Two-Heel Drive

A post an book about trees at the Scoutmaster blog inspired me to click over to Calflora.org and see how many trees are native to Santa Clara County. The result: 96 trees and shrubs — more than I would’ve guessed, and I spend a lot of time in the woods.

Stuff I like:

• How the East Bay oaks grow every which way.
• How the bark twists in ancient redwoods.
• How madrones bend across a trail and shed bark.
• The radial pattern of Douglas-fir limbs.

Those are the first that spring to mind. How about the rest of y’all?

The poll on wildlife encounters generated some interesting feedback, such as:

From Gambolin’ Man

A few weeks ago, toward the early evening around 6 pm, I caught a prolonged first-time ever (in the Bay Area) glimpse of a Great Horned Owl flying and the settling to roost for about three minutes on a tree limb, at Briones Reservoir. Luckily, I had my binos handy, to zoom in on this wondrous animal. It was quite a sighting!

Has anyone ever spotted one of these guys in Bay Area Wild before?

Winehiker responds:

gambolin’ man,

I was 9 years old and walking one morning with my 4th-grade class on Cabrillo Avenue in Santa Clara from Bowers Elementary to a concert at Juan Cabrillo Middle School. We all heard a sound coming from a tree lining the edge of Bowers Park and looked up to see a Great Horned Owl - the first owl many of us had ever seen. Fortunately our teacher knew what it was, but in retrospect, its size - and its eyes - made it unmistakable.

I later saw a Great Horned Owl get hit by a jeep on the road out of Canyonlands NP. I knew I couldn’t do much about it, but I stopped anyway, put on some gloves, grabbed some newspaper, and removed it from the roadway. I saw the light fading from its luminous yellow eyes, and it died right there in my arms. I buried it that evening in camp, but I still keep one of its primaries to remind me of that morning in the Utah desert.

ChefLovesBeer shares:

I did have an interesting encounter with a skunk last year. I sleep under a tarp. That means things can crawl under them. I woke up to a skunk chewing on my snack bag.(no bears in the area) It is hard to decide how to scare a skunk away in such a small space. I shooed it out of one side of my tarp. Moments later, it was back in the other side. I had to pack up after it came back three times. Nobody wants to get skunked.

Indeed.

Rest of the comments are here.

(There used to be a poll here asking people which wildlife they’d seen, but I took it down because it seemed to be causing system difficulties. I’m leaving the text intact because the questions generated interesting feedback).

I haven’t seen any bears and wolves (the latter of which I’d just as soon never see, truth be told. Wolves are too much like people).

I have seen one juvenile mountain lion — it had spots and a long tail, and was trotting across Calaveras Road one morning when I used to live up that way.

My favorite coyote encounter happened at Henry Coe State Park. I was hiking back to the park HQ in the rain and came upon a coyote out for a stroll. It did a big shake just like every wet dog does, sending water flying from its fur. I couldn’t have been more than 20 yards away.

My best skunk story didn’t happen to me; it happened to a guy I used to work with. He was walking on the Mercury News’ outdoor exercise path around dusk when he got too close to one without noticing. By the time the word “Skunk” made it to his brain, he’d already been sprayed. Turns out you don’t have to bathe in tomato juice, he says; there are other methods that work without buying gallons of V8 (here’s one that allegedly works).

I also used to work with a woman from Alaska who had no respect whatsoever for bald eagles — there are enough of them in some places up north that they’re considered a nuisance or pest.