MMPC – Page 4 – More Mesa Preservation Coalition

Living With the Lockdown – Treasure Hunt #14

Posted on August 11, 2020 | by MMPC

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HISTORY FALLS INTO THE SEA?

It All Starts with a Tiny Cactus

This Treasure Hunt is not about a gift from Mother Nature, but a story about a telephone line. It begins a hundred years ago with, surprisingly enough, a gift from Mother Nature, a tiny Prickly Pear Cactus. This little plant was on the property of the eldest child (Kate Bell) of one of our area’s most famous pioneers; Don Nicholas Den, owner of Rancho dos Pueblos. On Kate’s 76th
birthday, she had a giant celebration, convening the entire clan. And, as part of the celebration, she made a prophetic and wildly accurate prediction. She pointed to a struggling tiny cactus and offered that whomever sunk a well near that cactus would strike oil and become very rich.

As time went by, the tiny cactus prospered and became a large patch*. In 1927, the oily aroma in the area of the large patch launched the beginnings of oil exploration at Ellwood. But after more than a year of frustration, test wells continued to come up dry. However, in mid 1928 with one last gasp effort, deeper and much closer to the cactus patch, they struck oil and struck it BIG! This one well alone yielded the richest oil yet found in California and ended up producing over a million barrels of high-quality crude. With two separate oil fields, one on land and one in the ocean, the coast at Ellwood quickly became a hot bed of oil activity; including extraction, refining, storage, and transportation. And because the area had so much going on, Kate Bell’s son-in-law feared that the revered cactus patch would be destroyed in the hustle and bustle of the oil field. So, he built an iron fence around the patch to protect it.

*The “patch” can still be seen today east of Haskell’s Beach … on a hillside below the Sandpiper Golf Course.

Enter A “Curious Someone” From Across the Sea

All during the 1930s, there was so much readily available product at Ellwood that tankers from nations all over the world came there to procure oil. The captain of one of these tankers was a highly esteemed Japanese Naval Officer named Kozo Nishino, one who had joined the submarine service in 1923 and captained several oil tankers during the 1930s. As a result of this experience he was very familiar with the Ellwood field and the surrounding coastline. It was on such a mission in the late 1930s, and while his tanker was being loaded, Commander Nishino decided to stroll along our lovely coast and happened upon Kate Bell’s cactus patch – now protected behind the iron fence. He decided that he would like a “cutting” of this strange plant for his garden back in Japan. Unfortunately, he fell into the patch and had to be pulled out by his crew. There were also other things that had to be pulled out … the cactus spines embedded in various parts of his body. While viewing the accident and recovery, American oil workers at the site offered only loud guffaws and embarrassing remarks. Commander Nishino was purported to have vowed revenge*.

*For the full story and wonderful photos of Kate Bell and her cactus see Goleta History.

In early 1941, with his career on a definite upward trajectory, Commander Nishino was awarded the newest, biggest “German-like” submarine: one that was the pride of the Japanese fleet. In fall of the year this sub played a part in the “run-up” to Pearl Harbor and was on patrol in the area on that fateful day. As soon as it was acknowledged that the attack was wildly successful, Captain Nishino was ordered to proceed to the west coast of the U.S. on a mission to attack America’s merchant ships.

Commander Nishino's L-17 Submarine was 365 feet long — Commander Nishino’s L-17 Submarine was 365 feet long

Subs in Our Backyard

Early Japanese strategy was one of inflicting psychological, rather than physical, damage to the U.S. mainland. The campaign started a scant week after Pearl Harbor, when nine Japanese submarines were deployed to United States shores with orders to eliminate American supply ships and attack nine coastal cities and lighthouses up and down the Pacific coast. Almost all the targets were in California. This was a concerted effort to frighten the American public into thinking a large-scale attack on the mainland was coming next.
As a result, submarines were often spotted from shore in the Santa Barbara area and duly reported to Naval officers stationed here. These officers would then pass the information on to San Diego. On February 16,1942, an employee at the Ellwood oil field reported a sub to the Santa Barbara officer and it was immediately passed on. Three days later the same sub appeared, and the report was again made to the local naval officer who again passed it on to San Diego. This time the return message did not say “Thanks”. It said “Stop sending us these submarine sighting stories – the coast is full of California gray whales. That is what you are seeing, not subs.” The local officer groaned and reported back, “A whale is 20 feet long.* This submarine is 300 feet long.”

