Herpetology and Ornithology from a Biology Nut
Saturday I went hiking with two friends in the San Jacinto Wilderness. Our chosen trail took us down through a forested area and across desert foothills before dropping down to the cool North Fork of the San Jacinto River. After sitting in the shade near the creek eating hippie-food, we wandered around a bit and looked at the wildlife.
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Bird Notes:
There were a few birds, but nothing out of the ordinary for desert mountains. Dark-eyed Juncos were everywhere, along with a few White-crowned Sparrows, Bushtits, and some Common Ravens calling overhead. At the higher elevations there were a few Steller's Jays, a White-breasted Nuthatch and a Sharp-shinned Hawk.
However, right as we were leaving the river, I spotted an unfamiliar bird drinking from a pool. I didn't have my book with me, so I watched it for a while and talked through the field marks out loud so I would remember them when I got back to where I could look him up. And when I did, I found that it was a Sage Sparrow, a bird that I should have seen ages ago, being a southwest desert native. A good ending to the trip.
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Herpetology Notes:
I have always liked reptiles, but never spent much time learning about different species. But on this trip, there were tiny frogs all over near the river. We thought they might be the endangered Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog, but I did some research and found (this awesome website! and also) that they were in fact California Tree Frogs. The pictures I took really show their incredible camouflage. From the pictures that I linked to above it seems that their pattern is quite variable, evolved to match the subtle variations in their own little habitat.
(We saw a snake too, but didn't get a good enough look to identify it.)
