 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most birders like to keep LISTS. So of course, I had to have one for my gallery. I began the species list the day that I opened my shop, “The Wildlife Gallery & Studio”.
With a list comes rules that I have set up for myself and that I adhere to like law. For a species to be officially counted on my gallery list, I have to have seen or heard it, either from within the actual gallery or from the small cement slab that lies one step outside of each of the two gallery doors. From that vantage point I can count anything that I can identify, no matter how far away it is. I’m limited only by my optical power and weather condition such as heat waves, wind, rain and glare. In short, my list is confined to an area of about 15 X 20 feet!
The gallery is located in “downtown” Bolinas, Marin County, California. It is situated just south west of the San Andreas fault line at the extreme southern end of the Point Reyes Peninsula, nestled between the Bolinas Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean. While I’m bordered on two sides by water, I can’t see any from the gallery. There was, however, a three day period when a hellish windstorm blew down a fence across the street, allowing me to see about 100 feet of the Bolinas Lagoon and giving me nine new gallery birds in that brief window of time. Unfortunately the fence was quickly repaired thereby shutting off my view of salt water! The main gallery window faces south across a patio, adorned with numerous feeders and a large granite water sculpture that acts as a liquid bird magnet. Beyond is a lush garden with a couple of small fresh water pools hidden behind a fence. Framing that area is a heavily forested hillside composed of Coast Live Oak, Douglas Fir and numerous other plant species. On fall mornings this hill is a drop in zone for south bound migrants, as these are simply the last trees of choice before crossing the mouth of the Bolinas Lagoon. During the evenings, this hillside catches full sun and is a warm, buggy and perfectly illuminated swath of green. There is a small gap where I can see the back side of Mount Tamalpais approximately three miles to the east, otherwise most of my view is at fairly close quarters. There is also a nice swath of sky for hawks, swallows or high flying migrants. There is often a passage of birds at an incoming high tide as shorebirds and ducks exit the lagoon and pass over the gallery to seek high ground at the Bolinas sewage ponds.
The species below are listed in the order that they were first recorded with the date they were first seen. |
||
|
|
|
 |
||
|
|
|
 |
||
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
MAMMALS 1. Opossum 2. Brazilian Free-tailed Bat 3. Little Brown Myotis 4. Raccoon 5. Norway Rat 6. Striped Skunk 7. Western Gray Squirrel 8. Deer Mouse 9. House Mouse 10. Harbor Seal (heard) 11. Broad-footed Mole 12. Mule Deer 13. Sonoma Chipmunk 14. Shrew-Mole REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS 1. Terrestrial Garter Snake 2. Pacific Tree Frog FISH (being carried by Osprey) 1. Leopard Shark 2. Striped Bass 3. Jack Smelt BUTTERFLIES & MOTHS 1. Pipevine Swallowtail 2. Anise Swallowtail 3. Satyr Comma 4. Monarch 5. Spring Azure 6. Cabbage White 7. Pale Swallowtail 8. Variable Checkerspot 9. West Coast Lady 10. Western Tiger Swallowtail 11. Red Admiral 12. Umber Skipper 13. Lorquin’s Admiral 14. Acmon Blue 15. Buckeye 16. California Sister 17. White-lined Sphinx Moth 18. Cecropia Moth 19. Field Crescent DRAGONFLIES 1. Red Saddlebags 2. Black Saddlebags 3. Pacific Forktail 4. Swift Forktail 5. Blue-eyed Darner 6. Widow Skimmer 7. Cardinal Meadowhawk 8. Common Green Darner
|
||
|
|
|
 |
||
|
|
|