Natural History Wanderings

Solano Land Trust Flickr site has a new report for Jepson Prairie

Yesterday I hiked a very windy Jepson Prairie concentrating on Buck and South pastures. I wanted to followup, and photograph, some areas that were the subject of transect monitoring the previous week.

Even though the ‘prairie’ is beginning to finish it’s spring cycle, the upland areas such as the Docent’s triangle are essentially finished with their bloom, there are areas of freshwater pools still completing their bloom.

In areas adjacent to the perimeter fence along Cook Ln. there were Goldfields, Downingia concolor, a few Blennosperma and Limnanthes, Vernal pool owl’s clover, Goldfields (rayless and dwarf), wooly marbles, and Navarretia.

Moving inland from the low lying pools there was a plethora of Coyote thistle, Holocaprha virgata (narrow tarweed), dwarf pepper plant (Lepidium latipes), Leptosiphon (formerly Linanthus) liniflorus or evening snow, Psilocarphus orgegonus and chilensis and Eleocharis acicularis.

Continuing on to the larger freshwater pool(s) in Buck the periphery is clothed in vernal pool owl’s clover and is starting to display Downigia bella, popcorn flowers, and some remaining goldfields, although large patches are blooming a short distance out from the pool margins. The margins of the standing water are covered with significant patches of Granola heterosepala (Boggs Lake hedge-hyssop), Eleocharis machrostachya, rayless goldfields, vernal pool popcorn flower (P. stipitatus var. micranthus).

Moving into South pasture, and trending S/W towards and into the large playa pool, Achyrachaena mollis (both rayless blooms and seed heads), more Lepidium latipes, Plagiobothrys greenei, Psilocarphus oregonus and brevissimus, Brodiaea terrestris, patches of Pogogyne zizyphroides or Sacramento bear style, Navarretia leucocephalus ssp bakeri, Coyote thistle. Moving from the large playa pool eastward along a mildly eroded watercourse toward Round Pond, patches Downingia insignis, more robust patches of Lepidium latices and Calandrina menziesii (formerly ciliata).

Along the shore of Round pond were small patches of somewhat weathered looking Blennosperma and Erodium. In a small ‘alluvial’ drainage were more Blennosperma and in one small area Mimulus tricolor.

Returning northeasterly observations included Trifolium microdon, seed heads of Lomatiium, Gold nuggets (Calochortus luteus), Triteliea hyacinthina, Briza minor, patches of Medusa head (Elymus caput-medusae, a non-native and classified by the Cal. Invasive Plant Council as having a HIGH effect on native ecosystems), Silene gallica (non-native pink catchfly), Trifolium variegatum (White tipped clover) and finally as I drove north along Olcott playa and pair of Avocet were behaving in a manor that suggested young were about. As I scanned (from the car as they seem more comfortable with vehicles than pedestrians) I spotted a single chick and was able to photograph all three.

The late season flora is beginning to show with more to follow but the spring is fading quickly.