A Tule elk cow mother with her spotted calf.This Black-tailed deer buck has velvet antlers. A juvenile Black bear crossing Outlet creek. A large bull Tule elk with large velvet antlers. This Red-shouldered hawk took a solitary bath in Outlet Creek.​July 6th, 2021 Mid...

American Kestrel nesting box built by Caltrans contractors on the Willits Bypass Mitigation lands. This is one of the Barn owl, Tyto alba,  nesting boxes on the east side of the bypass viaduct. Some European Starlings,  Sturnus vulgaris, were using it to rest on, when...

 Wyethia angustifolia, blooming on the mitigation seasonal wet meadow. A large number of Narrow leaf mule ears bloomed this year and the pollinators appreciated them!This native bumble bee, Bombus vasrienskii, the Yellow faced bumble, I was able to tell it was a male...

Grassshopper sparrow, Ammodramus savannarum, doing what they love to do best, sitting on top of a fence post singing its wheezy insect-like song.  Western Meadowlark, Sternella neglecta, with nesting material in its beak. Probably its second round of nesting for the...

Male Brown-headed Cowbird, Molothris ater. Female Brown-headed Cowbird, it does not have the distinctive brown head. Three male cowbirds, one has his head pointed to the sky, a common sighting in the spring. There is a lot of activity in the spring including a dance...

May 6, 2019 1:00 pm. Today is a glorious day and I am out looking at the flowers that are blooming in the Little Lake Valley. It is the peak of the Blue Camas bloom, Camassia quamash, a perennial with leaves emerging from a persistent bulb in a basal rosette. This is...

A male Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, checking out a tree cavity for nesting. The Western Kingbird, Tyrannus verticalis, looking out for insects to eat. A glorious male Tree Swallow. This Western Kingbird just arrived on the mitigation lands last week and once it...

A clump of Trillium albidum in the S2 woodland with North Coast Semaphore Grass, Pleuropogon hooverianus, growing around it. Two young Black-tailed deer enjoy the cool woodland habitat. The lush green of the Trillium, Cow parsnip, Semaphore grass, and other native...

A female Downy woodpecker looking for insects in Valley oak galls. A male Downy woodpecker using its tongue to get food out of a twig.March 31, 2021 Now that spring is upon us it is hard to pick what topic to write about. There are more and more birds singing and...

One of the water troughs before we made the modifications for stability and protection against floating away during inundation. A Western Bluebird, one of the many species of birds that use our troughs for water and perching in the summer months. A top-down view of...

This woodland of Valley oak and Ash has a healthy population of North Coast Semaphore Grass coming up. This Pioneer violet, Viola glabella, is an early wildflower commonly found in moist shaded places in woods.The maroon stems and soft apple-green leaves identify this...

A close-up of a Great Blue heron head and bill. A typical stalking walk, with that long neck stretched out and eyes focused on the ground. A resting Great Blue Heron, still keeping a lookout for predators. A  Great Blue heron heading out to the inundation areas to...

Coyote tracks showing the oval overall shape and the sharp claws. Wild turkey track with a cell phone showing the large size! The California quail tracks compared to the Dusky woodrat tracks show us how small the feet of woodrats are. This large Tule elk track has a...

Here is the beaver interested group without Brock since he is taking the photo! It was about 1 mile of walking through knee deep water to get to Outlet Creek.  One of the trees the beavers have been working on for food and dams. This is the nonnative red swamp...

February 8, 2021 One of the year-round resident birds I hear often in the riparian areas along Outlet and Davis Creek is the perky Oak Titmouse, Baeolophus inornatus. This little soft grey-brown overall bird has a stubby bill, a round black eye that stands out, and a...

Bull elk waiting while a cow elk crosses over our wildlife-friendly fences. Tule elk females, called cows, using our wildlife-friendly crossings.  Dominant Cow elk making barking noises at me. Elk herd prancing through the water in the Mill Creek overflow wetland....