*Gray whales are actually more like 35-40 feet long, but they obviously did not have the same great whale books we have today.

Commander Nishino Returns to Ellwood

Captain Nishino, commander of one of the nine subs, was given three potential targets. When he checked them out, the first two were very heavily fortified and armed. Ellwood had not a single gun. So … four days after the “Those are whales, not subs report”, Captain Nishino returned, once again, to the scene of the Cactus Patch incident to lob 16-25, 5 ½ inch shells into the Ellwood coast. He timed the 20-minute shelling just as Americans were settling down around their radios to hear President Roosevelt’s fireside chat to the nation: a broadcast in honor of George Washington’s birthday. No one was killed or hurt during the attack and although the sub fired at a pair of oil storage tanks, they missed. Damage to the entire site was minimal perhaps $500 – $1000*.
Did Captain Nishino come back for revenge? Probably not. The captain was a career military officer, trained to follow orders and he most likely did just that. He did however, bend the truth more than a little bit when he radioed back to Japan saying he’d “left Santa Barbara in flames.”

Japanese propaganda postcard depicting Ellwood shelling

The Ellwood shelling was a rousing success for Japan, because there were massive repercussions throughout America. Panic ensued on both coasts and especially in California. Most shameful was that the attack on Ellwood put an end to any shred of opposition to incarcerating Japanese Americans and ushered in a disgraceful period of illegal and unconstitutional internment. Those of Japanese descent were stripped of all their belongings, property etc. and 48 hours later shipped to camps around the country where they lived for more than 3 years. Of those 120,000 people, 70% were American citizens.

*To learn more about the Ellwood shelling, visit Goleta History.

So What Does This Have To Do With More Mesa?

An America at war needed a way to decide if we were being attacked from the air. Because the west coast of the U. S. was viewed as very vulnerable, and as radar systems were in their infancy, aircraft-spotting stations in our area were built very quickly after Pearl Harbor. Our “line” of spotting stations stretched from Tecolote Canyon to east of Hope Ranch. Stations were staffed by both men and women, all civilian volunteers; among them some of Santa Barbara’s most prominent citizens. These folks worked around the clock in two-hour shifts. Using binoculars and checking against charts of various Japanese planes, spotters reported to “filter” stations using a buried phone line. The filter stations would then forward authenticated reports to an Aircraft Warning Service.

Our system was probably an early section of the Ground Observers Corps (GOC), a World War II Civil Defense program of the United States Army Air Forces to protect United States territory against air attack. By the beginning of November 1942, there were 1.5 million civilian observers in the GOC, who at 14,000 coastal observation posts performed naked eye and binocular searches to detect German or Japanese aircraft.

About the Telephone Line …

For those of you who read our periodic More Mesa updates, you are probably weary of our persistent nagging about the unstable nature of More Mesa’s cliffs. For those of you who never heard our warning message, here it is …
It is dangerous to go near the cliff edge at any time, and more importantly, never go near the edge after a rain.

What does this have to do with the telephone line? It’s all about “what went where” during WW II. During the Ground Observers Corps era, spotter shelters, built on concrete pads, were positioned relatively close to the edge of the cliff. Telephone lines to report sightings were buried much further back from the edge.

More Mesa’s extremely unstable shales erode, on average, about 10 inches a year. (Since I minored in math, I’ll do the numbers.) Ten inches a year since the beginning of WW II equates to the current cliff edge being roughly 65 feet further toward the mountains than it was at the beginning of WW II. The spotter shelters have long disappeared into the Pacific. And, almost all but a very few, and very tiny, sections of the phone lines are also gone. With luck, and extreme care, you might catch a glimpse of a small remnant of this important and bygone system at the cliff edge. In a few years these reminders too will vanish into the deep, marking the end of a tumultuous era that began almost a century ago.

Living with the Lockdown – Treasure Hunt #13

Posted on July 26, 2020 | by MMPC

Lizard … Bad Guy or Superhero?

