How to Recognize Spiders By their Webs - Bay Nature Magazine
WEBSep 29, 2015 · Illustration by Rachel Diaz-Bastin. Orb webs are the classic, wheel-shaped webs that have inspired everyone from engineers to poets to, well, designers of computer networks. They are primarily associated with their namesake, the family Araneidae, commonly known as the orb-weaver spiders, and have …
ENature.com Website Launch
WEBApr 1, 2002 · Share This: If you haven’t checked out eNature.com, now’s the time. The website has been acquired by the National Wildlife Federation and offers a tremendous resource and tools for exploring Bay Area nature. Local-Guides on the site provide you with a zip-code-based photographic primer on the wildlife common in any area, including birds ...
Ask the Naturalist | Do Sea Anemones Live Forever? - Bay Nature
WEBSep 27, 2020 · Looking into the center of a giant green anemone, this one at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, is one way to glimpse possible immortality. (Photo by Charity Vargas). Groucho Marx once said, “I intend to live forever, or die trying”—and he did, it seems. But when it comes to sea anemones, if you lop off a hunk or a tentacle it will grow right back.
Meet Nature's Extreme Athlete, Elephant Seals - Bay Nature …
WEBJanuary 6, 2020. Male elephant seals are among the loudest mammals ever recorded, and they can weigh more than two tons. (Photo by Steve Zamek, Feather Light Photography) On a sparkling blue January morning, I meet marine biologist Patrick Robinson, who will escort me around Año Nuevo State Park, a patch of dunes and bluffs an hour’s drive ...
The Guadalupe River and the Hidden Heart of San José - Bay Nature
WEBJun 27, 2018 · Trace the path of the Guadalupe River along cartographer Ben Pease’s 2018 map for Bay Nature. This is not so implausible as it sounds. San José is a river city, split neatly from north to south by the Guadalupe River, a 14-mile waterway that can flood with 14,000 cubic feet per second of water in the winter and shrink to mostly dust in the ...
The Enduring Mystery of Oak Tree "Mast" Years - Bay Nature
WEBJul 5, 2022 · Figure 1. The mean acorn crop of valley oak at Hastings Reservation (mean number of acorns counted per 30 second visual survey), 1980-2021; dashed lines divide years into those where the crop was <25% and >75% of the maximum acorn crop. Divided like this, only 3 of 42 years were “mast” years, while 16 were “medium” and 23 were “poor ...
The Story of Salt Point State Park is Written in Stone - Bay Nature
WEBJul 1, 2010 · W aves crash on the rocky shore, salt spray flings high into the air; pelicans and cormorants skim the water in single file; in spring whales spout offshore and wildflowers blanket the marine terrace. The stunning beauty of Salt Point State Park, about 90 miles north of San Francisco, is reason enough for a trip up the coast. Add an underwater reserve, spectacular rock formations, and an ...
On The Trail of the Surprisingly Mysterious Gray Fox
WEBOct 21, 2015 · The gray fox, Urocyon cinereaoargenteus, and its closely related cousin the channel island fox, Urocyon littoralis, are the last living remnants of an ancient genus.“The gray fox occupies the earliest diverging branch on the canid tree of life,” says Ben Sacks, a biologist at UC Davis. “A gray wolf or your dog is as related to a gray fox as a red fox is, in terms of ancestry.”
What’s It Like Inside a Woodrat Nest? - Bay Nature
WEBJan 3, 2021 · Woodrats, pack rats, and trade rats are all common names for the same remarkable rodent genus, Neotoma.Our local species, the dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes), has a nice multicolor coat—unlike the nasty nonnative Norway and black rats, all too common in urban areas.It’s also extremely cute, with big Mickey Mouse ears and a lovely, lightly fuzzy tail.
How Condors Returned to Yurok Land in Northern California - Bay …
WEBJun 9, 2022 · On March 28, 2022, after a six-month stay, Ventana transferred the remaining condors from San Simeon north to the Yurok pen. Staff from the Oakland Zoo did checkups on the condors, including taking baseline blood samples. Ventana and Yurok biologists carried each condor in a large pet carrier with covered-over windows.