Unexpected find

The other morning, after a pleasant walk about Howarth Park, a city park in Santa Rosa CA, I was surprised to come across a turtle laying her eggs in a picnic area a bit of a distance on turtle legs from the lake that's the heart of this park. She had created a patch of mud by digging with her hind legs and, apparently, producing a lot of liquid. She blended well into her surroundings. When I stopped to make some sketches a crowd of humans gathered around, most wondering if she was my pet. I worked quickly and left so that she could go on about her business in private. I added the color later, at home.

If you had a pet turtle when you were a child you might recognize the Red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), the most popular pet turtle in the world. The one I spotted was a bit bigger than the turtle I had when I was very young, with a shell that was about 10 inches ( 25.4cm) long. In northern California Red-eared sliders, natives of the American southeast, are easily spotted basking on logs and rocks in lakes and ponds, often alongside our only native freshwater turtle, the Western pond turtle (Clemmys marmorata).

If raccoons, rats, humans or other predators don’t disturb the nest which, by the way, is now nearly invisible, the eggs will hatch in 60 to 90 days and the hatchlings will try to make their way to the lake. If they make it that far birds, bullfrogs, fish and humans all threaten their survival.

References:
Wikipedia

Hi all, just spent a weekend away with my art group, supposed to be a painting week end but as usual it descended into a competition as to who could drink the most red wine. A great weekend all the same and I actually managed to get a couple sketches done, even though the weather was not great. This is the first sketch in my new hand made journal, made by everday member Vicki Holdwick

Right under my nose

I walk frequently at a city park in Santa Rosa California. There's a lake and a small amusement park but I usually make haste to get away from the crowds and walk on a series of trails that few people, other than cyclists, use. The past few weeks, though, I've been starting my day at the park early, before the crowds arrive, by sitting in a picnic area by the lake. There I've found several California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi), including some youngsters, living in dens around the edge of the lake. Although the ground squirrels I encounter when I'm out on the trails are very shy, this group is shamelessly brazen! I've seen them eat peanuts out of people's hands and, if I rustle around in my backpack, one or two will come pretty close to see if I'm handing out food, despite the fact that my canine companion watches their every move with barely contained enthusiasm.


Their comfort around humans has given me the opportunity to study their behavior and physique in a fairly concentrated fashion. I can spend an hour sketching and watching because so little frightens them away. I've been amused to see how much their behavior resembles ours. One day I caught one taking a break from foraging for food to blissfully scratch her back on the concrete base of a picnic table.


The youngsters are in constant motion, exploring their new world with enviable enthusiasm. They rough-house with one another, tease their elders and fearlessly try anything. They climb the coyote brush that grows at the edge of the lake, looking for food and dangle acrobatically before tumbling to the ground, only to begin their constant movement once again. The parents watch closely and call them to the den when they perceive danger. Like human parents, they appear to be a bit weary, but mostly tolerant of these wild young things they're raising. Dust baths are extremely popular among all age groups and while the youngsters prefer to careen around the campground, the adults seem to enjoy more sedate activities such as perching on a warm rock and basking in the sun. Sound familiar?

You can find out more about California ground squirrels at:

Wikipedia
The Smithsonian
Natureworks 
eNature

 

Fungi won't be around much longer

I've been enjoying seeing all of the lovely images of birds but thought I'd mix things up a bit with a little sketch I did of Helvella acetabulum, one of our spring fungi. The end of our fungi season is fast approaching. It's so very short! This fungus is currently fruiting in several parts of Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery, a lovely place with many old Coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia), a tree these fungi seem to get along with very well. Spores puffed out in a light cloud as the air moved around the fungus. The veins are a lighter color than the cup but the sun was shining into the cup, making the cup walls translucent and the heavier veins opaque.

