Salamander season ... What Salamander season?

God, Salamander season has been rough.

As I posted earlier, the weather here in Northern California has been warm and sunny all "Winter" long.

But we finally got a good rain on leap day morning, so that afternoon I headed out to the center of campus for a little 'phib hunt while my model organism did its thang for a few hours.

I flipped a dozen or so Ensatinas in about an hour. All looked about the same and I neglected to put in the effort it takes to snap a photo of a single one.

See my goal was not Ensatina, or Batrachosep, which shockingly I got shut out on, but the elusive Santa Cruz Black Salamander, Aneides niger. I had found juveniles last year and was on the hunt for an adult.

I had given up about 20 rocks ago, but half heartedly flipped a couple dozen more rocks and under the third to last rock I flipped was this little guy.  And when I say little, I mean TINY!









This youngster was under a rock that was on very wet dirt.  Adults are usually found under rock on rock. However, every (3, small sample size warning) juvenile I have found has been rock on dirt rather than rock on rock.







No adults, so back to the drawing board, but they have to be close by for a baby like this to exist.  Might already be too late this year, but the good news is that it was wet enough this season to produce this little guy, so the breeding season was not lost.

I still have not gotten my flash fixed so apologies for the less than perfect long-exposure images, but thought they were still worth sharing.

Brewer's Corner: To Grandmother's House We Go

I have a few of homebrew posts to write and get up here on this blog, but I have been spending more time drinking beer than writing about beer.

We will get started with a Red Ale that I brewed with my good friend Alex, aka onegoodarm.  This was a bit of a kitchen sink ale, where we threw a recipe together from the grain and hops we had left-over from a few other brews.  However, the brew crew had recently brewed both American and Irish Red Ales, so we had the material for another Red.  The American Red was the second beer I ever brewed. It was decent but was not awesome.  The real problem with it was that it kinda fell in between two different styles.  It was not malty and bready enough to be an Irish, but was not quite crisp and hoppy enough for an interesting West Coast American Red.

We decided to fix this with a new recipe and dry hopping the smack out of it.  4ozs total of dry hop went into it and a hoppy American Red Ale was born.  We christened her Little Red Hopping Hood. Probably the most clever beer name I have come up with to date. We dry hopped in the keg so as the keg matured and the keg got drank, the beer changed.  It was probably best at week two, T-minus 2 gallons when the hops gave off the perfect, albeit strong, floral, herb aroma.

Primary fermentation prior to transferring

Transferring to the soda keg

Yes, Little Red Hopping Hood was clever, but I have seen a few craft beers out there with great pun names that I really wish I had thought of first.

(1) Hoptimus Prime by Legacy Brewing: Reading, PA.
(2) Tricerahops Double IPA: Nikasi Brewing: Eugene, OR
(3) Hopacolypse: Drake's Brewing: San Leandro, CA (I am drinking this as I write this post and at 9.6% it is certainly a big boy beer, but has a very fresh hop flavor. Highly recommended)

Help a brother out with any good Hop puns that I can use for an upcoming IPA.

In the glass after 3 weeks of dry hopping

Let's Talk About the Weather

Old pic but you get the idea. Actually no clouds in the sky today.

If you don't live in the Bay Area you are poor soul with no hope for a happy life ... it is 75°F outside today ... In February.

Time to go buy some brewing supplies and get outside.

2012 Wish List

Photo by Flickr user Lon&Queta used under a Creative Commons License

Instead of a New Year's Resolution to lose weight, or drink less beer (those two may go hand in hand and should get done) I decided to go with something I am more likely to accomplish.

In 2012 I am going to check off some species on my herp life list.  I am going to set an ambitious goal for 4 of the top 10. Here are the top 10 that I actually have the possibility of checking off.  I am not going to get to Hellbender or Pseudotriton habitat this year. These are not in strict order so I reserve the right to switch the order around as I deem fit.

(1) California Mt Kingsnake: Pyromelana zonata (embarrassing I don't have this yet, I know)

(2) Santa Cruz Long-toe Salamander:  Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum

(3) Gila Monster: Heloderma suspectum


(4) Large-blotched Salamander, Ensatina eschscholtzii klauberi: I will be in San Diego in March if any one has tips on this guy.

(5) Black-headed Snake, Tantilla sp.: I am not picky and I will take any species.

(6) Speckled Rattlesnake: Crotalus mitchellii

(7) Regal Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma solare: Not sure if I will get far enough South but it is going on the list

(8) Black-tailed Rattlesnake: Crotalus molossus

(9) Western Spadefoot Toad: Spea hammondii

(10a) Variable Groundsnake, Sonora semiannulata semiannulata (Another mystifying miss)


(10b) Green Toad: Anaxyrus debilis

I cheated and went with 10a and 10b because I could not decide what to leave off the list, yet wanted to give myself a chance at getting 4. If forced I might narrow the list down by cutting one of the two Crotalus species. If I don't make it to Arizona as planned, this is going to be a really tough goal to reach.

Last year I got the biggies Ambystoma macrodactylum sigillatum, Chionactis occipitalis occipitalis,
and Anniella pulchra. Which reminds me that I never posted on either of these latter great finds. The Shovel-nose was found in the Mojave and the Legless lizard was found with the guidance of Randomtruth.

Two years ago, the biggest find was California Desert Tortoise. I went from seeing none to seeing both a male and a female, and a yearling.  Desert tortoises showed their faces again last year (this post  includes the pictures from 2010 as well as 2011).

What is on your 2012 wish list?  I will even accept modern dinosaurs (aka birds).

Waterfowl at YLR

It was a beautiful morning Thursday at Younger Lagoon with a wide variety of waterfowl and other birds out and about.

A pair of white tail kites were harassing a marsh hawk then perched on the a wire fence and coyote bush.

Mallards

Male Green-wing Teal

His female traveling partner

A pair of Spoonies

Lesser-Scaup?

A male heavy group of Ring-neck ducks

Close-up of piece of Garter Snake

I found this piece of garter snake on the trail.  It had been eaten up by something.