After my shift at the Visitor Center, I sat by the creek and sketched the view.
monochrome landscape
Tag: malibu creek state park
Keckiella cordifolia
I love these delicate little chalice-like seed pods.
boring
We offered a beginner’s class at Nature Journal Club today, and thirty people came! After spending an hour learning the basics, everyone wandered off to journal their curiosity. Having just done a training on identifying invasive borer beetles, I was interested to record some data about insect activity on a fallen oak log. Boring? Nope, fascinating!
Dryobates nuttallii
I see acorn woodpeckers all the time, but rarely spot a Nuttall’s.
Caloptes aurates
I’m a total sucker for a bird with spots, so of course the gorgeous Northern Flicker is one of my faves. I was so happy to hear and see them on Friday’s hike.
Tapia Spur
A beautiful early-morning hike, birds out in profusion and the damp ground alive, popping with mushrooms.
Afterwards, I was at a holiday party for the park volunteers, and someone said that his house (like mine, and so many others’) had burned down in January, and that the people in our organization had really helped him to heal. I had to add that nature itself has been my greatest healer. Just to be able to walk under those massive oak trees, and watch the deer watching me, and see the red-tailed hawk fly so close — the natural world is truly a huge aid to trauma recovery.
So thank you greenery, thank you birdsong, thank you thank you moss and fungi.
creeky
I’m preparing to lead a Welcome Walk at Malibu Creek State Park, so I created this graphic to explain the creek action. It gets a bit confusing as you walk the main trail because at first the water is flowing one way, but then it’s suddenly flowing the other way. They are actually two different creeks!
Omphalotus olivascens
We saw these huge, gorgeous, rich orange-gold mushrooms growing among the roots of a coast live oak. Apparently this species is bioluminescent! And poisonous. Says Wiki: ”while not lethal, consuming this mushroom leads to very severe cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea.”
i see faces
Allison had just finished telling a story about a comedy show featuring vegaliens, when I noticed some oak tree bark doing a good imitation of a vegetative alien.
Quercus lobata
The squirrels are happy. But the acorn woodpeckers are going to have drill bigger storage holes!
hashiworks 