Looking for earth tongues

Every year, at about this time, I find earth tongues, quaint, tiny fungi that look like...well...tongues sticking out of the earth. This year I accidentally noticed that they were fruiting in a location other than the one I normally found them in. Which got me to wondering how common they really are. So, for about two weeks, I walked slow as a snail with my nose to the ground, looking for earth tongues. They are, indeed, quite common in some of the wooded areas, at least at Howarth Park. Aside from the two species I usually find, I got my first glimpse of a gorgeous green species when I found a few fruiting with some of the more familiar black ones. The drawing above is of Geoglossum sp. Without microscopic work, it's difficult to identify the Geoglossums to species.

One day I was admiring a Geoglossum that I found in a new location when I noticed a stick covered with little cup fungi, which are even harder to find (in my experience) than earth tongues. The largest one was only 9mm across. These cups are most likely Plectania sp. and, as you may have already guessed, fruit on wood.



Here's a link to a more detailed article about earth tongues.

Orchid in Ballpoint Pen-Teri Casper

Orchid in Ballpoint Pen
Originally uploaded by Teri DC

I sketched this orchid in ballpoint pen in preparation for a painting. Photo reference.  Some days I just want to sketch and get all the details.

Learning to sketch birds

I've been just awed by Laureline's sketches of the birds in her yard and thought I'd add some of mine. I've been trying to sketch the birds at our feeder a little bit every day, so I have several pages of bird sketches now. I'm actually feeling a bit more confident sketching quickly and finding it easier than when I began a few weeks ago. It's affected my other sketching, too, which is a pleasant surprise!

I really wasn't paying much attention to our feeder birds before sketching them and have gotten to know them a bit better in the time that I've been at it. I've discovered that the nervous, chatty, bossy house finches are the most numerous but we have quite a few other visitors, including White and Gold crowned sparrows, who mostly hug the ground, but occasionally will jump up on the platform feeder. The California towhees are quite brazen and don't seem as disturbed by my staring presence on the other side of the glass. In fact, they stare back while they eat! Oregon juncos move faster than the speed of light, it seems, and the Mourning doves are true Californians, very mellow and easy going.

I look forward to my bird sketching sessions and find myself listening for the house finch's chatter as I work on other tasks around my house. When they call, I come running whenever I can.

Helvella

Helvella lacunosa are a fairly common fungus in northern California that seem to fruit longer than most. The fruiting bodies are quite sturdy and persist for a good long while. I'm told that they fruit with conifers but I find them mostly in association with one of our native trees, coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia). Helvella don't have gills or pores. Rather, they produce their spores on the upper surface of the wrinkly cap.

I had collected several of these, with caps in various shades of gray and black, planning to do several watercolor sketches. They languished in the refrigerator for over a week and today, when I finally got around to sketching, they were rather old and funky. Every time I moved one, or opened the container, spores swirled up, up and about the room. It was sort of like a dust storm. Blggghhh! They're still fruiting so tomorrow I'll try to find some that are a bit fresher.  Apparently they're edible. I've seen several suggestions of ways to cook and eat them while reading about fungi online lately. Not that I'm going to eat them myself! But I did lay them to rest in my backyard. We have a valley oak (Quercus lobata), which is a poor mushroom host, but maybe I'll get some to fruit in my yard next season! My very own helvella garden! How cool would that be? Oh, the sketch of the black capped fungus was done with ball point pen and the color sketch was done in ball point and watercolor.

Fungal baseball bat...with a few wrinkles

Not surprisingly, this fungus is called a club fungus. Although it doesn't have gills it still reproduces by releasing spores and is closely related to mushrooms. Clavariadelphus occidentalis is a western fungus. It's believed to be mycorrhizal, or to have a symbiotic relationship, with conifers. I find it fruiting with Douglas fir, although there are also always oaks around, as well. There's an eastern (Clavaridelphus pistillaris) version which appears to fruit with Beech.

I had hoped to include a drawing showing a club in it's habitat but they seem to have all disappeared or become saggy old things, so this will have to do for now.

I usually find these alone or in small groups of three or four. Once I found a large crowd of them, looking like a small army standing in the woods.

Two websites that have more information about this fungus are Mykoweb and MushroomExpert and there are some wonderful images at MushroomObserver.