This is a juvenile Sharp-shinned hawk intently trying to catch some White-crowned sparrows. A very wet juvenile Sharp-shinned hawk showing its round yellow eye and its skinny legs. A Cooper's hawk where you can see the thickness of its legs. The backside of a Cooper's...

One of the Valley oaks in the Plasma(S1) woodland with many species of mosses growing on its trunk. Fern moss, Dendoalsia abietina, up close showing the pleurocarpous structure of growth. Often the base of a large oak will be a good area to look for different kinds of...

The Northern Flicker is a striking, lively woodpecker with a large bill.  The brilliant leaves of Poison oak, in the late fall, with its waxy and pale off-white berries. A Red-bellied sapsucker eating poison oak berries. The abundance of poison oak berries in a winter...

 Mill Creek floods its banks after we have over 6 inches of rain which creates a wetland. This bedraggled immature first year Bald eagle is drying out after a rain. A brilliant male Western bluebird sunning on a post. These American wigeon are found in our flooded...

Fox sparrow showing its dark back and head Fox sparrow doing its jump forward and then kicking back with both feet at once Notice the long claws on this sparrow December 10, 2020 One of the birds that I look forward to seeing in the fall and winter months is the large...

An adult bald eagle and a first year immature bald eagle looking over the Willits Sewage Treatment Plant ponds from the Mitigation lands. A light form Ferruginous hawk that was seen last November on the Plasma site of the Mitigation lands The Northern Harrier is one...

A Western Gray Squirrel with a black walnut nut in its mouth. Finally a chance to sit and eat! A native black walnut tree after a severe frost that has dropped most of its branchlets on the ground. Wednesday, November 4, 2020 When I think back to last year at this...

Coyote bush male and female plants right next to each other Purplish copper butterfly taking advantage of the nectar on this coyote bush A very tired and beat-up (birds trying to eat it) Buckeye butterfly resting on a female coyote bush Female coyote bush flowers One...

The white-blue berries of Brown-stem dogwood Masses of Poison oak berries hiding lots of Golden-crowned sparrows A petite Lincoln's sparrow in the Himalayan blackberries This immature White-crowned sparrow is sitting in a California wild rose bush surrounded by the...

In the smoke-filled pasture there was a perky, tail bobbing American pipit. There were about 30 pipits grazing for insects like grasshoppers. This sparrow-sized bird has a uniform brown crown and upperparts buff with streaks: its' outer tail feathers are white. These...

Cow Tule elk with spring born calf  One of our large groups of cow elk and calves Side view of a large mature bull elk with nine points on his antlers Group of cow elk with their calves Big bull elk looking out for his herd Another herd with its "protector" bull elk...

A California ground squirrel on the lookout on one of our smoky days. A quick nose kiss to acknowledge the lookout Ground squirrel.A colony of ground squirrels live in this hillside. Look carefully and you will see a second Ground squirrel coming to look. Both of the...

Western golden top or goldenrod,, Euthamia occidentalis, is a showy perennial that grows in the riparian corridors and wet meadow grasslands. It is used by many pollinators. Narrow leaf milkweed,  Asclepias fascicularis, is still blooming at this late date, providing...

This Western Terrestrial Garter snake, Thamnophis elegans, is our most common snake in the Little Lake Valley. A rare look at aWestern Yellow-bellied Racer, Coluber constrictor mormon, in one of our oak tree protection tubes. Probably enjoying the protection afforded...

Adult White-tailed Kite perched high in an Ash tree looking into the grassy meadow below. Juvenile White-tailed Kite flying in Kettle with others. At least 5 Kites in the Ash tree next to another Ash with 5 or 6 more Kites. A juvenile Kite busy crying for food while...

Brush Rabbit adult, Sylvilagus bachmani,  in the Little Lake Valley mitigation land. This is a baby brush bunny which is very aware of its environment. Look at those ears! Notice the white "cottontail" that flashes as it hops away. As I watched, this baby bunny took a...

