True Strugz

    But seriously, that was no big deal. Yes it was terribly annoying, but this setback was definitely no match for my crazed bird addiction. After 5 minutes of brooding on my phone looking for an alternative route, I was back on the road. Calaveras Road in a rush hour Milpitas was absolutely horrifying.

At a creek I crossed, I had the chance to carefully examine this Boxelder (Acer negundo). The stems were coated in a delicate layer of pubescence, not unlike a freshly pubescent human, confirming the tree's identity as the native Californian subspecies, rather than an eastern escapee.

    I reached the border of the hills where Ed Levin was located in at around 8:15. A granola bar and half a bottle of water later, I was biking dying up the slope, slowly making my way to the birds. This stretch was interesting, with one side of the road being dry, rocky chaparral and the other side being a lush riparian forest, yielding some nice plants and decent bird diversity. 

Stately Western Kingbird

Black Sage - Salvia mellifera

Singing male Black-headed Grosbeak. 

Elegant Clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata)

Dudleya abramsii growing in decent numbers on one slope. Hopefully next year in the early spring I'll get a chance to come back and check for Sonoran Blues.

Road lined with Seep Monkeyflowers (Mimulus guttatus). Seeing a Pocket Gopher run around in the flowers was a great sight but unfortunately it didn't stick around for pictures.

Classic identification challenge concerning Wild Turkeys and Turkey Vultures. Hopefully this side by side comparison will clear things up.

Despite their ubiquity, it is always nice to see Black-crowned Night Herons, especially this close.

Pretty sad state of things at Sandy Wool "Lake"

Surprisingly, in addition to a few foraging Least Sandpiper, there were 4 late American Pipits on the mudflats. They were entering alternate plumage, a nice sight in California.

Pyrausta subsequalis

California Pyrausta (Pyrausta californicalis) on invasive Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), what I presume it's hosting on.

    Hoping for some nice grassland birds, I parked my bike and hiked up the trail by the dog park. To make a long and disappointing story short, the only real grassland specialty I saw was a Grasshopper Sparrow, and only for a few seconds. The real highlights were a beautiful California Kingsnake that also only gave me a fleeting look before it slithered away and some horse dung covered in many species of shiny flies.

Male Western Fence Lizard with just a glimpse of the side of his stunningly blue belly.

Secondary Screwworm (Cochliomyia macellaria) and some big Sarcophaga sp. that will likely never get identified to species. Also present on this crap were several greenbottles and bluebottles. 

Nice view of the bay

Not sure if holding on for dear life or enjoying said view

A fresh Alfalfa Looper (Autographa californica)

    A bit more exploration and a quick lunch later, I decided it was time to leave the hills and return down to my low elevation home.

Male and female Western Fence Lizards. So much sexual tension.

Mating Tule Bluets. So much sexual tension.

One of the probable pair of Rock Wren seen and heard while going down the mountain. So much sexual tension.

    With all the tension behind me, I stopped by a suburban park to rest as I simultaneously tried to find the way back to the Bay Trail. While removing my backpack...

...Pacific Coast Tick, first tick of the year! 

    I then took a walk through the empty park, leaving my belongings, including my camera, in the field. And of course something really picture perfect happened, as I observed a Black Phoebe swoop over some grass and pluck up a Painted Lady. The butterfly managed to escape a few times but ultimately, the bird won. It was really stunning to watch.

    Continuing my path home, I witnessed Google Maps screw me over as it led me to the freeway entrance. Surrounded by fast moving cars in the middle of nowhere, I asked myself again: "Why the hell do I bird?". Eh I think I'll get back to that question later. But after some more frantic searching on my phone, I found an alternate route. The route took me through a few shady back parking lots where I tried to ignore the weird glances I got in addition to basically the entirety of Cisco Campus but at least before I eventually made it back to Alviso. 

Unidentified snakeskin. I was somewhat tempted to pick it up but also there was the possibility of the snake being a rattler and still being in that area. I was not about to die after what I went through earlier.

