Mini Hike at Black Rock Canyon, Joshua Tree NP - March 2013

Life has been a bit crazy so I haven't gotten out into the wilderness much recently, but back in March a couple of friends and I headed out to the desert to check out the Joshua Tree Branch of the Reanimation Library which is part of High Desert Test Sites. A discussion of HDTS is outside the scope of this blog, but it's really a great art project. You should check out their mission here.

After our trip to the library we headed to Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace for some food (which is a given for any trip to the Joshua Tree area) and then had some time before we needed to drive back to LA. Joshua Tree National Park is great, but driving to the entrance station and then through the park would have taken longer than we had so we decided to just go to the closest part of the park which ended up being Black Rock Canyon. Here's where we were:


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The great thing about this area is that you don't have to pay the park entrance fee, but you can still park and get out to explore a bit.

Here are a couple of photos I took in that area:

Joshua Trees in bloom

Maybe a Western Side-blotched Lizard (Uta stansburiana ssp. elegans)

And a bird I spotted hear the Reanimation Library. I heard it before I saw it. Scroll down a bit on this page and you can hear the call.

Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus)

Here is a PDF of the hiking trails if you'd like some more detail. I think we ended up on the California Riding and Hiking Trail. Of course our mini-hike made me want to come back and spend some more time in this area. Retirement couldn't come soon enough. :)

Check out more of my photos from this area in my Flickr set.

Birthday Birding at Malibu Lagoon - February 2013

I got a new camera for my birthday (Thanks T!) with a much better zoom - 20x where I used to have 3x! - so I headed out to one of my favorite local birding spots to see what photos I could get. The low tide was happening around 1:30 pm so after lunching at the Inn of the Seventh Ray (highly recommended!) A and I headed to Malibu Lagoon State Beach. Here's where we were:


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It had been almost a year since I'd visited and the entrance looked much different with all of the construction. They've had some issues for years with bad water flow causing bacteria growth and some areas suffer from low oxygen levels - more info and project updates at the Malibu Lagoon Restoration Project site.

Although access to the water appears to be closed, look for a hand painted sign that leads you to a narrow walkway around the construction site to the water.

We arrived a little late for the lowest tide, but were still able to see many birds feasting and some tide pool life like ochre sea stars, anemone, purple sea urchins, California sea hare, and even a huge Black sea hare and a Giant Keyhole Limpet. 

Funny to find a toy seal in the tide pool!

Giant Keyhole Limpet (Megathura crenulata)

Ochre Sea Star on the rocks

Here are some of the birds we saw at the shoreline. It was my first good look at Black Oystercatchers and I'd never seen a Royal Tern before . . .

Black-bellied Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola)

Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa)

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)

Mew Gull (Larus canus)

Mew Gull (Larus canus)

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)

Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)

Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus)

Willet (Tringa semipalmata)

Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)

And these we saw in the Lagoon area . . .

Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)

Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) and gull

Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)

Female and male Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)

We even stumbled upon the remains of a couple of Brown Pelicans. Strange to see this one with its neck stretched out. The life span of this species ranges from 15-25 years. I wonder if these individuals died of old age or some other cause.

Although I mainly used the automatic settings this day (no manual focusing or adjustment of aperture, etc.) I was thrilled with the zoom and the colors. What a great birthday!

For more photos of mine from this location see my Flickr set.

Abalone Cove Tide Pools - January 2013

I hadn't been to Abalone Cove in Rancho Palos Verdes since November 2011 and I needed some time near the ocean so my friend V and I headed out there on a Friday around noon. The low tide (-1.7 feet) was at 3:30pm giving us plenty of time to stop by the Point Vicente Interpretive center and check in on the annual whale count there before heading down to the tide pools. Here's where we were:


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After we planned our day I read that something called "King tides" was also happening that day - the highest tide of the day was over 7 feet which was one of the highest tides that will happen this year. To learn more about King tides and how they might affect us differently due to climate change check out the California King Tide Initiative.

In any case, I was interested to see if the tide pools would look different after a super high tide. Would it have washed up more sea creatures? Or battered the rocks to the point where many more creatures would be carried back in to the ocean instead of remaining in the pools?

Our first stop in Rancho Palos Verdes was the Point Vicente Interpretive Center. They have an annual whale count and I'd heard that more whales than usual had been spotted so I hoped to see some. The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society has a lot of information on their website including this summary of the 2011-2012 count.

We didn't end up seeing any this time (honestly, we didn't stay long enough to make a good effort!), but it was nice to wander around their little museum and gift shop before heading down to Abalone Cove. The view of Catalina Island and the lighthouse is beautiful. It was a clear day.

When we got to Abalone Cove it was great to see that we were some of the only people there. We parked in the lot for $5. You can enter the lot until 4pm, 7 days a week and leave after sunset. V had never visited tide pools before so she was excited to see what I'd been gushing about for years and she wasn't disappointed. While not as densely packed with sea life as my last trip to this area, there was plenty to see.

We saw (many, many) purple and red urchins, ochre sea stars in orange and purple, starburst anemone, hermit crabs, California sea hares, giant keyhole limpets, small fish, and even a black sea hare and knobby star (neither of which I see often).