When I started this Treasure Hunt, I began by thinking about whether lizards, like snakes, conjure up negative images and feelings. After some research, I decided that the only reason I even thought about this issue was the expression “Lounge Lizard”; originally coined by the Flappers of the 1920s and used to describe men who hung around bars trying to pick up women … preferably rich ones. Apparently, the term has resurfaced every decade during the past 100 years and is still in use. With this flimsy negative evidence, and what follows, you decide whether the Western Fence Lizard may qualify as a Superhero.

Western Fence Lizards Found All Over California

Of the three common lizards found on More Mesa, the Western Fence Lizard, also called Bluebelly, is a fairly well-known and recognized reptile. And it also seems to have captured the imagination of many northern California residents, as I found some of the most interesting information on this animal in Bay area publications.

Although it occurs in small numbers throughout many western states, California is definitely home territory for the Western Fence Lizard, where we host six separate subspecies; among them the Central Coast’s “Great Basin Fence Lizard”. Moreover, the Channel Islands are the only place on the planet you will find the “Islands Fence Lizard.” (You may remember that the Gopher Snake also had a subspecies found only on the Channel Islands, and we also talked about these remarkable islands in our issue on Western Gulls. Try to get out there if you can. It’s an amazing place, and it is in our very own back yard!)

Cunning Little Blue Guy

Western Fence Lizards are brown to black in color with black stripes on their backs. However, their most distinguishing feature is their bright blue bellies and throat patches. Characteristically, as happens in most of the animal and bird kingdoms, the males have to “dress up” whereas the females and juveniles have faint or no color … very drab indeed! The bodies of these little guys measure 2 ¼-3 ½ inches with a total length (including tail) of about 8 inches. Why do we care about measurements with and without the tail? As it turns out, the Western Fence Lizard has a surprise in store for potential enemies chasing it down. When they get too close, the lizard contracts muscles at weak spots in its tail. Then nerves, blood vessels and muscles break, the tail is left in the mouth of the predator and the lizard makes a very hasty exit. While the predator is confusedly trying to figure out what just happened, the lizard begins growing a new tail.
The “quick release” tail is not the only weapon in the Western Fence Lizard’s arsenal against predators. They are very fast, very skittish, have excellent reflexes and can bite, or even poop on predators as well.

Life Cycle Includes All Regular Activities … and Brumation

Cold-blooded Western Fence Lizards lead a solitary life. They are diurnal reptiles and are commonly seen sunning on paths, rocks, and fence posts, and other high places, which sometimes makes them easy prey for birds and even some mammals. The lizard itself is a carnivore, eating worms of all kinds, caterpillars, spiders, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, flies, ants and ticks. (Ticks are a “big deal” as you will see below.) Like snakes, lizards molt so that they have a new skin, as well as a new tail … as needed.

And in the procreation department …

Stimulated by an increase in day length, Western Fence Lizards mate in the spring or early summer, and do not breed until the spring of their second
year. It is at this time of year that one is likely to observe the characteristic “push-ups” that many lizards exhibit. Females will lay one to three clutches of three or more eggs (usually eight) between April and July. During the mating season, adult males will defend a home range. The eggs hatch in August. (We should also note that push-ups have other purposes, besides the courtship ritual. They can also be used for domination effect or claiming territory.)

Sleepy Time … Lizards are cold-blooded and do best with daytime temperature between 75-85 degrees F and nighttime temperatures around 62 degrees F. This means that they need to do something akin to hibernation during the winter. What they do is not true hibernation, but a cold-blooded version of slowing down that is called “brumation”; a state or condition of sluggishness, inactivity, or torpor exhibited by reptiles during winter or extended periods of low temperatures.

The average life of a Pacific Fence Lizard is relatively short in a natural setting. Up to 80% of the lizard population may die each year. However, they have the potential to live up to five years under optimal conditions.

A Third Eye?

Remember the Treasure Hunt about Bees? Bees have five eyes; three little ones at the top of their heads to help with navigation and stability, and two huge, compound eyes to give them all the information they need to understand their environment. As it turns out, many lizards have one additional eye, much smaller than their two “regular” eyes. This third eye is located at the midline of the top of their heads. It is formally known as a “parietal eye” and is hard to see because it is usually covered by a thick, large scale. While the third eye is less developed than the regular eyes, it does have a cornea, a lens and a retina … but no rods or cones … and does not form an image.

