I am back on the West Coast of the US for a few weeks before I fly off into tomorrow sometime in November. The specific part of the west coast I am in is the Santa Monica Mountains, a rugged stretch of steep sided hills perched over the Pacific Ocean covered with blanket of dense chaparral.
Evening sunbeams in Topanga
The precipitous, heavily weathered mountain slopes are eroding from ancient sea-floor uplifted and broken by geologic stresses, frequently manifesting in the form of earthquakes. The region is dry, though fog is common and periodic rainstorms can quickly drench the area, causing local flooding and landslides. The dusty ground is colored a dull orange/tan with angular, flat, broken pebbles peeling out of shallow, soft bedrock with occasional anemonite and bivalve fossils. Under the twelve foot chaparral canopy the gritty soil is overlain by several inches of slowly decomposing leaf-litter and twigs, loose in some places, held together by dense mycelial mats in other places, particularly under the scrub and live oaks.
Infrequent damp, cool places are home to massive coastal live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and California sycamore (Platanus racemosa) while a bewildering variety of woody shrubs make up the body of the chaparral cloaking the rest of the mountains. Here and there small meadows, potreros in the southern California vernacular, and wind-blasted rock outcrops break up the gray/green vegetation.
Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia) flower buds
Chamise, Toyon, Scrub Oak, Lemonade Berry, Ceanothus, Yucca, and various sages make up much of the more common large shrubs with Black Walnut, Elderberry, Coastal Live Oak, and California Sycamore making up the primary larger trees. The softer vegetative plants of the understory tend be short-lived, only appearing to bloom and set seed after the rain.
The thick, leathery leaves of the Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia) in the image above are fairly typical of chaparral plants in that they are mostly evergreen and have evolved to husband moisture. Some plants steal their nutrients from other plants, Dodder (Cuscuta californica) is common in the chaparral, some years blanketing their hosts with yellow-orange leafless vines sporting nearly invisible flowers.
Dodder (Cuscuta californica) on Lemonade Berry. Dodder is most active after rains.
For such a dry region the diversity of both plant and animal life is astounding. The most obvious animal life during the day are the birds. Birds of all sizes everywhere, year round. Little tiny acrobatic birds such as the Bushtit traveling in small noisy flocks.
Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) on scrub oak
Large birds of prey soaring overhead in search of thermals or their next meal.
Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) riding the wind
Meadowlarks, finches, wrens, thrashers, scrub jays, woodpeckers, hummingbirds quail, and a host of other birds flit about within earshot, if not within eyesight.
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) atop a Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) shrub, a popular food bush for many birds. Toyon is also known as Hollywood, the plant Hollywood owes its name to.
Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) perched on a non-native Tobacco Tree (Nicotiana glauca)
Mammals abound as well. Small rabbits scatter like frogs in a pond in the evenings, and in the mornings I find fresh coyote, fox, bobcat, skunk, raccoon, deer, and mountain lion tracks on the unused dirt roads. In the potreros badgers are not uncommon, large woodrat piles abound, bats fly through the canyons in the evening, and ground squirrels are everywhere. Sometimes, if you have a quiet foot, a lot of patience, and good deal of luck you sneak up on these animals. A few years back I was out here and found a coyote sleeping in the sunlight.
Coyote (canis latrans) sleeping in the sunlight
This being a dry area there are numerous lizards and snakes, mostly hidden from sight, and insects of all sorts.
I prefer wet places, places that stay green, but I do appreciate and enjoy the diversity of life here in the steep chaparral. It is strange to be here between damp New England and my next home in Borneo where I will receive 3-4 meters of rain a year.
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Some of these photos are taken with a Nikon D80, some with a Nikon D90, and several with a Nikon D600. I am still learning the latter camera, but if any of you out there are debating buying the D600, I can honestly say I recommend it. The Meadowlark and Hummingbird images were taken with the D600 and are cropped from much larger images.
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