What do acorn woodpeckers and elephant seals have in common?

Both species live in highly social groups with similar behaviors! Imagine a TV miniseries with territorial inheritance and bitter relationships within the family unit. Succession, inheritance, and betrayal, oh my!

Acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus), is a species that lives in groups of up to 15 individuals (multiple generations) that cooperatively breed and raise young in a single shared nest cavity. It's called a polygynandrous breeding core, with non-breeding helpers of both sexes. Elephant seal behavior is similar, they are also highly territorial.

A group can have multiple males that are related to each other (some mix of brothers, fathers, sons, uncles, or nephews), all mating with multiple females that are related to each other (sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts, or nieces). Also similar to elephant seals, the males fight over the group’s females. Female breeders sometimes toss each other’s eggs out of the nest. (Oops, my bad!) 

Biologists think the young birds learn who their brothers and sisters are by remembering who is in the nest with them and identify their parents and adult siblings by noting who feeds them. Triadic awareness is thought to be a characteristic of ravens as well."  --Bay Nature article

​Let’s look at their habitat:

• A group’s territory includes one or more trees with holes for roosting and nesting.
• “Granaries” are the hollowed out holes for acorn storage (they eat the insects inside first).
• They store acorns as backup for those days when there are no insects. 
• Acorn woodpeckers acrobatically catch insects in the air. 
• As the acorns dry out and shrink, the woodpeckers move them to smaller holes so that other animals can’t steal them.

According to Bay Nature, "It takes 20 minutes for a woodpecker to make one granary hole, and a woodpecker group needs at least a thousand holes to survive." Many visitors to our parks will share a story of the woodpeckers long tongue that serves not only to place food in a tree hole, but also "cushions" or "protects" the brain.

A newer study challenges the bird's impact related to head banging.
"Contrary to popular belief, woodpeckers don’t protect their brains when head banging trees. Some hypothesized its spongy skull bone could act as an airbag, whereas others proposed its elongated tongue could be a seatbelt for the brain." Science Advisor / Current Biology (2022) and Audubon Society (2022)

The study shows adding shock absorption wouldn’t actually help protect the birds’ brains. If its head absorbed part of the impact, the bird couldn’t exert as large a force —meaning the woodpecker would peck less wood.  See the video below.

​Recently, I was humbled by an iNaturalist experience after posting a mushroom (see photo). I assumed this 'shroom I saw in the redwoods was Dyers Polypore. Two iNat members subsequently confirmed the identification. However, months later, a third message was posted indicating my identification was incorrect, and I pressed the "disagree button." I blew it off, dismissed it, turned a blind eye. 

If you haven't used the app yet, iNaturalist is a valuable tool for identifying plants, including mushrooms, lichen, and animals. Point your iPhone camera, and voila, instant gratification. The identification of that lovely leaf or flower is a marriage between AI and crowd sourcing.  However, most folks share that photo on iNat, and immediately have an expectation to find the right answer. (This is called positive bias.)

Let’s be real, the human brain can only hold a limited amount of information at once, and errors happen. (There are likely over 2,000 species of mushrooms in Santa Cruz County!) If you’re not an expert, it’s easy to commit to incorrect identifications. The longer it takes to make an ID, the probability of an error increases. 1

The person who disagreed with my little Dyers Polypore ID also provided a link in the comments of my post. It included a science paper that supported their claim. Even worse, I dismissed a mycologist! The study suggests two new species rearranged the phylogeny (the evolution of a species). Dyers Polypore (formerly Phaeolus schweinitzii) is now Phaeolus hispidoides. It doesn't have a common name at this point. According to the paper, the DNA-sequenced California Phaeolus fungi have all turned out to be P. hispidoides. That's a lot of fungi postings to correct in iNaturalist! By the way, it's non-edible, but can be used for yellow dye. Check out the California fungi in iNat.

Going forward, it may be worthwhile determining what exactly is going on before deleting an observation. There are a number of iNat users that provide good advice. Rather than deleting an observation, it might make sense to start a dialogue with the IDer(s) and/or tag other users to get a different point of view.  I will do better next time!

PS—The person who shared this valuable info is Allen Rockefeller. He has been recognized by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Scientific American, and multiple other publications.

"We're all watching the evolution of ecosystems in real time, and it's the result of environmental changes."  --Mimi Guiney, a former Big Basin State Park Ranger

It's now September along the Central Coast, and weather patterns are changing. Currently, a system called Tropical Storm Mario, is losing its tropical characteristics as it moves into colder waters. Its moisture is still bringing a chance of summer storms and elevated fire danger to California. In August 2020, an ecosystem disruption, described as a dry lightning fire event, devastated the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Along with fire, other ecosystem disruptions occur:

• Imbalance of the food web
• Habitat change
• Species migration (and extinction)
• Succession of plant species that adapt to new habitats

So, what does it mean for redwood forest ecosystems? The redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains don't rebound from drought like the redwoods in Northern California. According to Tim Hyland, Environmental Scientist for California State Parks, there is a "moisture gradient" between the southern and northern ranges of redwoods. Drought-stressed trees experience higher temps, and longer dry spells, versus increasingly powerful winters in the north, with flooding, and tree falls.

Ways to find hope, and dealing with challenges
"Climate change is not a belief system, it's an act." —Mark Hylkema, Former Big Basin State Park, Archeologist
​Mainstream conservation is just broken right now. In local communities, keeping the public informed about environmental challenges, and empowering them to volunteer can be an act of hope. There are resilient people you can connect with!