So why do they need a third eye? The only job of the third eye is to differentiate between light and dark. And while that seems unimportant to us as warm-blooded mammals, reptiles are cold-blooded and need more specific information than we do for certain phenomena. Research has shown the third eye acts as a calendar of sorts. It sees days getting longer and nights getting shorter and the reverse; thereby transmitting to the reptile brain how the seasons are changing. This information is critical to maintaining body temperature and daily circadian rhythms, and ends up acting as a monitor of most lizard life cycles such as sleep and reproduction

Super Hero Disease Fighter … or Not?

Lyme Disease, identified in the mid 1970s, is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in the United States. It affects about 300,000 people each year, mostly in the Northeast. One contracts this disease from a bite by a Black Legged (Deer) Tick. A little over 20 years ago, I began following the Lyme Disease saga. At that time, a Berkeley researcher presented evidence that the ticks he pulled off Western Fence Lizards … and there are a lot of ticks on the lizards … never seemed to carry Lyme. His conclusion was that the lizard’s blood had unique proteins that killed off the bacterium. Since the incidence of Lyme in California was markedly lower that incidence in the Northeast, where there are no Fence Lizards, the difference was awarded to the tiny Fence Lizard and it became a Super Hero.

I was taking a rigorous statistics course at the time and did a paper that I hoped would shed some light on the issue. One of the things I looked at was humidity … the ticks like it, there is lots of it in the Northeast, we don’t have much of it in Southern California and there is more of it in Northern California … where there is more Lyme than in Southern California. However, there was insufficient evidence to draw any credible conclusions. And, you will find that, to this day, most articles on Lyme and Fence Lizards still reference the early work and credit the lizards as heroic defenders of California from Lyme Disease.

But, as with all things in nature, it’s COMPLICATED! A new research study removed all the Fence Lizards from an area in Northern California and the incidence of Lyme’s went down!

What really is happening, and why, exactly, does the Northeast have 226 times more Lyme cases than we do in California? According to a recent article in Bay Nature
Magazine it could be lots of things. For example, overall weather; i.e.seasonality, humidity, dry spells. And, get ready for it … California also has some key species in place … like Mountain Lions.

What could ticks have to do with Mountain Lions? To understand this chain of causality, we have to start with deer. Little critters that inhabit the coats of deer are a favorite “all-you-can-eat buffet” for Black Legged Deer Ticks. And while the feast goes on and on, the deer does not get infected, it supplies food for an ever-increasing tick population and physically moves the ticks to new locales thereby providing fresh individuals to infect. Enter the Mountain Lion! Mountain Lions eat about one deer a week. They do not have Mountain Lions in the east, but we do. As a result, the deer population has exploded in the Northeast, but California populations are kept in check by our thoughtful Mountain Lions. Do we know all the answers? Not yet and maybe never, but remember it’s complicated!

Is our Western Fence Lizard a Super Hero? Maybe or maybe not. But it sure is an interesting little animal!

We are indebted to Gary Nafis (www.californiaherps.com) for all the wonderful
lizard photos in this Treasure Hunt.

Living With the Lockdown – Treasure Hunt #12

Posted on July 13, 2020 | by MMPC

In the beginning there were reeds and sedges

This Treasure Hunt came to mind from a simple mantra I learned at a water plant class I took many years ago. I though it would be “safe” to start there. The mantra … “Reeds are round and sedges have edges.” But it didn’t take long to figure out I could not have been more wrong!

As I went from source to source I realized I had ventured into a morass of terminology. For starters, the terms reed and sedge were used interchangeably, the mantra above repeatedly replaced “reeds” with “rushes”, and just to make things a little more confusing, some of them threw a catchy addition about “grasses”. Next, literally each of the water plants I researched was, in one reference or another, called a “Bulrush”. “Rush” is the name given to a water plant but no one seems to know where the “bul” came from. (One source offered that bulrush is a biblical word for papyrus.) In many references there was contradiction after contradiction from both extremely reliable sources and amateurs alike. Finally, I decided I would differentiate by using two scientific names. Then found out that one of these had recently been split into 6 or 7 different genera!