July 27, 2020 This is a dry, hot time, and when walking out in the valley grasslands and riparian corridors there are many flycatchers eating the abundance of insects that fly up around me. Flycatchers are insect eaters, and today there are families of many different...

July 20, 2020 3pm In the last ten or so years, Bald Eagles have become more common in the Willits Little Lake Valley, especially along the Outlet Creek corridor. They can be observed every month of the year.  This stunning bird was chosen in 1782 by our congress to be...

Wednesday July 8, 2020 9am Along Outlet Creek at the north end of the Cox 80 parcel and north of the Willits Wastewater Treatment Plant, is a good place to observe the wildlife in the riparian area. The water in this section of the creek has been retained by beaver...

July 7, 2020 9am Walking out in the Willits Valley I am always astonished by the differences between the environments in each of the habitats that exist out there. When it was over 100 degrees in the valley a couple weeks ago, the habitat I most enjoyed was the shaded...

June 28th 2020 Monday, 9am This year has been a very good year for finding raptor nests in Little Lake Valley. There are two Red-shouldered Hawk nests and two Red-tailed Hawk nests that I have observed. Today I want to focus on the Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensus....

June 17th, 2020 Wednesday 9am As I was driving the utility terrain vehicle out to a nesting bird survey on the mitigation lands, I was stopped by an unusual bird song along Davis Creek. As I got out to get a look at the bird, the song got louder. This was not a song I...

June 15th Monday 9am. It has been two weeks now since I have seen the Tule Elk, but I wanted to post what they are up to during this time of the year. The bulls are still “in velvet,” which is a term for the process that the antlers go through as they are growing back...

​Monday June 8, 2020 This week’s blog is on the beautiful Wood duck, Aix sponsa, which means “waterfowl in a bridal dress.” Last week, we retrieved our video cameras that have been positioned at one of our Wood duck boxes. The footage they captured was precious. The...

June 1st, 9 am. 2020 In case some of you were wondering why we did not post a blog last week, I wanted to update you all on what we were up to. For the last five years we have been conducting a bird survey during the months of May and early June to gather data on the...

May 16, 2020 09:00 am These beautiful spring days are made even better by the late May rains. The many green colors are vibrant and refreshed by the coolness and water. It seems there are at least seven or more different shades and hues. As I am taking in this verdant...

​ May 10, 9:30 am Today we are going to look at a rare plant, the North Coast Semaphore Grass, Plueropogon hooverianus. This is a perennial grass that is found in grasslands and riparian woodlands. It grows to a height of 1 to 1.6 meters and blooms from April to June....

April 29th 9am This time of the year, one bird that seems to be everywhere, with its dashing scarlet epaulets blazing out, is the Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus. This bird’s habitat includes wet meadows, riparian corridors, freshwater and brackish marshes,...

Wednesday, April 22nd, 9 am The valley is turning into the “Sea of Blue” that was described by the original group of botanists from Jones and Stokes Associates that came out to do biological assessments of the proposed Caltrans routes for the Willits Bypass in the...

April 15th 9am. It has been a long time since we have gone somewhere out of the county during this time of the year. Usually the pull to travel to other places takes us away, but the garden needs to go in, weeds must be pulled, the grasses mowed, fruit trees pruned,...

April 10th, 9am Today I am returning to one of my favorite topics before the warmth and lack of rain alters them so much that we don’t even notice them anymore, the mosses. Right now, they are spectacular lush green carpets of soft velvet, reaching up with their...

April 1, 2019 The days are running into each other as spring comes into full force. Time has become more spacious with the situation we are all in. Observing nature around us can be a way to relax and feel connected. As I take time to observe the changes that spring...

March 25th 9am. As March is proceeding with its variable weather, and some rain thank goodness, the birds are really beginning to exhibit nesting behavior. I see that many are in pairs now, calling back and forth to each other in the trees and shrubs. Today I am going...