For example, in the Santa Cruz Mountains Sector of the California State Parks, there's an effort going on to reduce fuel load in the groves of old growth redwood trees. Preserving these critical habitats protects the biodiversity of the ecosystem; its diverse plants and animals. The redwoods are also exceptionally effective at sequestering carbon, storing significantly more carbon above ground than other forests, due to their longevity, immense height, and resistance to rot.

Fire and Land Stewardship

Animals, plants, and people have been in sync for thousands of years. Prescribed burns for fuel reduction and plant propagation has been a part of early tribal community practices. There are multiple types of prescribed burning. Below are two examples of burning. Broadcast burning and pile burning. Both were photographed at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in the grove.

The majority of visitors ask, "What are those tepees?"  Smiling I reply, "It's not a new glamping experience!"

It is however, an opportunity for the public to get involved with land stewardship! To date, over 300 burn piles have been made, largely a result of volunteer efforts!
According to Tim Hyland, CA State Parks:

• It is one of the most versatile and cost-effective tools available to reduce fuel load. Heavy fuel loads give fire a runway to climb up into the canopy. 
• Under ideal conditions (location, humidity, temperature, wind) a prescribed fire (especially one where fuel is consolidated into a pile) can effectively reduce fuel load in a short time. 
• Typically, pile burning will take less time (lighting piles, total consumption of materials, and monitoring piles until there is no heat left). 
• Pile burning does not smother ground vegetation!
• The location of piles can be flexible to adapt to changes in topography, soil moisture, and other plants/ ground vegetation in the area. 

What’s left is nutrients like calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium that improve native plant propagation, and reduce fire-intolerant species.

“Prescribed fire, or the use of fire under predetermined conditions to achieve specific objectives, is now well-recognized as one of the most versatile and cost-effective tools available, with utility for many different kinds of California land managers, from private ranchers and forestland owners to tribes to staff on national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges.” —Lenya Quinn-Davidson is spearheading a UC-backed movement that empowers California citizens to fight fire with fire

Before contact in 1769, the indigenous populations planted, pruned, harvested, and used fire regimes that made California a "hot spot" for biodiversity. "The Santa Cruz County population once numbered 10,000 or more with many villages." They were associated with the Awaswas-speaking language group.
—San Lorenzo Valley Museum

The Sayanta population (adjacent to the current Felton/Zayante area) was small compared to the Cotoni, Quiroste and Uypi tribal bands. All took advantage of seasonal sources of food, and used plants for medicinal purposes, clothing, tools, shelter, and food. Below are some examples of the plants that still thrive in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Bonny Doon Manzanita (Arctostaphylos silvicola) is also called silverleaf manzanita. It is endemic to the Santa Cruz Sandhills. Manzanitas have deep reddish bark, and sometimes have burls at the base of the trunk. The red berries were ground up to eat, and also made into cider. Leaves and berries were sometimes used like the modern day "Technu" to wash after poison oak contact.

Brittle-leaved Manzanita (Arctostaphylos crustacea) has fuzzy stems. The leave splits if you try to fold it.

The Yerba Santa plant is found in sandhill chaparral and mixed forest habitats. The leaves are used as a tea or syrup for treatment of respiratory illnesses, coughs and fevers.  Yerba Santa is Spanish for “holy weed” or “holy herb.” 

The leaves can be used externally as first aid to ease pain and stopping bleeding and stimulating clotting. "The plant has compounds that are anti-inflammatory. The leaves and roots were chewed for tooth and gum aches, and a piece of leaf could be rolled and inserted into the cavity of a painful tooth to bring relief." ​UCSC Arboretum: Native American Uses of California Plants: Ethnobotany

Wild ginger leaves were used as a poultice to bring boils to a head (and relieve toothaches). 
Indigenous peoples used wild ginger as a sedative for nervousness and insomnia.
"The stems were placed in a baby’s bed to promote calming and to relieve illness." UCSC
iNaturalist (c) Dawn Hanna (CC BY-NC)

A few budding naturalists recently addressed the question, “What do you find interesting in nature this time of year?” The consensus was the arrival of spring flowers. Just like all inquiries, the observation led to another question. Why does it seem like yellow flowers bloom first?  
​
According to Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the popular book, Braiding Sweetgrass, and distinguished professor of environmental biology—there is some science behind the colors we view as beautiful…and the same for bees! Both love purple and yellow.

Spring flowers give us a warm fuzzy feeling. From a biological perspective, are we anatomically attracted to purple and yellow first? In a roundabout way, yes! Humans have a thin layer of cells in the back of each eye called a retina. Cones are the part of the eye that lets us see colors. 

Colors like yellow and purple activate three types of cones at once. Light from the leaves and trees is activating your green cones. Light from the sky is activating your blue cones. And light from the pollen in the center of the flower is activating your red and green cones at the same time. That makes it look yellow.

Bee eyes perceive many flowers differently than humans, and have the ability to see color much faster than us. The most likely colors to attract bees, according to scientists, are purple, violet and blue. 

According to Robin Wall Kimmerer, “It turns out, goldenrod (a yellow flower) and asters (a purple flower) appear similarly to bee eyes and human eyes. Even more intriguing is that yellow and purple plants growing together receive more visits from pollinators, therefore leading to better plant success.” Doesn’t it seem fitting that yellow and purple are also called complementary colors on the color scale?