Bottom Line

For purposes of this Treasure Hunt I will refer to a duo of water plants often found together, as Tule (g.Actus) and Cattail (g.Typha). From the stems in the photo you can tell that Tules are round and Cattails have edges. It doesn’t rhyme … but, it is anatomically correct.

Two Special Water Plants

TULES: Local species of Tule are native to freshwater settings all over North America and in California as well. These plants prefer full sun and grow in standing water as well as mud. Their thick, rounded gray-green stems can grow as high as 10 feet, with three long, grass-like leaves surrounding the stems. The seed head that emerges from the side of the stem near the tip is made up of tiny, pale brownish flowers that bloom and ripen between June and August. Tule has both male and female organs in its flowers and is pollinated by wind. Many species of birds, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals make use of Tule for food, and shelter. Tules also play an important ecological role as they are especially good for stream-bank stabilization, restoring disturbed or degraded areas, reducing erosion and slope control.

CATTAILS: Since Cattails thrive in the same environments as Tules, they often cohabit in many places in Santa Barbara. Like Tules, they can grow to about 10 feet, and they also have long, green, grassy leaves. But it is the male and female flowers that mark the principal distinction between Tules and Cattails. Toward the top of the Cattail stem is a large diameter, brown, cylindrical female flower with a “fuzzy” appearance. This feature is responsible for the plant’s name and makes it easily identifiable as a “Cattail” … although it really looks more like a “corn dog!”

Atop the female “cattail” is a set of male seeds in a smaller diameter cylinder, and also fuzzy. The seeds are minute, 0.008 inches long, and attached to fine hairs. When ripe, both the heads disintegrate into a cottony fluff from which the seeds are dispersed by wind.

Cattails are important to tiny fish, waterfowl and animals alike. Birds make use of these marshy plants for food and shelter, as well as a source for nesting material. During nesting season, one of my favorite birds, the Redwing Blackbird often makes its home in thick Cattail patches.

Water Plants in History

Tules: I’m guessing the whole “Bulrush” thing started with the story of “Moses in the Bulrushes”. However, this “baby in the river” tale is not unique to Moses. It may have originated in the legend of Romulus and Remus who were left in the Tiber, or that of Sumerian King Sargon I, who was abandoned in a caulked basket in the Euphrates.

From these tales and others, it is clear that Tule has been used for millennia in several areas of the world. In fact, the name “Tule” is derived from a Nahuatl word that was first applied by early Spanish settlers who recognized these plants as similar to those in the marshes around Mexico City.

But while the new settlers were baptizing the plant they knew as “Tule”, Native American groups, including the Chumash, had been using dyed and woven leaves and stalks of Tule for millennia*. From this readily available material, they made baskets, bowls, mats, hats, clothing and houses and boats. Raw young sprouts and shoots and boiled unripe flower heads were also part of the vegetable plate of early people in our area. And a very special and unique use was made of the pith (very inside layer) of the Tule stem to caulk Chumash redwood Tomols; the large and famous canoes that were built to enable brisk commerce between the mainland and the Channel Islands. With all this history, we can see that this readily available plant was both extremely versatile and extremely important.

"Tomol Travel" by John Iwerks from "Stories of Arroyo Hondo" by Chris Chapman — “Tomol Travel” by John Iwerks from “Stories of Arroyo Hondo” by Chris Chapman

The term “Tule” is still alive in our culture today. Several places in California recall the Tule; the city of Tulare, Lake Tule, Tule River and Tule Elk. Also, having been trapped in it several times, I am acutely aware of the infamous, ground hugging, impenetrable Tule fog. Also, still with us, is the expression “out in the tules” coming down from the dialect of old Californian families. It implies a place where no self-respecting person would want to live. They should see these locations now … tens of thousands of people live there … and love it!

Cattails: The Cattail is similar to the Tule in habitat, appearance and uses, but has wider leaves. Although the Chumash clearly differentiated the two plants, they used Cattails for many of the same things as they used Tules; for example, the framework and thatch for houses, baskets and mats*. Cattail heads and seeds were eaten and pollen used for medicinal purposes. Parts of leaves, roots and flowers were used to treat various common ailments.
Moreover, the fluff of the Cattail flower was a real boon to Native American moms. It could pad a baby’s cradleboard, function as a diaper, stuff a pillow or mattress, insulate footwear in cold weather and be part of the dressing of a wound. (Johnson and Johnson watch out!)
In more recent history, Cattail leaves were used for rush bottom furniture, baskets and mats and the downy seeds were still used to fill pillows and mattresses. There is also some evidence that Cattail down was used to stuff life jackets as well as the fluff from kapok trees.

