Arastradero Adventures

    Going back a little bit from the day at Alviso, on the 12th, a couple friends of mine and I biked to the Pearson-Arastradero Preserve after volunteering nearby-ish for a nice, little hike (after a bit of coercion). The trip up was not too uphill and not as utterly exhausting as I had imagined. The first bird of interest seen on the adventure was a yellow canary, no doubt an escapee. Unfortunately I did not have my camera so all pictures were taken by phone.

Poor little guy that I will call Jasper. Hopefully he finds shelter before winter comes.

    At the preserve, we locked our bikes, filled up our water, and embarked on the little adventure filled with wrong turns, spiders, selfies (not included for your viewing pleasure), and no year birds. Oh well. At least it was a blissful afternoon with friends. Better enjoy this time in my fleeting summer.... 

The same milkweed I reported a few posts before now hosts a monarch caterpillar!

One of the tons of funnel weaver spiders (no clue which species). Not to be confused with the Sydney funnel-web spider from Australia which has an extremely venomous bite.

This picture very accurately captures our souls. Birder on the left, artsy photographer  (photo credits to Ivy L.) in the center, unicorn on the right.

    Now fast forward to the 17th. Again, I went to the Arastradero Preserve but this time alone. As with last time, nothing breathtaking or very interesting was seen. As a picture is worth a thousand words, I will now allow them to briefly describe the day.

A parent turkey leading 3 adorable poults greeted me as I arrived

Preening blue-grey gnatcatcher

My first seen wrentit of 2014! I had heard these shy birds in both San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties this year, even as early as in January with their chip-chip-chip-chip-chip songs that start slow but quickly speed up.

Feeding on some sort of elderberry

Some member of the family Dolichopodidae: the long-legged flies (Not even going to try to get to genus). It's so shiny.

First county Wilson's warbler!

Trirhabda sp. (identified by the lovely, awesome folks on bugguide.net) on our favorite individual Asclepias that has been in every single 2014 post about Pearson-Arastradero. Unfortunately this time the monarch caterpillar was no where to be seen... Hopefully it was safely concealed beneath a leaf. Speaking of bugguide.net, if you are at all interested in insects and have some knowledge of your identification, PLEASE make an account and help out. The id request never has enough people and many pictures get overlooked as the stream of new ones are added. This PSA was brought to you by Jasen Liu.

The next day I took a walk around the neighborhood. I went to Ohlone Elementary School as gulf fritillaries are often present and I desired to photograph them. Unfortunately, they're only present when I don't have a camera. Oh well. At least this lovely gray hairstreak appeared nearby.

Some sort of leafcutting bee also found on that walk. The cool things about this family of hymenopterans is that they collect pollen on sub-abdominal hairs rather than on leg baskets like the honeybees.

    And with that, I am ready to start writing my Indiana trip report! Woot woot. I will try to get that done before leaving for New York this Sunday... Until then, enjoy nature and love life!