Early September brought strong winds, which proved too much for some of the oaks in the reserve that had been weakened by fire. The one below was on the trail just before the actual entrance to the reserve, very near where the new trail access meets the original trailhead at Highway 128.
Although weakened, this oak had been alive before it fell. This is post-fire regrowth:
In the morning when the temperature was approaching 90 degrees F, a fairly short walk through the reserve revealed a number of plants I had not seen in previous visits, including green cudweed (Gnaphalium californicum) and narrow-leaved milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis), below. I also observed galls on poison oak, which are made by a gall mite, Aculops rhois.
California fuschia (Epilobium canum) is abundant in the reserve in the summer, but I saw a new Epilobium in the creekbed this visit, denseflower willowherb (Epilobium densiflorum). The puffy, plume-like fruits of pipestem clematis (Clematis lasiantha) were abundant in several places along the creek trail.
Thanks to the wetter winter, there was still water in the creekbed this July, and plenty of plants and animals taking advantage. Red rock skimmers (Paltothemis lineatipes) buzzed me as I stood on rocks above the water, peering into the creek to see freshwater snails that are harder to spot when the water is higher. I fished the head of a Jerusalem cricket (Stenopelmatus sp.) out of the water; I’m sure the rest of its body had been a juicy treat for something.
Meandering down the trail in May, stopping every few steps to draw something else, I tried to find differences between last May and this. As I’d noticed before, there were more vines this year, including western morning glory (Calystegia occidentalis). There were abundant pipevine swallowtails (Battus philenor) both years, and this visit I spotted a mating pair and was able to get close to sketch them.
It seemed to me that there were many more Clarkias along the creek trail, including Clarkia unguiculata (elegant Clarkia) and Clarkia purpurea (four-spot).
Bumblebees were busy in the Klamathweed (St. John’s wort, Hypericum perforatum) and I watched a Chalcedon checkerspot (Euphydryas chalcedona) on poison oak. A few gray pines (Pinus sabiniana) that seemed to still be growing after the fire now have so few green needles left that it seems they may not make it after all.
A couple of my usual views: Cold Creek and Blue Ridge. I’ve been trying to capture them each time I visit, for an ongoing record of seasonal changes as well as changes over the years.
I hadn’t yet spotted an alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata; I wrote an older synonym on the sketch) in the reserve, so I was glad to finally spy one darting across the trail in front of me. They are zippy and more shy than fence lizards.
I started to draw the coyote mint (Monardella villosa) and then noticed a lady beetle (Coccinellidae) larva on one leaf.
Approximately a year and six months after the fire, it is apparent that the crowns of many of the trees near the trailhead have filled in considerably. There is also a lot more vegetation on the ground than there was in March a year ago. Chaparral shrubs are resprouting from their bases, but I have noticed this winter and spring that vines (wild cucumber, wild grape) are responsible for a lot of the newest greenery on the hillsides, growing up the trunks of the burned shrubs.
The view September 2016:
March 2016:
September 2015:
The days are warming up and the butterflies are out in force. Pipevine swallowtails (Battus philenor) were everywhere when I visited at the beginning of April, large dark shapes swooping across the trail. I was excited to find a jumping spider (Phidippus sp.) on a branch of poison oak.
I watched a lone carpenter ant (Camponotus sp.) wandering along the mud next to a trickle of water running across the trail. Purple sanicle (Sanicula bipinnatifida) is a beautiful wildflower that I didn’t see in the reserve last year.
Common buckeye (Junonia coenia) caterpillars were busy eating the tips of one of their host plants, California figwort (Scrophularia californica). It is clear that vines are taking advantage of the bare chaparral shrub branches after the fire, and this year the vines are even more abundant, especially on the hillsides.
I had been unaware that there were yellow variants of woolly paintbrush (Castilleja foliolosa), but both colors were growing along the creek trail.
I didn’t spot any live grasshoppers on this visit, but did see a very flat one in the middle of the trail.
There were lovely patches of fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii) and abundant wild cucumber fruits (Marah fabaceus).
The prohibition of dogs in the reserve is unfortunately ineffective. Just about every third group of hikers I saw on this busy Saturday had a dog with them.
Enjoying the wildflowers on a beautiful February day, I also noticed a different form of California buckeye (Aesculus californica) regrowth than I had seen last year. Along the creek trail, some buckeyes that had not regrown in their crowns last year were sending up basal shoots. I love the way the leaf buds look.
I was excited to see a checker-lily (Fritillaria affinis), something I did not catch last year. Greater bee-flies (Bombylius major) were everywhere, enjoying the sun and the flowers.
A yellowjacket (Vespula sp.) resting on purple nightshade (Solanum xanti), a western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) paused on a rock in the sun, and the first blooms on fleshy lupine (Lupinus succulentus):
A few more blooms (canyon delphinium, blue dicks, and miner’s lettuce):
I’m still working on capturing the grey expanses of dead tree and shrub branches against the hillsides.
Cold creek is beautiful and clear.
The wet winter has led to movement on the hillsides, although maybe not as much as there might have been, given how recent the fire was. This was a slump right along the creek trail.
In November, on a cool but not cold day, I hiked to the top of Blue Ridge. Looking out at Lake Berryessa, it was easy to see part of the area burned by the Cold Fire last summer.
On the way up the trail, I looked for mushrooms enjoying the damp left by rains earlier in the month, and observed regrowth of mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides), blue oaks (Quercus douglasii), and chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum). The leaves of yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum) along the trail were losing their waxy coating. The waxy coating, presumably beneficial in retaining water during dry months, is resinous and highly flammable. Yerba santa seeds may require fire to germinate and can also resprout from rhizomes following fire.
Hillsides stripped of their erosion-controlling vegetation by the fire have been shored up with erosion matting installed by Tuleyome and Friends of Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve.
Looking across Cold Canyon I was struck by the “rivers” of dead tree branches running down the canyons of Pleasants Ridge. They made a ghostly grey against the greens of new growth and the hills still mostly yellow from the summer.
A few mid-action photos:
On a cool gray day, I thought that a scrub jay (Aphelocoma californica) in a gray pine (Pinus sabiniana) made a beautiful silhouette against the sky.
A number of spotted towhees (Pipilo maculatus) were foraging in the smaller trees along the trail. I caught one on a perch next to some stairs, and then drew a close-up from a photo.
All over the canyon, poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) in its fall colors glowed vividly against the green and gray of the day.
Mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides) resprouting. I love the shape of their leaves.
Female coyotebrush (Baccharis pilularis) flowers, and a view of coyotebrush resprouting.
Having established a pattern of drawing the view at the trailhead every six months, I am posting the drawing for September 2016, just a over a year after the fire. Although plenty of charred tree and shrub branches are still in evidence, new growth in tree crowns and from the bases of both trees and shrubs stands out starkly against the summer-yellowed hillsides.
The view in March 2016:
The view in September 2015:
Robin Lee Carlson Illustration 