Where Can You Find Them?

Both Cattails and Tules can be found in many places in Santa Barbara. My two favorite spots are Lake Los Carneros and Atascadero Creek (beside the bike path). Atascadero Creek is extremely important as it carries flows from four different, watersheds; Atascadero, Cieneguitas, Maria Ygnacio and San Antonio. It is imperative that the flows from these watersheds to the ocean are unimpeded. Therefore, the County periodically removes vegetation from Atascadero Creek before the rainy season to assure that water flowing down the creek can easily reach the Pacific at the Goleta Slough. But you can almost always see these plants at Lake Los Carneros. And if you are a golfer, you can see them at Laguna Blanca Lake at the La Cumbre Country Club.

* For in depth information on the water plants used by the Chumash, consult “Chumash Ethnobotany, Plant Knowledge Among the Chumash People of Southern California” by Dr. Jan Timbrook.

Living with the Lockdown – Treasure Hunt #11

Posted on June 25, 2020 | by MMPC

Prologue

Today’s Treasure Hunt is about snakes. Unhappily, snakes have a really bad reputation. To start with, the word “snake” is firmly embedded in our language and used by millions of people who have never even seen a snake! We call someone who is treacherous or worthless a snake, and when an individual is untrustworthy, that person becomes a “snake in the grass”. This story is about one of these amazing creatures, on and off More Mesa. At the end of the story you can discover why “snake” is a “bad word”.

Gopher Snake is a Pretty Big Snake … but Harmless

There are five different species of Gopher Snakes in California. In Santa Barbara we are at the northern edge of the range of the San Diego Gopher Snake. Even more interesting is that three of our Channel Islands are the only location for the Santa Cruz Gopher Snake … an endemic species found only on these islands. This Treasure Hunt will be devoted to the most abundant and conspicuous member of local snake fauna and the one most often found on More Mesa, the large San Diego Gopher Snake.

Recent anecdotal evidence indicates that Gopher Snakes seem to be in abundance on More Mesa this year. And they can be intimidating if you run across one, because Gopher Snake adult sizes range from 3 to 8 feet. Within their grassland habitats, these animals live a solitary existence in underground burrows, both during hibernation (October through March), and for a large fraction of the time when they are our and about as well.

Gopher Snake and Gopher Hole on More Mesa Photo by Chris Brem — Gopher Snake and Gopher Hole on More Mesa
Photo by Chris Brem

Peak activity for adults (3 years and older) is early May and June. During this period, they reproduce by laying 10-20 eggs in loose soil or unused burrows. Decaying vegetation and warm soils will then incubate the eggs for about 80 days. During the period when they are eating,
Gopher Snakes prey on small mammals (rodents primarily, and aptly enough, gophers) as well as bird’s eggs. Therefore, as a species, they are extremely important in keeping the rodent populations in check and maintaining local ecosystems. These large snakes are not venomous, but “constrictors”. That is, they squeeze their prey by overwhelming the circulatory system and preventing blood from reaching the brain. The whole thing happens in seconds.

Leave Them Be

In keeping with their lifeway, you will see Gopher Snakes in summer, when they rest in the sun on More Mesa’s trails. In other areas they lie out on roads and are often run over by vehicles. Unhappily there are also many instances where hikers deliberately kill Gopher Snakes because they are mistaken for Rattlesnakes. (As far as I know there has never been a report of a Rattlesnake on More Mesa.) Both species have similar coloration, markings and large heads. In addition, they are both known to hiss loudly, vibrate their tails and flatten their heads when threatened … a set of defense mechanisms designed to ward off potential predators. In the case of the Gopher Snake, this display is a type of mimicry, where they, a harmless species, mimic a harmful species … a Rattlesnake. However, while mimicry may be helpful in keeping predators away, it can cause problems for Gopher Snakes. Humans decide to kill them thinking they are venomous Rattlers. Instead, those who come upon a snake should take a quick look. A few ways to tell the two species apart is that Gopher Snakes are much longer and slimmer. Further, even though they can make a repetitive sound with their tails, they don’t have rattles. If it is obvious that the snake, whether it is a Rattler or a Gopher Snake, feels threatened, the wisest and most humane course of action is to simply go away. Once it figures out that it is not being threatened, the snake will also just go away.

