Mander

Seven inch Pacific Giant Salamander.

Sally's

The Farallones endemic subspecies of the Arboreal Salamander:


And the Farallon Cricket:

March

We've had a quite a bit of rain over the last couple of weeks, which is always tough, but is especially hard for the new interns trying to get the hang of things. Holding and processing a couple of birds per week doesn't promote much progress for anyone. But, so it goes. We had this whole weekend off due to rain, but did get a very nice afternoon for hiking.

There was a tree down on our road, so we decided to head to Alemere Falls, yet again, as no one but me had been there.

On the way we found...
A slender salamander


This other salamander...


This HUGE downed tree on the path (Todd for scale)


Todd (nest searcher), Maria (bander), Cara (bander)


The falls


ALSO, the banders went out for a day with the nest searchers to get familiar with the grid system, as we will be going out to band nestlings later in the season. This area is ridden with poison oak, so when going out in it we dress ourselves in random "oak" clothes that we don't care about destroying. For example:

5 days off

Its just the start of the spring banding season, and since I am staying on, they let me take 5 days off in a row! Great timing too. My parents flew in Wednesday, spent that afternoon and Thursday with me, my brother got in Thursday night, we all hanged out around Point Reyes on Friday, had a wonderful pizza party with my friends in Oakland, and then watched CUT dominate a weekend of frisbee, winning their second (of 2) tournament of the winter! Great visit by all.

And now some pictures:







Bishop pine




At Abbott's Lagoon










My BRO!


Horse tails of some kind


Open horse tails


On the coastal trail






Eggs?


Lil hermit crab


In Muir woods, checking out redwoods:








Small redwoods