Snakes (on a path)
Apr. 30th, 2007 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjIn theory, yesterday's NLT-monthly gettogether with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scotica was supposed to involve her coming to my place, but when I saw the news about the freeway foo I called and warned her off, on the assumption that it would be easier for me to find work-arounds than for her, given that it's my neighborhood. So we ended up going for a hike in the park off the other side of 280 from her place. A close encounter with a young rattlesnake within the first fifty yards or so of the trail inspired a cumulative wildlife tally. (Everyone was very polite about the encounter. The eight or so hikers in the vicinity did a perfect imaginary-crosswalk stop while the snake performed a nicely perpendicular transit of the trail. There was entertaining muttering along the lines of, "Is that a rattlesnake?" "Yup, that's a rattlesnake.") Final list: 3 snakes (one juvenile dimondback rattlesnake; two extremely young garter snakes -- about the size of a pencil); 4 assorted lizards (3 Western fence lizards and one possibly some other species or maybe just dull colored because it hasn't shed recently); at least 9 identifiable bird species (2 California quail, multiple cliff swallows, 1 disturbingly unshy Oregon junco, multiple brown tohwees or something indistinguishable from them in heavy brush, 1 crow, 2 Brewers' blackbirds, 1 starling, several hummingbirds, probably Anna's purely on statistical grounds, a few pigeons); 7 insect species large enough to be worth counting (dragonfly, damselfly, bumblebee, large black beetle, and three types of butterflies -- a probable monarch, a Red Admiral, and some nondescript white thing). There was also a small tuft of rabbit, but we decided the rules only allowed counting whole, life creatures.
Inspiration for the required dinner tie-in came from the recollection that the Morroccan restaurant on Main St. in Los Altos had a very nice roast quail stuffed with mushrooms.
scotica was supposed to involve her coming to my place, but when I saw the news about the freeway foo I called and warned her off, on the assumption that it would be easier for me to find work-arounds than for her, given that it's my neighborhood. So we ended up going for a hike in the park off the other side of 280 from her place. A close encounter with a young rattlesnake within the first fifty yards or so of the trail inspired a cumulative wildlife tally. (Everyone was very polite about the encounter. The eight or so hikers in the vicinity did a perfect imaginary-crosswalk stop while the snake performed a nicely perpendicular transit of the trail. There was entertaining muttering along the lines of, "Is that a rattlesnake?" "Yup, that's a rattlesnake.") Final list: 3 snakes (one juvenile dimondback rattlesnake; two extremely young garter snakes -- about the size of a pencil); 4 assorted lizards (3 Western fence lizards and one possibly some other species or maybe just dull colored because it hasn't shed recently); at least 9 identifiable bird species (2 California quail, multiple cliff swallows, 1 disturbingly unshy Oregon junco, multiple brown tohwees or something indistinguishable from them in heavy brush, 1 crow, 2 Brewers' blackbirds, 1 starling, several hummingbirds, probably Anna's purely on statistical grounds, a few pigeons); 7 insect species large enough to be worth counting (dragonfly, damselfly, bumblebee, large black beetle, and three types of butterflies -- a probable monarch, a Red Admiral, and some nondescript white thing). There was also a small tuft of rabbit, but we decided the rules only allowed counting whole, life creatures.Inspiration for the required dinner tie-in came from the recollection that the Morroccan restaurant on Main St. in Los Altos had a very nice roast quail stuffed with mushrooms.
