| The Magazine of the CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES |
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Naturalist's Almanac What to See This Fall October When in danger, pronghorn antelope (aka "blink-and-stink antelope") spread the long, stiff, white hairs on their rears flatly apart so that they flash like two giant chrysanthemums. Meanwhile, glands at the base of these hairs secrete a strong scent to alert others of predators. In autumn, pronghorns gather into large, loose mixed herds, and feed on sagebrush and bitterbrush scrub. Trek into the gold country along Highway 49 late this month and you'll be rewarded with fall colors hanging among the oaks, redbud, and dogwood. Heading up to the Sierra Nevada provides splashes of gold shimmering on the branches of aspens amid the verdant evergreen forests. In the mid- Sierra, drive along Highway 89 from U.S. 50 near Lake Tahoe to the junction with Highway 88 in the middle of Hope Valley. Further south, check out Tioga Pass at the east entrance of Yosemite, Walker River Canyon off of U.S. 395, or the town of Bishop, which sponsors the Bishop Fall Color Festival: (619) 873-8405. Call the U.S. Forest Service's toll-free fall color hotline: (800) 354-4595. This month and next, Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands offers superb views of bald eagles, ospreys, peregrine falcons, and northern harriers along with 15 other raptor species. (See Feature Story Soaring with the Hawks.) Now that summer crowds have retreated to their homes and offices, California beaches invite exploration. The gentle waves of summer have left wide deposits of sand near the shore, and the beaches are broader and flatter than they will be after winter's heavy waves. Look for tidepool creatures like the red-banded shrimp, mossy chiton, leather star, clingfish, anemones, and nudibranchs at rockier beaches along the coast. Harbor seals have finished weaning their pups, so the breeding season begins anew. Seal breeding grounds are located in Tomales Bay (415)669-1140, Point Reyes and Bolinas Lagoon in the North Bay (415)663-1092, and Coyote Point in the South Bay. NovemberFind unparalleled winter bird watching at the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, in Imperial County. The year-round bird list here includes at least 380 species, more than almost anywhere in the US. Rough-winged and bank swallows, Scott's orioles, orange-crowned and yellow-rumped warblers, white pelicans, redstarts, burrowing owls, and moutain plovers are just a few of the winter residents. You can't get much closer to taking a safari in California than on the road between Lava Beds National Monument and the tiny city of Tulelake. To increase the chance of encounters with coyotes, bobcats, deer, pronghorn antelopes, mallards, egrets, coots, snow geese, white pelicans, caspian and Forster's terns, ride a bike. To escape the icy weather of Alaska and Northern Canada, tundra swans flock to California's Central Valley during the fall and winter. With their loud honk, tundra swans are seen and heard around the Eel River Delta just south of Eureka in the Klamath Basin NWR Complex, the Nature Conservancy's Cosumnes River Preserve, and Woodbridge Road Ecological Preserve near Stockton. California gray whales begin passing northern California on their way south to Baja California. After spending the summer feeding off the Alaskan coast, the whales begin their annual twelve-thousand-mile journey to the warm waters off Mexico, where they breed. Outside the Golden Gate, up along the Marin coastline, and in Monterey Bay, gray whales are spotted frequently during their winter and spring migrations. Other viewing spots include Point Lobos State Reserve (408)624-4909, Point Pios, and Cypress Point. Also look for Pacific white-sided dolphins and Dall's porpoises. Salmon are spawning in coastal streams through January. DecemberLike the Pied Piper calling forth the rats, so the first rains of winter bring banana slugs. Unlike most slugs, which come out only at night or during damp days, those in redwood forests feed during most days of the wet season. Leaving telltale trails of slime, banana slugs slither about in search of herbaceous leaves and decaying vegetation. Banana slugs can be found in redwood forests from Big Sur to the Oregon border. In California, the best places to see these invertebrates are Big Basin Redwoods or Butano State Parks (408) 338-6132 & (408) 879-0173; Muir Woods National Monument (415) 388-2595; and Redwood National Park (707) 464-6101. When water evaporating from the soaked ground rises to meet cold air it condenses into thick mats of tule fog seen throughout the tule-reed covered Central Valley wetlands. Slow down. In summer ferns become brittle and withered. First rains bring their rejuvenation. Types include western chain, five-finger, deer, and sword fern. Check out Fern Canyon in Point Reyes National Seashore, and the Fern Canyon Trail in Van Damme State Park near Mendocino. Each year over 50,000 birders participate in the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count. The tradition began on Christmas Day, 1900, when Frank Chapman and friends scattered across the Northeast to see how many living birds they could count. This contrasted with the tradition of hunters getting together on Christmas Day to compete for the biggest bag of dead birds. For a list of sites in the western region: (916) 444-5557. An estimated one hundred million monarch butterflies overwinter from October to March in about 100 California roosting sites extending from Sonoma County in the north to San Luis Obispo County in the south. Monarchs begin mating in January, and by March the colonies of young butterflies leave for their spring and summer destinations. The best known roosting site is in Pacific Grove, but they can also be seen at Sonoma Coast state beaches, Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, and Point Lobos State Reserve south of Carmel.
Compiled by Gordy Slack, Associate Editor of California Wild and Jonathan Randall, editorial intern. |
Fall 1997
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