Natural History Wanderings

This morning I went to Muir Woods National Monument with Chris Gardner. We arrived just around 8:30 AM and had the place almost to ourselves for a while. We walked about two miles on the main trails. It was overcast, with fog above and the temperature was in the 50’s. It was atmospheric and peaceful. Besides the giant Coastal Redwoods other trees included Tanbark Oak, Bay Bigleaf Maple, and Buckeye. Other plants included Sword Fern, Horsetails, Redwood Oxalis (a few were in bloom including some very white specimens), a single Fairy Bells was in bloom and there were several Clintonias also in flower. I was surprised by how much foliage there was from Fetid Adder’s Tongue or Slinkpod. Birding was more by ear than by sight. Seen or heard were: Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Steller’s Jay, Common Raven, Brown Creeper, Pacific Wren, and Wilson’s Warbler.

When we left at 10:15 hundreds of people were unloading from buses. So if you want to enjoy the peace of Muir Woods get there between 8 and 8:30 am on a weekday.