Final Weeks of Summer Camp for 2020

 The last two weeks of summer camp blew by in a flurry of sunshine and sweat. I was a solo leader during the first of the two, and I was joined by Otter for the last week. That final week was probably the toughest, at least when it came to enforce the mask rule. One boy always had his mask underneath his nose, and another boy had minor meltdowns about his mask by mid-afternoon on a couple of days. Apparently the first boy had attended a camp where the rule wasn't enforced. That's worrying in and of itself. We carried on though, and everybody had fun.

Our school year camp will most likely be modeled after our summer camp this year, although the details are still being worked out. I still have two weeks of time to call my own before diving back in.

I did manage to confirm a sighting of one additional new-to-me bird in the middle of the last week. There were around 30 birds darting around just above the water at the reservoir. At least some of them were Barn Swallow, and there might have been some other swallow species in the mix as well. I pointed my lens at some nearby birds (as one does) and ended up only getting one usable shot (usable for ID purposes, but not by any means a good photo). Inspecting the photo, I came to the conclusion the bird was a Vaux's Swift (pronounced like "foxes"). I posted it to a birding forum to confirm. I might have seen one last year too, but it was incredibly high up and  didn't manage to get a photo, so this is my first confirmed sighting. These birds are incredible flyers, and can only land on vertical surfaces, which means that getting a picture of one perching is incredibly unlikely.

There are at least two young Gray Foxes who patrol the garden and lower field area. They've marked the area thoroughly with piles of scat, and love eating fallen fruit. Sometimes they're too impatient to wait for it to fall. One photo below shows a fox in a tree, hunting for fruit. Gray Foxes are the only canines who can easily climb. In many ways, they behave more like felines. These foxes let me get within 15 feet of them without acting too alarmed. I have a feeling they would have been much less visible if we had run at our usual capacity this year.

 

 

During the final week, Barn Swallows were much more visible, probably due to the new fledglings making their first appearances outside of the nest. They were still visibly begging for food whenever there were other swallows nearby.

 

Jeanine found an old plague doctor mask in storage (as one does), so I wore it a work. It seemed like the thing to do this year.

 

 

Sometimes you click the shutter at exactly the right moment. Here's a fox appearing to run on two legs.

 

Bushtits are tiny and quick. Males and juveniles have dark eyes, and adult females have pale ones.

 

 

There were a number of young deer out and about. Here are two of them between the Orange group and Green group meeting spots.

Here's my animal count for the entire summer: We worked all of July, but only the first week of August. Usually, we would have worked all of June as well, so this summer's count is missing a month of data. June tends to be the month when we see the most animals, but 82 different species is nothing to scoff at. I'm the only one counting during the summer, but several other staff members told me of sightings that I then added to this list.

Critter Count Summer 2020 (82 species)

July: (80 different species)

Acorn Woodpecker (11)

American Bullfrog (19)

American Coot (1)

American Crow (5)

American Robin (9)

Anna’s Hummingbird (5)

Ash-throated Flycatcher (1)

Banana Slug (13)

Band-tailed Pigeon (7)

Barn Swallow (3)

Bewick’s Wren (2)

Black-headed Grosbeak (1)

Black Phoebe (7)

Black-tailed Deer (12)

Bobcat (1)

Broad-footed Mole (1)

Brown Creeper (8)

Brush Rabbit (3)

Bushtit (23)

California Giant Salamander (17)

California Ground Squirrel (5)

California Newt (55) (48 in Newt York City - the pond where they congregate year-round)

California Quail (29)

California Scrub-jay (7)

California Towhee (2)

California Vole (2)

Calisoga Spider (1)

Cassin’s Vireo (1)

Chestnut-backed Chickadee (18)

Common Raven (2)

Common Sharp-tailed Snake (1)

Common Yellowthroat (1)

Dark-eyed Junco (60)

Downy Woodpecker (4)

European Carp (14)

Gopher Snake (1)

Gray Fox (2)

Great Blue Heron (2)

Great Egret (1)

House Finch (4)

Lesser Goldfinch (5)

Mallard (4)

Merriam’s Chipmunk (4)

Mourning Dove (2)

Northern Alligator Lizard (4)

Northern Flicker (4)

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (4)

Northwestern Pond Turtle (1)

Nuttall’s Woodpecker (4)

Oak Titmouse (2)

Olive-sided Flycatcher (1)

Pacific Slope Flycatcher (16)

Pacific Wren (4)

Pileated Woodpecker (2)

Purple Finch (1)

Red-shouldered Hawk (1)

Red-tailed Hawk (4)

Red-winged Blackbird (3)

Ringneck Snake (1)

Round-backed Millpedes (4)

Santa Cruz Garter Snake (3)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (1)

Sierran Tree Frog (1)

Signal Crayfish (5)

Spotted Towhee (5)

Steller’s Jay (29)

Tiger Centipede (1)

Turkey (1)

Turkey Vulture (2)

Warbling Vireo (1)

Western Bluebird (2)

Western Fence Lizard (42)

Western Forest Scorpion (4)

Western Gray Squirrel (6)

Western Skink (10)

Western Tanager (1)

Western Toad (2)

Wilson’s Warbler (2)

Wrentit (4)

Yellow-spotted Millipede (4)

August: (48 different species) 2 not seen in July

Acorn Woodpecker (3)

American Bullfrog (7)

American Crow (7)

American Robin (6)

Anna’s Hummingbird (2)

Banana Slug (6)

Band-tailed Pigeon (4)

Barn Swallow (30)

Black Phoebe (4)

Black-tailed Deer (2)

Brown Creeper (2)

California Giant Salamander (3)

California Ground Squirrel (5)

California Newt (16)

California Quail (10)

California Scrub-jay (2)

California Towhee (2)

Chestnut-backed Chickadee (7)

Cliff Swallow (2)

Dark-eyed Junco (20)

European Carp (2)

Gray Fox (1)

Great Blue Heron (1)

Great Egret (1)

House Finch (9)

Mallard (2)

Mourning Dove (1)

Northern Alligator Lizard (2)

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (4)

Northwestern Pond Turtle (1)

Nuttall’s Woodpecker (2)

Pacific Slope Flycatcher (2)

Pileated Woodpecker (1)

Red-tailed Hawk (1)

Red-winged Blackbird (1)

Round-backed Millipede (2)

Sierran Tree Frog (2)

Signal Crayfish (2)

Spotted Towhee (2)

Steller’s Jay (7)

Turkey Vulture (1)

Vaux’s Swift (1)

Western Bluebird (1)

Western Fence Lizard (10)

Western Forest Scorpion (1)

Western Skink (2)

Western Toad (1)

Wrentit (2)