March 17th 9 am. It is time to check on the Trillium, those beautiful lilies, Trillium albidum. Last year, there were hundreds of them blooming in the two oak woodlands in our valley, and with the extra rains we got, they seemed to thrive. This year I am sure the lack...

March 10, 9 am. Today there is one animal I am interested in finding signs of and that is the American beaver, Castor canadensis. My colleagues have been observing trees that have been worked on by them in the vicinity I am walking and sure enough, I see a small...

March 5, 9 am. Finally...a cool, almost moist day and I am out in the northern wetlands walking around looking at some very interesting mounds of wet clay. What are these burrow-like things? Some look like little volcanoes, others like caves flooded with water....

The Mourningcloak Butterfly March 2, 2020 As I walk along the riparian corridors in the Little Lake Valley, I notice that there is a large maroon or dark brown butterfly with pale-yellow ragged edges flying along beside me. It is not landing for very long making it...

February 20th 9am The fact that we have not had much rain so far and it is late into February has me thinking of the weather patterns and their influence on wildlife, particularly on the birds. The days are perfectly gorgeous, with blue skies with sometimes billowy...

February 3rd, 9 am. Today the frost on the ground is thick but the sky is blue and clear so I know it will warm up. I am at our upland site called Plasma, adjacent to Eastside road and heading for the valley oak woodland toward the north western edge. The first...

January 31, 10 am. Walking around the valley grasslands and riparian areas I always come across the Great blue heron, Ardea herodias, hunting in the fields. It is looking for those Pocket gophers or California voles that may have been drowned by the recent flooding or...

January 25th, 9 am This time of the year, because of all the moisture in the ground and on the trees, is the best time to look at the fabulous world of lichens and mosses. The lack of leaves and all the wetness allows these species to grow, reproduce, and be noticed...

​January 16, 10 am. In one of my walks out on the north end of the valley, as I was observing the lichen hanging from the trees in the ash forest, a brightly colored active bird caught my attention. It was flashing black and yellow as it clung upside down to the...

January 6th, 10 am. Today I want to talk about the feral pigs that have recently become a serious problem on the mitigation lands. The last few years we have seen some pig activity but this year it appears we have as many as 30 pigs that are roaming the valley digging...

Tree Silhouettes in Winter December 27th, 9 am. It is the last week in December and the evenings have brought freezing temperatures between the small rainstorms. This morning, the frost is thick on the ground and the temperature gauge in the car reads 29 degrees. The...

December 18, 2:00 pm As the days of fall end, it gets darker earlier and the colors become more muted and what I call, “earthy”. These are shades of oranges, yellows, and all manner of browns that are a softer version of what they were a month ago. On a fence pole I...

December 11, 3:00 pm. As winter is quickly approaching the elk are showing themselves more each day. The pressure for mating and keeping a harem is not as important for the dominant bull, though there are nineteen or so cows and calves who are still together with this...

December 9, 10 am. A couple of weeks ago we had a female elk get hit by a car on Hwy 101 just north of the Willits on-ramp. No people were hurt but unfortunately the elk died from the collision. The RCD decided to take the opportunity to learn what animals would come...

Sunday, December 1, 10 am. The day is grey, with low clouds covering the hillsides and drizzle as I am walking near Mill Creek, on the east side of Highway 101.  Since my rain gauge showed it rained over 2.50 inches during the last week, I am curious to see if any...

​ November 24th 10 am As Thanksgiving approaches, I always want to write about our Wild turkeys that are found throughout the area in grasslands, wet meadows, mixed forests, and on the drier hillsides. Last year I wrote about how these turkeys are not native to this...

November 14, 9 am. It is another beautiful fall day as I walk around the Willits Valley Mitigation Land along Davis Creek. The trees have mostly lost their leaves, their silhouettes outlined against the blue, blue sky. I can hear the drumming of a close-by woodpecker....