Babby Black-necked Stilt. Cute and all, but the real question is: how is it formed?

From these eggs perhaps? idk

Western Gull looking quite intimidating

Crappy product of 15 minutes trying to get this Valley Carpenter Bee in flight.

Not the most educational picture ever, but a side-by-side shot of Western (left) and Least (right) Sandpipers. There were a ton of both peeps on the exposed mud of Mallard Slough in addition to my only Semipalmated Plovers of the day.

Flying Dunlin. One of these days I plan on following these birds north to their Arctic nesting grounds. Hopefully by the time I get to do that, there will still be tundra left.

Mourning Dove nest found while poking around the Environmental Education Center.

Lovely Western Meadowlark

    I then left the Alviso area and continued the trip home. As I stopped to use the bathroom at the Sunnyvale Baylands, I hid my bike on the backside of that building and found this little beauty.

At first when I saw it, I thought it was some species of skipper but after more careful observation, found out it was a very freshly-emerged Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) holding its wings up in a strange fashion.

    Continuing on to the series of salt ponds before Shoreline, the winds started to really pick up. By the time I was at A3W, the waves were almost like those of the ocean. With the full force of the wind in my face and the pebbly, rough trail below, my thighs died a little with each pedal. Thanks Mother Nature for everything.

Alternate plumage Eared Grebe by A2E

First Snowy Plover of the year seen at the Crittenden Marsh. The last and rarest plover species of my 4 plover day.

Most pictures on the internet of Black Skimmer are flawless images of them skimming or at least in flight. But are there any subpar images of them bathing? Nope. And because of that, I win.

Forster's Tern at Charleston Slough. Although I see these almost every time I go birding, I am still awestruck by their simple, elegant beauty.

Fly away, fly away.

    At the end of the day, the areas by the bay where I usually frequent yielded the most species... Still, despite the traumatizing experiences, it was a great trip and I guess it also built character? Because of that huge, birdless stretch of cars and roads called Milpitas, the moral of the story is FIND A BETTER ROUTE. But until next time, enjoy life and love nature!

Was looking through my phone pictures a little while back and found this one. I actually adore this shot as it truly exemplifies my personality as I mercilessly stalk a newly emerged crane fly.

Adventures of a Second Semester Senior

    Following the end of my life's final Science Olympiad competition, I refocused my goals on investigating the uncountable life forms around me. On April 25th before going on a botanical / bird trip to the Foothills, I decided to "get to know" the organisms in my tiny backyard. A quick search turned up a myriad of fascinating invertebrates, many still in the process of identification and many that probably will not ever get identified to species. Stupid lack of different external features and only differing genitalia.

Slightly unexpected Golden Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) 

Unidentified species of ichneumon wasp that I'll try to tack a name onto later. There were a ton of these guys out and about on this one palm leaf. 

Oinophila v-flavum - The Yellow V Moth. 

As I flipped a piece of rotting wood, I found a colony of Western Subterranean Termites (Reticulitermes hesperus). First termites of the year!! Oh wait probably should not be this excited...

Lovely syrphid Toxomerus occidentalis.

Another syrphid Allograpta obliqua. As shown by the last two specimens, when viewed closely, hover fly patternings are strikingly beautiful.

    My dad then drove me to the Foothills, where he was nice enough to join me on a nice walk, traveling at a speed equivalent to whatever your slowest speed is but halved. And thus, the long string of consciousness begins.

Coyote Mint - Monardella villosa. This plant is quite the butterfly magnet. If only its attractiveness worked on coyotes.

Some delicately beautiful California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica).

California Slender Salamander found under a log.

Pendant flowers of Drops of Gold (Prosartes hookeri)

Any arachnophiliacs? Found this lovely while examining the undersides of the Drops of Gold. I believe it is a Theridion sp. but haven't been able to get to species.

Seedpods of Checker Lily (Fritillaria affinis). These are quite the bomb.com but really wish I came earlier to see the flowers.

