Pebble

 There are many ways of learning; sometimes you can keep learning the same thing over years. Other times you can learn completely new things. Corrales New Mexico does not have much connection directly with the sea. So, I am now at Pebble beach in California, and the sea is now within earshot. I am leaving the familiar and learning about the unfamiliar.

 

While New Mexico does have some related frogs, I am most excited to find this tree frog. Amphibians normally have nothing whatsoever to do with the ocean, but the forested hills of Monterey are often shrouded in mist and the damp soil is perfect for these animals. Anurans are found in all sorts of crazy places, endlessly adaptable.

 

 The ubiquitous grey heron is found on the coast, and has adapted to the environment here just like they have in Corrales. This one is floating on a log in the ocean and hunting small fish among the seaweed fronds. All types of birds are abundant along the coastline, often this is because boundaries are often where species congregate to take advantage of conditions. Each type of bird adapts to control its own niche.

The black turn stone has adapted to living with the much more prolific and active sandpipers by developing a more robust neck, musculature and a shorter beak. They feed by foraging under seaweed and rocks, rather than below the sand.

These sanderlings are a type of sandpiper that breed within the Arctic circle. They winter along this coast. The invertebrates they feed on are in the sand and are coaxed to the surface to feed on the debris washed in by the advancing tide. The sanderlings must stab into the sand at random as the wave retreats and hopefully catch their food as it retreats deeper into the sand.

Godwits have a much longer bill that allows them to feed more slowly and methodically. They prefer mud flats to open ocean because they focus on soft bodied worms. Like most of these birds, they migrate long distances, changing many habits, behaviors and even feathers as they do so.

 

A bird's bill is typically identified with it's diet in basic biology classes. The black oyster catcher has a bladed bill for dealing with bivalves and clinging invertebrates.

Birds that don't have probing bills have to live a more active lifestyle. This cormorant is diving for rock fish along the coastline. The rest in flocks to dry out thier feathers between feeding periods.

It isn't often that I learn of new animals, but here is a flock of scoter ducks, a seagoing duck that dives for shellfish. Like the other seaducks, these birds excrete salt from their noses to be able to tolerate saltwater.

This western seagull cannot dive for food, but this species is apparently famous for interfering with San Francisco Giants baseball games. These gulls were resting before the gathering rainstorm, which would likely improve their foraging chances over the next few days.

 

 This sea otter was wrapped in kelp and eating an oyster off it's stomach. They anchor themselves to the seaweed during big swells. They were present in large numbers just off the rocky points along the central Californian shore.

There is so much wildlife invisible to those observing from the shore. However, I was lucky to see this small pod of Risso's dolphin patrolling. They have much blunter snouts and a more distinct "helmet" shaped head than the type cast bottle nosed dolphins in the public imagination.

 

 While the woodlands of Corrales are magnificent, they are not in the same ball park as the majestic redwood forests of the Westen Coast. These mossy grottos seem like something out of a fairy tale story. Complete with twisting tree trunks that stretch into the clouds above. Still, I found myself often looking more at the undergrowth, than at the sky. The recent rains had lead to an explosion of mushrooms.

The America Fly Agaric is one of the mushrooms most likely to cause poisonings in the human population. While some experts say this species can be smoked/drunk/dried/stewed it is extremely unwise and unsafe to do so because the narrow safe dosage range is not easy to figure out. Still, only about 10% of hospitalizations for mushroom ingestion in the US had an adverse outcome in 2016 (liver failure mostly).

The forests in winter are not surprisingly, low in insect species. This stink bug was a random find in a forest otherwise empty of insects, if not invertebrates.

The banana slug is a strange animal to find interesting, but I do. They have the official record of being the slowest animal on earth. Their slime acts as a local anesthetic on the tongue. They digest berries and leave the seeds with a coating that deters rodents so they help reforest open areas of woodland. There is almost nothing they won't eat.

 The Pacific Grove Village thrives on tourists who flock here to see overwintering monarch butterflies. These butterflies are impressively large specimens. Each fall a special generation of butterfly delays sexual maturity and can fly up to 2000 miles back to their overwintering sites.

 A part of learning is experimenting. Near a national forest I found a deliberate pile of these things. To me, they seem to be a chestnut species, and a few were about to sprout. The story of the American chestnut is a long and complex one and I cannot help but wonder if someone is trying to re-wild the American chestnut from stock. These nutty plans will usually be controversial, but will be clandestinely attempted by misguided individuals all the same. The question is, will this be a new frontier, or another cautionary tale from lessons that must continue to be relearned by each generation? Time will tell, hopefully by older and wiser heads than we have now.