What We Saw On The Bootjack Hike (October 7)

Here's Wendy's list of flora and fauna spotted on the Bootjack hike (plus a list of the trails we traversed):

TREES
Big leaf maple (leaves turning yellow), goldcup oak, bay (AKA maul oak, canyon live oak), redwood, Douglas fir, tan oak (some dying of SOD)

FERNS
First open GOLDBACK FERNS!

OTHER PLANTS
huckleberry bushes with a few huckleberries left, coyote bushes (male flowers yellower, females fuzzy), pitcher sage

BIRDS
Heard: red-breasted nuthatch, red-shouldered hawk
Seen: Steller’s jay, dark-eyed juncos, red-tailed hawk, distant look at American kestrel
LICHENS
Calloplaca (orange lichen on tops of rocks, uses nitrogen from bird droppings)
Map lichen (chartreuse, on rock)
Usnea arizonica, kind of Old Man’s beard, recognizable by fruiting bodies that are like a young child’s drawing of a sun with rays.
Parmatrema – “Betty Boop” lichen with “eyelashes” at margin, grayish green
Veined lichen – a ground lichen with “veins” on the underside
Cladonia (probably furcata) – a ground lichen
Puff lichen – used in wigs to get rid of lice

MUSHROOMS
DYER’S POLYPORE Prized for the “rich and varied hues it imparts to yarns” but causing red brown butt rot that will kill the tree. Typically grows on Douglas fir.

MAMMALS
Western gray squirrel, scat from raccoons eating huckleberries and manzanita berries
SNAKE RING-NECKED SNAKE eat worms, small amphibians (salamanders and frogs), small lizards, slugs. Many subspecies, including endangered and threatened ones like Key Ringneck on one Florida key, San Diego ringneck, and San Bernadino ringneck. Two species of special concern in Idaho.
SUDDEN OAK DEATH WALK is November 1 at 10 AM at Deer Island in Novato.
Books: Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora (Heavy to carry in the field, but great when you get those digital photos home.)
WHAT TRAILS DID WE TAKE?
Bootjack trail to Van Wyk Meadow, right on TCC for 1.4 miles. TCC meets Staplevelt and they run together for about 20 yds. When Staplevelt goes downhill, stay right. TCC trail joins the Dipsea trail for a short distance just before lunch spot on top of Cardiac Hill, then we took a short bit of Coastal before making a right on Old Mine to Pantoll. Alpine from Pantoll to Bootjack.

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