Sunrise over the bay
James Aliberti and I hiked Sweeney Ridge on 6/2/11. We started from the northeastern parking lot, took Sneath Lane to the Portola Discovery Site, and then continued out the Baquiano Trail to Cattle Hill, before retracing our steps. Views were spectactular. Brush Rabbits were prevalent along the road and trails in the early morning. Our most surprising vertebrate was a singing male Yellow Warbler in coastal scrub atop the ridge. It’s getting pretty late for a migrant, but this is a far cry from this species’ riparian cottonwood breeding habitat.
I snapped shots of a number of invertebrates along the way, as well as a few plants. I’m still working on the identification of the inverts, but it’s hard to get beyond family or genus without specimens.
Brownie Thistle (Cirsium quercetorum).
We were pleased to find this native shoulderband snail (Helminthoglypta sp.) instead of the European Garden Snail. Note the well-defined thin dark band and the more horizontal shell posture.
This is a diurnal longhorn moth, genus Adela. The closest species I could find was the Flame Longhorn (Adela flammeusella).
Longhorn moth (Adela sp., possibly A. flammeusella).
The leafhopper family (Cicadellidae) is huge, so this individual's identification will probably remain a mystery.
Common hover fly - again, a large family (Syrphidae) that leaves little hope of further identification from a field photo.
It was amazing to see Polypodium growing so prolifically on the trunks of Eucalyptus trees. I could not reach these plants, but nearby individuals appeared to be Polypodium scouleri.
Here native Polypodium are competeing for space with invasive English Ivy (Hedera helix) on a Eucalyptus trunk.
Three colors of Seaside Paintbrush (Castilleja wightii).