Whenever someone new comes to the tide pools with me they bring up more questions about what we're looking at. This day the one that stuck with me was "How long does a sea urchin live?" which made me start to think about the life spans of all of these creatures and how anyone would ever really be able to know that. It's not like you can tag a sea urchin to track its movements!

Anyway, research suggests that the California purple urchin can live as long as 70 years! We'd seen a very small one and thought it might be a juvenile, but I learned later than juvenile urchins are normally light green or greenish tinged with purple. 

Tiny California Purple Urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus)

 We also saw very small California sea hares (about 3 inches long when the ones I normally see are 6 inches or longer) which made me wonder about the sea hare lifespan. Sea hares live for about 1 year. They are hermaphroditic, acting as male and female simultaneously during mating.

Smaller than I've ever seen California Sea Hare (Aplysia californica)

Knobby Star or Giant Sea Star in the center (Pisaster giganteus). You can pick them out because there are bright blue circles around the spines.

Starburst Anemone (Anthopleura sola). I love when you can see the "trunk"!

 Even though I've been to this spot and the neighboring Sacred Cove 6 or 7 times before, the land felt strangely different to me - the waves coming in at a different angle than I remembered and certain areas not easy to reach although the tide was very low. The land is constantly shifting in this area (think seismic activity!) so it's entirely possible that the geography had changed.

As we were leaving, the sun was about to set and we saw 3 or 4 dolphins feeding or playing in the water close to the beach so we watched them for a while. It was a great day away from "the city" catching up with a friend. As always, I highly recommend making the trip out there. It is about an hour drive from Los Angeles.

Check out more of my photos from this location in my Flickr set.

Pines to Palms and Salton Sea - November 2012

Ever since I went to the Salton Sea in November 2010 I've wanted to return. It's such an otherworldly place with a "beach" entirely made up of barnacle, fish, and bird bones and the post-apocalyptic feel of broken down and decaying buses at the edge of the water on Bombay Beach. Plus, you just never know what types of birds you'll see.

From the part information page:

"The park is located on the Pacific Flyway, and 400 different species of birds have been counted at the Salton Sea--almost half of the 900 species known to exist on the North American Continent. During winter migration up to four million individual birds are estimated to use the Sea each day. There is a greater species variety and more individual species here than any other place in the nation."

Here's where it is:


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K and I needed to get out of the city Thanksgiving weekend and although we've been trying to visit Mono Lake, we were unsure of the road conditions and I'd been sick so I didn't want to push it.We decided to visit the Salton Sea.

Taking the direct route, the Salton Sea is a mere 3 hours from LA (take the 10 past Palm Springs and then head south). However, I wanted to make the most of our day and test my (brand new) car so we decided to turn south at Banning and take the Palms to Pines Scenic Byway in reverse. This takes you up through Mount San Jacinto State Park and you emerge on the other side in Palm Desert. Taking this byway adds about 1.5 hours to the trip.

K and I left LA around 10:30am on a Saturday. We made good time to Banning and turned into the park to head up to Idyllwild. This weather was so different than my last trip here. Idyllwild sits at 5,300 feet and I'd told K to prepare for snow at the top (T and I had camped up there in 2010 and practically froze to death!) but it was almost 70 degrees even at the high altitudes. Paired with the fall colors and piles of crunchy leaves it was pretty magical up there!

We planned to stop for lunch, but the Harvest Festival was taking place and the town was packed! We continued on and grabbed some food at the Mile High Cafe on the edge of town while carolers sang to us. After a quick lunch it was back in the car to drive down the mountain. K, who doesn't enjoy high places, had been a little nervous on the way up, and the drive down is definitely not for the faint of heart!

I'm glad we took this route even though it was a quick drive through. I really need to make a point to come back when I actually have time to get out of the car and hike around or visit some of the cute little shops in Idyllwild. I see a spring camping trip in the works . . .

We arrived at the Salton Sea State Recreation Area visitor center about an hour before sunset. There is a parking fee, but it was free for me since I'm a CA State Park member. Due to budget constraints, Bombay Beach and the upper loop of Mecca Beach will be closed until further notice and while I was disappointed not to be able to show K Bombay Beach, that gave us more time to explore areas I hadn't seen before.

We spent some time checking out all of the birds near the dock and farther south along the beach. We saw American White Pelican, Black-neck Stilt, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, Western Grebe, and even a new one for me, a Green Heron.

American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)

Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and a Green Heron (Butorides Virescens) on the dock

Great Egret (Ardea alba)

American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)

Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

 

Snowy Egrets (Egretta thula) trying to look menacing

It was cool to see the herons and egrets land on the trees next to the lake to tuck in for the night. I know birds are light, but I'm always amazed when Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets sit high up on unstable-looking trees and they hardly bend.

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Last time I was here we'd seen (and gotten pretty close to) a Brown Booby which is an uncommon visitor at the sea so I kept my eyes out for one, but we didn't see one. At one point, we saw what looked like Great Blue Herons mating, but it's not the right time of year for that. It must have been a scuffle or something.

The sunsets are always beautiful here with the colors reflecting off of the water and it's very peaceful staring across at the mountains. Here are a couple more photos.

The entire beach is covered with barnacle "bones" and the remains or fish and birds. Surreal.

You can see more of my photos from the Salton Sea in my Flickr set.