Bottom Line

There is no need to exterminate Gopher Snakes. These animals, while they can be intimidating because of their size and may look a bit like Rattlesnakes, represent no threat. Gopher Snakes are nonvenomous. However, if you provoke it, a Gopher Snake may bite and the bite may hurt. As for the big picture regarding venomous snakes in the United States, recent statistics show that five to six thousand people a year are bitten by them. Five of those people die because they did not seek medical care.

Shedding … Donning a New Skin

Snakes shed their skin because they are just like all other animals. For mammals like us, this is an ongoing process, but for snakes it’s a bit more periodic, dramatic and noticeable, mainly because the skin comes off in one piece. If you look at the photo of the snake shed I found on More Mesa, you will see that it came off almost in one piece … inside out! (This skin is in 2 pieces because I carried it in my jacket pocket to show More Mesa visitors and it received some rough treatment.) The shedding process is necessary to accommodate growth and to remove parasites on the old skin. Since the skin does not grow with the individual, as ours does, the snake has to do something entirely different. It starts by growing a new layer of skin under the old one. When the new layer is complete, the snake removes the old one. It’s just like taking off a sock. First it makes a small tear in the old skin, somewhere on the head area, by rubbing against something rough. Then it slithers out of the old skin and leaves it behind and it is usually inside out. Snakes shed their skin, on average, two to four times a year, varying with age and species. However, young snakes that are actively growing may shed every two weeks … compared to older snakes who may only shed twice a year.

Epilogue … Why Are We Afraid of Snakes?

When I started researching this Treasure Hunt, I was intrigued by why it is that humans are afraid of snakes. My first thought was to blame it on Adam and Eve. But it turns out, that it is in our nature to be afraid of snakes; that is, it is embedded in our DNA. Research over the past 10 years has given us some clues to the answer. In the beginning, early primates, and then humans, developed pattern recognition schemes for predators like lions, bears etc. But snakes don’t look like these kinds of predators … they look like sticks. Furthermore, they do not move like other predators … they slither. This would imply that the existing pattern recognition algorithms didn’t work. Then evolution took over, and humans who figured out they should fear snakes would have been at an advantage for both survival and reproduction. One clear indicator of this advantage was highlighted in a recent study. In that work, researchers found that both adults and children could detect images of snakes among a variety of non-threatening objects more quickly than they could pinpoint frogs, flowers or caterpillars. The implication is that we humans can identify snakes much more quickly than other things. This piece of our DNA is the reason that people who live in industrialized countries fear snakes … even when they have never ever seen one!

Instead of fearing them, watch snakes from afar (or near, if that is safe) and marvel at their coloration, how they move and, yes, how very beautiful many of them are. Then you also might be blessed enough to a carry a story like the one below in your memory banks.

pink rattlesnake — Pink Rattlesnake
Photo from NPS

Many years ago, at the end of a day on another glorious trip down the Colorado River, we reached camp and I jumped out to tie up the boat. “Over there” our guide suggested. He was pointing to one of the ubiquitous tamarisks. I hustled over and came to an abrupt stop about two feet away from the tie-up, completely stunned. I stared in disbelief at the biggest and most beautiful Rattlesnake I had ever seen! It was huge, pink, coiled around the tree, and had obviously been awakened by all our commotion. “Hurry up!” came the command from the boat. I announced the presence of our pink sleepyhead, retreated to “afar” and the guides took over. They dug out a “snake stick” from the hold of the boat, put the snake carefully in a sack and then released it into the water so it could find a quieter sleeping spot further down river. It was a day I will never forget!

If you see a snake, enjoy it, but behave as we must in our world today. That is … STAY SAFE!