November 11, 2 pm   Upon looking out into the Little Lake Valley landscape, what is seen is the flat, open grazing lands that are an important part of the complex ecosystems within it. The Willits Bypass Mitigation Project covers 2,094 acres of the Little Lake Valley...

October 29th,  9 am.  In October and November there are many raptors that arrive here in the Willits Valley on their way south from the far northern regions. This week I was lucky to see two of these species, the Rough-legged hawk and the Ferruginous hawk. The...

October 22, 10 am.   There are many Western Gray squirrels, Sciurus griseus, in the oak and ash tree woodland we call "Plasma" in the Willits Valley. This year there are some very large and beautiful valley oaks there that have plenty of acorns. It is delightful to...

October 16, 9 am. Fall is a time for wild berries and seeds - our oaks are full of acorns, the madrones full of their red-orange berries, dogwoods have their purple berries, poison oak has pale white berries, and the wild rose has its bright red “hips.” These are the...

October 9, 2019 This time of year, the birds that come back to winter in the Little Lake Valley begin to fill the void that those spring nesters have left. They don’t sing as much and are not as brightly colored, but they are a wonderful presence. Today I am looking...

September 23, 10 am.First day of fall and it is perfect out. The clear blue sky with that crispness in the air says fall is here. I am noticing an increase in the sparrows, the crowned sparrows as they are called, with their songs of "oh dear me" and the sweet...

September 18, 9 am.Walking out along Davis Creek, the scent of fall is in the air.  I admire the vegetation that is growing all around me, there are grasses of different shades of green, wild roses, some very tall mugwort, and a charming round bush with white...

September 14, 9 am.This week I am focusing on the Common Gray fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus. We were able to capture one on our video cam recorder and I had the good luck of having a young one visit our land and got one photo of it with my phone. The other photos are...

September 4, 9:30 am It is a clear warm morning and I am walking along Davis Creek, listening for any unusual sounds, keeping my eyes open, looking all around for mammals that may be out this morning. The birds are active in the riparian areas, taking baths and...

September 1, 9:00 am.The days are getting shorter, each day the sun is coming up a little later and setting a little earlier. The hot afternoons make me forget the cool crispness of the mornings yet every morning, as I take my morning hike up the mountain, it is...

August 28th 10 am. This week I am going to talk about the American Beaver, Castor canadensis, one of my favorite mammals.When researching the history of beavers in this area I found that there are no written records of beavers living in the Little Lake Valley. This...

August 19th, 9 am.The long summer days are beginning to get shorter and the mornings have a crispness to them. Even so, summer is still here for another month and I am thinking of how much diversity there is in our Little Lake Valley. By that I, of course, mean the...

July 31, 10 am. Today we are working as a team to try and control some of the invasive thistles and other invasive plants that grow on the mitigation lands. we are looking for the thistle called Canada thistle or Creeping thistle, Circium arvense. Canada thistle is a...

Monday July 29th, 12:00 pmThe heat has eased off today and there is a pleasant breeze as I walk along the riparian area in the center of the valley. It is alive with fledgling birds begging for food from their parents as usual. Along the fence there is a variety of...

Thursday, July 18th 9 amIt is a glorious summer day and I am walking along the riparian corridor of Berry creek heading to Davis creek. It is late July and there is still water in both of the creeks, though Berry creek has slowed down and I know it will be dry after...

July 15th, 9:30 amAs the summer moves along I am taken with how mild this summer is compared to last year. The temperatures have been marvelous, not too hot, and not too cold. Having fog last week, in the early hours of the day, and then the temperature not going much...

July 8, 11 am.It is a cool, foggy morning and I reflect on how wonderful it is to have fog in the summer. So far this summer has been the perfect temperature a far as I am concerned. The afternoons have warmed up nicely but the mornings retain their coolness until...

