58/250 update and a trip to San Mateo County

Since last posting about my progress on the 58/250 Project, I've made some significant headway with several of the coastal counties. I completed Santa Cruz County with a fantastic mix of the common (Pacific Poison Oak), rare (Common Cuckoo), native (Dolloff Cave Spider), and introduced (Western Mosquito Fish), and it currently stands at 271 species!

I also spent several days in San Diego at the end of May, with a few night drives in the Anza Borrego Desert. There, we recorded five different species of snake along numerous other reptiles, insects, mammals. Currently I'm at 215 species for San Diego, and with a newly purchased underwater point-and-shoot camera (thanks for the suggestions @anudibranchmom ! ) I should break 250 within six months with trips to La Jolla Cove, Mt. Palomar, and Mission Trails.

My next "target" county is San Mateo, currently at 68 species on my list. A beautiful county than makes up much of the San Francisco Peninsula, it includes long stretches of both then rural Pacific coast and the more developed San Francisco Bay shoreline. These are divided by the mid-peninsular range with stretches of Long Ridge running at over 2,500 ft in elevation. On Friday, August 2nd, I spent a few hours at Ano Nuevo State Park in search of the rare San Francisco Garter Snake. The weather was beautiful, the crowds sparse, and the Northern Elephant Seals were bellowing. Despite dipping out on the sought after garter snake, two other species of snake were found. Additionally, three inaturalist lifers were picked up, including a diminutive shore-loving beetle, Akephorus marinus, that is new to Inaturalist's San Mateo County list.

After visiting Ano Nuevo, I did a quick stop at Pigeon Point Lighthouse where calling Pigeon Pigeon Guillemots were seen visiting their nest sites along the cliffs.

Posted on 11 August, 2019 17:44 by rjadams55