Striped grain-eater

 

Someday I'll get better pictures of a Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammica), but I thought I'd share this one for now because it's such a pretty bird.  This species is rare on Bodega Head, but more common inland.

I ran into a flock of about 10-12 Lark Sparrows feeding on the ground at Crane Creek Regional Park on 15 November 2015.

I hadn't looked into the meaning of their scientific name before, so it was fun to learn that it means "striped grain-eater."  

The name is appropriate in that Lark Sparrows eat a lot of seeds (especially from grasses).  However, I was intrigued to learn that ~25% of their diet can be insects (primarily grasshoppers!).  [Diet facts from The Birds of North America Online.]

Sittin' on the dock near Bodega Bay

Here's a close-up mystery photo for you.  Can you tell what type of animal this is?  (The answer is below the photo.)

 

These are the gill plumes of a nudibranch (sea slug).

Below is a view of the entire nudibranch:

 

Matt let us know that Kelly had spotted a few Polycera hedgpethi at Spud Point Marina.  I took a look on 14 November 2015 and found a few individuals.

On the West Coast, Polycera hedgpethi is generally a more southern species — most books list Marin County as the northern limit.  Although it has been noted in Bodega Harbor before, it might not be that common here.  It's another species that could be responding to warmer water temperatures.

This species has bright yellow markings, but it blends in well with the background of colorful marine invertebrates (in this case, tunicates, bryozoans and tubeworms) living on the docks:

 

Polycera hedgpethi eats Bugula — the purple, branched bryozoan in these photos.  Searching among patches of Bugula is a good way to find this nudibranch.  I'd love to hear about it if you spot any!

What's for dinner?

 

This afternoon, I was watching this Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) eat fruit from a shrub at Crane Creek Regional Park in Santa Rosa.

I was intrigued because I couldn't remember if I had seen flickers feeding on fruit before.  They're primarily ant-eaters. 

Can you tell what type of fruit this flicker was feeding on?

Warning: The next picture will give away the answer.

Okay, here we go.  He was feeding on...

 

Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum)!  Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised.  But if you react to Poison Oak like I do, then you wonder how anything can get that close to it, never mind eat it!

Rolling in

 

A 12-foot northwest swell made for some nice waves this afternoon.  Photographed from Bodega Head on 14 November 2015.

Among the cones

Well, I'm afraid these are just documentary shots.  I heard and saw a few Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) today — along Occidental Road, about 1.5 miles east of Occidental.  They were feeding at the top of a very tall redwood.  So that you, too, can keep your eyes and ears open for them — here are two pictures from 13 November 2015, and a link to an audio recording from Sebastopol in 2012.

 

There are at least three Red Crossbills in the photo above — all on the right side of the trunk, at the top, middle, and bottom of the picture.

And here are two more crossbills showing their red color (one in the upper right, another in the lower left).

 

The link to audio recording from Sebastopol on 9 December 2012 is here.  The crossbills I heard today sounded similar to those from 2012, so I'm guessing they were also Type 3 Red Crossbills.  [For more information about Red Crossbill types, here's an article by Matt Young.]

Hearing their call notes is one of the best ways to find crossbills, so listen for their two-parted call, especially where there are concentrations of cones.

The masses

Back in September, while doing a shorebird survey in Bodega Harbor, a couple of different egg masses on the tidal flats caught my eye.

They attracted my attention not only because they were so noticeable, but also because I have been doing shorebird surveys in the same area for over 10 years now and I didn't recall seeing these egg masses before.

One was bright yellow and wrapped around algae or seagrass:

 

The other was bright white, shaped like a corkscrew, and embedded in the sand:

 

I finally tracked down the snail making the yellow egg masses.  It was a bubble snail, Haminoea vesicula.  Here are two images to help you visualize how the yellow egg masses consist of rows of developing embryos:

 

 

I showed examples of adult bubble snails on 4 June 2015, so check out those pictures here.

I kept meaning to return to find out which species had produced the white corkscrew egg masses, but hadn't found the time.  Today Jeff helped me out — he identified the distinctive egg masses as belonging to Rictaxis punctocaelatus.

Below are two close-ups of these spiraled egg masses: 

 

 

I haven't seen adult Rictaxis yet (it's been on my wish list!), but if you'd like to see examples of these wonderful local gastropods, check out pictures here.

Where have all the sunflowers gone?

 

This picture of a juvenile Sunflower Star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) was taken on 12 July 2014.  I haven't seen a Sunflower Star in the intertidal zone since then.  It appears that this species has declined dramatically in the Bodega Bay area, likely due to the effects of wasting disease. 

This juvenile was ~70 mm across, and had ~14 arms.  Here's a picture for scale:

 

I showed a series of smaller Sunflower Stars from December 2013 through May 2014.  If you'd like to review, links to previous pictures are below:

• 14 mm, 8 arms, 17 December 2013

• 20 mm, 10 arms, 31 December 2013

• 40 mm, 12 arms, 17 May 2014

Here's hoping that some of these juvenile Sunflower Stars have survived:

 

And that someday soon we'll be seeing adults again — like this one from 12 May 2012.