Close to the bark

  

I returned home from the farmers' market to hear a Brown Creeper calling in our front yard.  Luckily my camera wasn't too far away, and the creeper spent some time feeding in a few different trees.  

Here it is searching crevices in the bark:

 

 

The creeper appeared to be successful locating prey, but the prey was too small for me to see while watching.  However, zooming in on photos later revealed a couple of prey items.

 

A small insect larva at the tip of the bill:

 

 

 

 

And possibly a small spider?

 

 

 

 

Turned out there were two creepers, both feeding along different tree trunks.

 

I love how well Brown Creepers blend in with the landscape of the trees—  the bark and lichens and mosses:

 

 

 

I'm also grateful for such wonderful visitors to our yard!

Falling for fall

  

A few foliage shots from southern New Hampshire on 9 October 2024.

 

 

 

 

 

Fall in New England!

Of time and light

 

 

Curl of time, curl of light.  We're approaching the solstice!

 

Birch bark in Walpole, MA, on 17 December 2021.

 

Upside down

 

 

Sure has felt like life has been turned upside down recently.  That feeling made me think about these Pine Siskins (Spinus pinus) feeding on Sweetgum fruits back in December.

 

Tree frog

Sierran Treefrog (Pseudacris sierra) on a Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), 7 November 2017.  

We're received 0.7 inches of rain so far today (8 November 2017), and it looks like showers will continue for a couple of days. 

A hardy Sargent

 

So I can't talk about "The Cedars" without highlighting the tree for which the area has been named.

It was so much fun to spend some time with Sargent Cypress (Hesperocyparis sargentii).  I was impressed with its ability to grow in such harsh conditions.

 

I also appreciated this insight into its habitat: "Sargent Cypress often grows near redwood in the more mesic bottoms of ravines or on open slopes of the inner Coast Range where fog is nearly continuous."

Recently, I was trying to describe to some friends how much I liked seeing the Sargent Cypress bark.  Although it's not in the same genus, somehow it reminded me of the bark of Atlantic White Cedar from the East Coast.  I hadn't realized how much I missed seeing those long, fibrous furrows and the patterns they make as they wrap around the trunk.

 

Sargent Cypress has a limited geographic distribution — from southern Oregon to Santa Barbara County.  If you want to see some locally and can't get to The Cedars, click here for other locations in Sonoma County.

I was curious how Sargent Cypress got its name.  It took me a little while, but eventually I found out.  It was a fun story for me to learn about because there's a New England connection!

 

Jepson named this tree after Charles Sprague Sargent, the first director of the Arnold Arboretum (of Harvard University) in Boston.  Charles Sprague Sargent was born in 1841, grew up in Brookline, MA (my family has a few connections there), was appointed director of the Arnold Arboretum in 1873 and served as director until his death in 1927.  I did the math — he became director when he was 32 years old and served as director for 54 years until he was 86 years old!

Jepson seems to have made a good choice — he named a hardy tree after a hardy man!

P.S.  Habitat information above from "Cypress Species in Oregon" by Frank Callahan in Kalmiopsis, Vol. 20, 2013.  Biographical information about Charles Sprague Sargent from Wikipedia and the Arnold Arboretum website.

Pears? Or...

The other day, as we were driving along the Coast Highway, my mother (who is visiting from Massachusetts) said, "I think I just saw some pears!"  I've been in California long enough now that I knew what she had seen...but do you have a guess?

Warning: The picture below might give the answer away. 

Although not the actual ones that she saw, these are the same type of "pear-look-alikes":

 

Did you guess the fruit of the California Buckeye (Aesculus californica)?

These large, pear-shaped leathery capsules split to reveal a beautiful, shiny, swirled-with-brown-patterned seed: 

 

Today we were walking at Crane Creek Regional Park (in Santa Rosa), and while stopping to admire California Buckeye trees, we heard a few loud thuds as the seeds dropped to the ground.  Then we noticed quite a few picnic tables under these large California Buckeye trees.  It crossed our minds that it might be a risky time of year to sit at those tables (see below):

 

(Just kidding...no mothers were hurt in the creation of this image!)

While researching California Buckeyes, I came across a wonderful article by Roger Raiche.  He did such a great job, I'm just going to direct you to Roger's article here — California Buckeye: A Tree for All Seasons.  It's totally worth reading.  I especially like his description of how well matched this species is to a Mediterranean-type landscape. 

Giants and pygmies

 

The Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) of the Sierra Nevada are impossible to capture in pictures.  When mature, many trees are 200-300 feet high and 30 feet in diameter.  (The largest trees are over 3,000 years old!)  These images are from the Mariposa Grove on 16 October 2014.

I love the color and texture of the bark:

 

In contrast to these enormous trees, while walking along a path and enjoying the forest, a small gray bird flew in and landed on a lichen-covered branch.  Can you find it in the picture below?

 

It's near the center of the photo, just to the right of the trunk.

Do you know what kind of bird it is?  

The next image will give it away.

 

A Northern Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium gnoma)!  What a treat to be among some of the largest trees and to see one of the smallest owls!  Northern Pygmy-Owls are only ~6-7 inches long and weigh about 60-70 grams (2-2.5 ounces).  Note the relatively long, barred tail.

And did you notice that the owl had a prey item? 

 

I wish I could tell what the owl had caught.  It looks like a small mammal, gray in color, and perhaps with soft fur (like a mole or shrew?).  If you have any ideas, let me know!

P.S.  Although you won't find Giant Sequoias near Bodega Head (they only grow in the Sierras), you might find Northern Pygmy-Owls nearby.  They've been observed in the Willow Creek area.