Extinction seemed inevitable until a small group of scientists undertook a risky and controversial program to save our largest bird. With rare photos from the recovery effort, John Moir will recount the riveting saga of bringing the condor back from the brink. In addition, he will explore the current challenges facing the condor program. Moir will also link the condor’s plight to the wave of human-caused extinctions that are sweeping across Earth’s ecosystems and discuss the urgency of new international efforts to save our planet’s biodiversity.

The presentation is from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Fitz Wetlands Educational Resource Center at the top of the Pajaro Valley High School campus,Harkins Slough Road, Watsonville. Admission is free, but reservations are requested by contacting Kathy Fieberling at kathyfieb@yahoo.com or 831-345-1226.
John Moir is an award-winning environmental journalist whose special interest is the preservation of biodiversity. Moir’s nonfiction book Return of the Condor, was a finalist for the 2008 William Saroyan International Writing Prize from Stanford University and was also selected as one of the five best pieces of science journalism in 2007 by the National Association of Science Writers. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian, Washington Post,Christian Science Monitorand elsewhere.

I will be attending.  A beer on me at SmoQe afterward if you want to talk camera trapping.  The Watsonville Wetlands would be a very fun place to put up a camera or two.

Roosters and mi Abuela

Photo by Flickr user Caitlinator

My Grandmother passed away on Monday after a long battle with lung cancer.  She had quit smoking almost 30 years ago, shortly after I was born, but it still got her in the end.  She was a fighter and the kindest, most wonderful person you could ever know.  In her middle age she dead ringer for Sophia Loren.

Originally from Chihuahua Mexico, she taught me many things, among them the art of tamale making. I will always have tamales on Christmas over ham or turkey if I have my way. The key to great albondigas is fresh herbs (one bay leaf the length of your ring finger) and that a good chile relleno can be made in the oven instead of frying it when you are worried about getting fatter. 

My biggest regret in life is not learning Spanish from her as a kid.  We would visit her and my grandfather in Alpine, California for a week or two every Summer.  She thought it would be a great idea to only speak to us in Spanish during that time so that we would learn.  I was a dumb, stubborn kid and refused to participate. Like I said, biggest regret.

My Grandma Morayma was an animal lover and passed that on to me.  Well, she was never too excited about me bringing home lizards and snakes, especially snakes.  In fact she hated snakes, but other animals were her love.  She always had a chihuahua or two ... or four. But her true love was for roosters and hens.  She never met a rooster she didn't love.  I know she always cooked too much rice or corn at dinner so that she "had" to feed the leftovers to the chickens. Christmas always meant some new rooster themed gift. I know other people who like something and get that thing as a gift all the time to the point that they are sick of one more pig statue, but not my grandma.  She never tired of chickens or roosters.  When she got really sick, I know one of the hardest things she had to do was give up her chickens. 

Every time I see a rooster or hear it's call I will think of you Abuela. I love you.

Too close to the truth?

From the fantastic xkcd

Good Birding.

Bite It

The forces of Camera Trapping Campus met up in late December, this time down south at Younger Lagoon. I was to set up a Bushnell Trophy cam, joining Jake's cam on the High Plateau.

The location of this set was a marshy area that was loaded with prints of raccoon, bobcat and deer.

One month later, a camera check. Upon entrance to the reserve, we were greeted by a fine CALIFORNIA THRASHER. We took this as a good omen.

Toxostoma redivivum

The camera appeared quite abused -- muddy from the winter storms and without the plastic covering for the IR flash. A quick search turned up the missing piece and its own damage.



The excitement was soaring, the files could not download fast enough!

Initial photos were full of raccoons and ghostly B/W blank shots.

146 photos in, it appeared.

the best shot of the culprit

What could have caused the coyote to maul the camera? Certainly not the flash, for that is infrared. Perhaps the overwhelming stimuli caused by a scent?

Later, our mangy friend stopped by for a noble portrait. Or was it his mugshot?