June 26th This is a short blog to let you all know I will be off for this coming week. To celebrate this holiday with you,  I had to post these photos of a Common Yellow throat warbler with food in its mouth for a young fledgling (I did not get a photo of the...

Monday, June  24th, 9 am.Today I am going to talk about some of the work we at the Mendocino Resource Conservation District are doing on removing invasive plants from the mitigation lands. As part of the mitigation and monitoring proposal for the Willits Bypass,  we...

Monday, June 11, 9 amThe days have turned hot and the cicadas are singing in full force. Even though it is not yet the 97 degrees it is supposed to be later today, there is a cool freshness to the air, especially in the shade of the Valley oaks and Oregon ash trees I...

June 8, 9 am.The last week of May I was on the property we call the Benbow area, walking along a small creek that has no name, when ahead of me I saw a field, stretching as far as I could see, that was filled with a golden yellow sunflower. When got closer I could see...

May 29th, 9 am.Sometimes it is the bird that is not so colorful or flashy that catches my attention. Today as I am walking around the grassland fields in the south end of the valley, I hear the high trill of the Grasshopper sparrow, Ammodrumus savannarum. This little,...

May 17, 9 am. Today the plant, Cow Parsnip, Heracleum maximum, has caught my attention. In the woodlands and along the creek it is a spectacular specimen of a plant.  It is also known as American cow-parsnip, Indian celery, Indian rhubarb or pushki. It is sometimes...

May 12,  9 amIt is with much anticipation that I set out today in hope of finding some nesting birds. For weeks now, it has been apparent that birds are displaying territoriality everywhere I go. The Red- winged blackbirds are the most dramatic with the showing off of...

May 6, 9 am.Today the sunshine is intense, I can feel the ground drying up around me as I walk along the east side of Outlet creek.  The sky i s a brilliant blue and I am grateful for our wonderful air quality. It is a lucky day for me because I am alone in the beauty...

April 29th, 8:00 amFor the last 4 years the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District, or MCRCD, has been conducting a breeding bird survey on the Little Lake Valley mitigation lands specifically around the riparian and wetland areas. It is mostly a listening...

April 19th, 10 am.Spring is in full swing and the days are longer and maybe a little bit warmer too. It is such a delight to head out to the oak woodland in the south end of the valley. The sun is streaming in through the just barely breaking bud branches of the great...

April 3, 12:00 pmIt is a glorious spring day. I have walked out to Outlet creek from the Harc 4 gate, around the south end of a small oak woodland we call Lusher. The Giant white wakerobin, Trillium allbidium, are in bloom here with Meadow Rue and Milkmaids...

April 8, 10 am.Spring has truly begun even if the rain just keeps coming. The warmth and moisture is making all the green plants push up and up. Sometimes when I am out for a while in the dampness, it seems things are growing right in front of my eyes! The many...

March 24, 10 am.Spring is definitely  here in the bird world. As I walk out to the wetlands the sounds of Redwing blackbirds, Western meadowlarks, Song sparrows, and lots of wild turkeys fill the air. As I look ahead to the west there is a large flock of mixed...

March 19, 9 am.The feel of spring is in the air as I make my way to the north end once again. Today my intention is to observe the nesting behavior of two cavity nesting birds, our year-round resident the Western Bluebird, Sialia mexicana, and one of our migrants, the...

March 13, 2019  9 am. It is a cold and clear day with a promise of warmth later on. I am headed out to the north end of our valley to count the Tule elk and check on how it is going with their antler shed. This time of the year the bull Tule elk begin to act a little...

March 11, 11 am.After a storm system which, in some places in our county, dropped over 10 inches of rain, it feels good to have a break with blue sky and sunshine. I am headed out to Berry Creek, at the HARC 2 gate. The fog is still low in the valley but the rich...

We have a small break in the rain and snow today and I am heading out to see how flooded the valley has become over the weekend. My waders and raingear in hand, I head out to the middle section. As soon as I arrive I can tell my waders will be necessary. There are a...