THE STORMS OF WINTER

 

Snow lingered in the higher country into the Spring Equinox.

Snow on the ground at the ranch is a rarity. It happened twice this Winter within a couple of weeks.

Plum blossoms.

Peach blossoms.

Heavy snow brought down many limbs from oaks unaccustomed to the burden.

Kelsey Creek is flowing more strongly now than it has in several years.

Cole Creek has overtopped its banks. Schools of endangered hitch have become stranded in the bottom lands and hay fields.

FALL EQUINOX INTO WINTER

Mount Konocti's many moods provide the ranch's backdrop.

The Valley Oak grove was more colorful than in any Fall in memory.

Winter light.

POND SCOUTS

 

Male California quail.

Adding the wildlife pond to the ranch has brought forth diurnal and nocturnal explorers. If not for the trail camera, many would go undetected. Quail numbers are up, possibly due to the new year-round water source.

Young opossum

Scrub jay, a super abundant species.

Black tailed jackrabbit. Far fewer have been seen during the past year, likely due to the recent outbreak of rabbit hemorrhagic disease sweeping the Southwest.

Western gray squirrel.

Gray fox.

Female acorn woodpecker. The colony in the Valley Oak grove have expanded their granary to include the siding on the ranch house.

Raccoon.

HABITAT RESTORATION

 

Providing nesting boxes for cavity-nesting birds, has attracted Western screech owls, barn owls, wood ducks, blue birds, and tree swallows.

I began planting the Valley Oak savanna nineteen years ago on what had been bare land, tilled for agriculture. It is now habitat for nesting birds, hares, squirrels, and foxes. 

Clarkia growing through creek bed gravel.

California poppies on creek bed gravel.

Ceanothus.

Ground cover during the rains of Winter and Spring.

Mixed native penstemons and sages.

Golden-beard penstemon.

Heucheras (coral bells or alum root) with penstemons and sages.

With habitat improvement, the ranch has become a refuge for blacktail deer.

WHEN THE CREEK WENT DRY

 

As the historic drought dragged on, the creek went dry early in the Summer, dooming millions of newly hatched fish including the endangered hitch. Tadpoles too, of Western toads and Pacific chorus frogs, had no time to transition into toadlets and froglets before the water disappeared.

One day later, this section of creek would be completely dried up.

The gravel would be clogged with the countless millions dead of many species of fish and amphibians.

To sustain a local amphibian population, transplantation action was required.

A new, small wildlife pond was excavated on the ranch, which would provide refuge for the suddenly waterless creatures of the creek.

The tadpoles thrived in the new pond. All had time to grow legs and hop away later in the Summer, looking for suitable habitats on land. Aquatic insects too, were translocated.

Indigenous aquatic plants came from a nearby slough. Soon, a rich habitat attracted bees, butterflies,  damsel flies, birds, and mammals - a tiny oasis - the only local water source.

A small number of rescued fish fry adapted to the new pond, controlling mosquitoes, while they were at it.

A full grown Pacific chorus frog surveyed the scene.