One of the many Adela septentrionella present. 

Wait so why is this called a Gold Fern? I mean the edges are like yellow-ish but overall it's like - 

- never mind I get it. Seriously, although hard to see in this picture, the spores on the undersides of these fronds are NEON. Really an awesome plant and underappreciated forest gem.

Fluffy fluffy fluffy fruiting bodies of Chaparral Clematis

Flowers of California Groundsel (Senecio aronicoides).

In situ shot

A clump of Indian Warriors (Pedicularis densiflora) with inflorescences well past their prime. If I came a month or so earlier they would probably have been a gorgeous bright magenta.

Indian Paintbrush patch by the trail. 

Skullcap (Scutellaria tuberosa) seen as we entered a more open chaparral habitat.

Naked Buckwheat (Eriogonum nudum), named after its "naked" flower stems which apparently can get quite large. Several Acmon Blues were flying around, probably hosting on this plant.

Bombylius albicapillus, a lovely bee fly species.

A pretty tachinid fly that I will probably not get down to species level but appears to be Peleteria sp.

Golden Yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum). Not a yarrow but rather a close relative of the Lizard Tail, a fairly abundant seaside plant in California.

The appropriately named White Fairy Lantern (Calochortus albus).

Lotsa Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) in bloom, a major plant species of the Californian chaparral biome.

Merriam's Chipmunk peeping out of said Chamise.

A rather interesting fern that first tricked me into thinking it was some legume. Behold, the Coffee Fern (Pellaea andromedifolia).

Pitcher Sage (Lepechinia calycina).

Small Tarweed (Madia exigua).

    As we finally exited the trail after a little over 2 hours (I believe the sign in the front said it would take 30 minutes), I decided to bird at the picnic area, with the prior "hike" yielding nothing really special except for my first *seen* Wrentit for 2015. Lots of Bushtits were noisily foraging in the tall oaks, an Orange-crowned Warbler here, another one there, ooh my first Wilson's Warbler for the year and then...

Finally #300!!!

Gotta love Hermit Warblers. I saw not one but two gorgeous males quite high up (hence the quite subpar pictures). 

And to add just a bit of cake under the icing, my first Warbling Vireo seen for the year! Overall a great day!

    Two days later, I decided to do my second attempt in biking up to Ed Levin, following my bike tire failure and laziness during Spring Break. I woke up at 5:30 am and got to see a nice sunrise at Salt Pond A2E plus many birds. The low tide brought in tons of shorebirds, fairly unusual for that location, and I got great views of various peeps in alternate plumage. Additionally, many of the peeps were foraging on the trail itself, a strange but not too unexpected sight.

Lovely alternate plumage Dunlin.

3 Lesser Scaups to the right and 2 Ruddy Ducks to the left to the left.

Audubon's Cottontail

Lovely male Bufflehead.

As I traveled through A3W, I had a very cooperative Clark's Grebe that gave me great opportunities for photography in the early morning's glassy still water.

Only Golden-crowned Sparrow and Zonotrichia in general for the day seen at the Sunnyvale WPCP.

Canada Geese in both cute and annoying modes.

Trust me, these are Whimbrel lol. 

Stunning male Hooded Oriole. Sigh... Again my shaky hands lead to the downfall of a potentially epic photograph.

Lovey Eurasian Collared-dovey courtship

Long-billed Dowitchers are so pretty as they enter breeding plumage with their delicate shades of brown and black tinged with white.

A large cloud of Cliff Swallows by Saratoga Creek. Nature is awesome.

    By Alviso, I saw my first Northern Rough-winged Swallows and White-throated Swifts of the day nesting beneath Highway 237. It was then time for me to leave the pleasant Bay Trail and start biking through quite unpleasant areas next to a lot of cars. Unlike my attempt 5/30 of last year, however, I managed to not get lost. All seemed to be going well until...

FUCK. THIS. SHIT.

To be continued....