Biodiversity of Trione-Annadel State Park's Journal

Greetings Annadel Addicts!
Thank you for adding your observations in Annadel!
Just a reminder that you can add observations while experiencing the park in whatever way you do -- by foot, bike, horse, in a watercraft on the lake, while doing volunteer trail work, how-ever you go (within the legal use limits). Remember drones are never allowed in the park.

It's really useful to add NOTES to your observations. For example, if you safely observe a rattlesnake, guess how long it is, what you guess the diameter is, see if you can determine how many rattles (from your photo), and note what trail it was on and what it was doing (what direction of travel -- do you think it was headed towards a water source?), did it appear to be freshly molted? You can add notes later after you have downloaded your photo. Remember if you observe a critter on a plant or flower, you can add an observation by copying it to include a specific entry for the host plant (like a bumblebee on a flower can result in two observations -- one each for the bee and the flower). Include notes on the behavior of birds or mammals you see -- were the ravens watching picnickers, waiting for dropped morsels? Were the coyotes playing or sitting and scratching, maybe hunting or vocalizing? Was the lizard doing push-ups? I once observed a bobcat being chased by wild turkeys!

As we experience the park in the dry dry dry summer and fall, remember to observe plants that are fruiting, nutting or going to seed. Then, too, some are blooming this time of year too!! Do you observe anything different this year compared to previous years you remember? Are there more, less, differences? Note that too.

There is a separate project for the burn areas (like for the Nun's Fire and Glass Fire) in Annadel too. You can search for those under "Projects."

It's always great to observe the same species in different areas of the park. So don't feel constricted if say you have already observed Coast Redwood on Richardson Trail, you can also photograph and observe them on Spring Creek, Marsh, Schultz, Lawndale ....

Have fun with your observations! Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
Happy Trails!
Sarah the Admin

The annual grasses have suddenly gone from "the golden rolling hills of California" (Kate Wolf) to a kind of burnt reddish hue. Things are really dry, but WAIT! There really are still wildflowers to be found! On a short hike up North Burma over to Lake Ilsanjo on Tuesday I found Spanish Clover with delicate tiny pink blossoms, pennyroyal still blooming in profusion along the lakeshore, Fitch's Spikeweed (taking on the look of something sinister like yellow-star thistle but more friendly). And it's now the season of GALLS!! I wasn't looking really hard for them yet, saving myself for the California Biodiversity Week bio blitzes, but one just one Valley Oak I found 5 species of galls all within my 5'1" reach.

I tend to find the most diversity of galls on Oregon Oak and Valley Oak trees. It seems to me that I more often find galls on the west exposure leaves of the oaks. Maybe I am just making this up? Certainly there must be influences for a gall wasp in wind direction, light/sun exposure for the galls and hatching young, even the direction or availability of the breeze to the newly hatched young for proper dispersal. Am I over-thinking this? Nature always has an intricate plan.

Look for galls usually on the underside of leaves -- so get up close and personal with the tree. Don't worry: if you are new to looking at galls, the gall wasps are tiny no-see-ums and don't bite or sting, but leave wonderfully creative and colorful "nurseries" growing on the leaves in which their eggs can grow. Get ready to be WOW'd.

If you are really into observing, documenting and learning more about galls, check out the gall iNat projects: Galls of California and Galls of North America. A great field guide (though a tad heavy to actually carry in the field) is Ronald A. Russo's "Plant Galls of the Western United States" (2021: Princeton University Press). He incorporates very clear beautiful full-color photos and great descriptions in sections according to gall types, as well as a section titled "The Gall-Inducers" describing the species who create the galls.