Living with the Lockdown – Treasure Hunt #10

Posted on June 10, 2020 | by MMPC

Prologue

Our Treasure Hunts usually end with some suggestions on where a treasure might be found. However, in this hunt, it’s incredibly easy! Western Gulls are all over town … the harbor, the beaches, Costco, McDonalds and every other place where food scraps can be easily appropriated … not that Western Gulls should be eating this kind of stuff! Read on to learn where Western Gulls can be found in a more natural habitat.

Western Gull, Big and Beautiful

The large, dark-backed Western Gull is found only on the Pacific Coast from Washington to Baja, and is seldom seen far from the ocean. This distribution is very limited compared to most North American gulls, and since we are on the ocean, Western Gulls are all over Santa Barbara.

The Western Gull is a “four-year” bird; that is, it takes four years to reach adulthood and breeding status. The photo on the right shows the changes as the bird progresses to adulthood. It is easy to see that plumage varies and takes on more and more of the adult plumage characteristics in each successive year.

Most of the Western Gulls we encounter here in town are full-grown adults … bold, raucous and fearless around humans. But when the adults are not dining on French fries and other human food, they (and the juveniles) are at sea consuming all manner of aquatic life including fish, shell fish, eggs and young of other birds and what they can scavenge around sea lion colonies. And they, like many other sea birds, are clever thieves … stealing food from other sea birds. In short, they are very “opportunistic feeders”.

Once Again … Procreation

While the photo above shows the progression to full adult size and plumage, the whole process starts with the nesting period and the chicks. The chicks are cute and it is … after all … Spring. Western Gulls nest in colonies on off shore islands, rocks and on islands inside estuaries. We are especially blessed because of our proximity to the Channel Islands, where large colonies are found on both Santa Barbara Island, with 7,000 nesting pairs, and on Anacapa Island, with 10,000 nesting pairs. The modest nests are built on the ground by finding a depression and filling it with vegetation, feathers and whatever else is available. Several, but most often 3 eggs, are laid.

These grayish eggs … with dark “polka dot” spots, are incubated, by both the male and the female, for about a month. At that time, the chick will hatch with the aid of a small projection at the end of its beak. This projection, or “egg tooth”, has two jobs to do. First, it breaks the sac surrounding the chick inside the egg allowing the nearly born chick to access oxygen stored between the sac and the shell. When that is done, the youngster now has enough oxygen to tackle the second, and more difficult task … to crack the shell and emerge. With its work done, the egg tooth falls off when the chick is 2-3 days old.

Mom and Dad Have Big Jobs

Feeding

In the above photos you can see that the newborn looks like a down covered version of the

Showing off the "red spot" — Showing off the “red spot”

egg … grayish with the same blackish “polka dots”. And it needs to be fed … for up to three months! Like humans who are attuned to the vocalizations and fussiness of their offspring when they are hungry, the Western Gull, like many other gulls, has the ability to recognize the needs of their offspring as well. When the chick is hungry, it signals by touching a red dot on the lower jaw of an adult, who will then regurgitate a meal for the hungry chick. Further, the color red, is programmed into the DNA of the gulls, so no other color spot will do. This conclusion was such a scientific breakthrough, that fifty years ago the research on this signaling approach won a noble prize for the Dutch biologist Niko Tinbergen.

Teaching

Just like we have to teach our kids to walk and drive a car, adult gulls must teach their offspring to fly. The downy birth coat will soon be replaced by feathers, and the fledgling will be able to fly after 6-7 weeks. These flying lessons are relatively risk free when the nest is on the ground. The fledgling can only crash and fall a few soft and vegetated feet. However, I once observed an adult pair who had chosen a very safe nest location in a small crevasse on a high cliff. With many loud vocalizations, they had urged the youngster to the edge and then squawked their instructions to fly. The fledgling approached the edge, looked down the cliff face to the ocean hundreds of feet below, turned toward its parents, and gave them a look that clearly stated “You gotta be kidding!” Then it hustled back to the nest. I watched this attempted flying lesson repeated over and over until the boat had to leave. I’m sure the kid eventually “got it” and I smiled all the way back to the harbor.

Why have I spent so much time on this part of the gull life cycle? Because it is happening as I write … a three week period when you will see nothing like it without traveling to far distant places around the globe. In a non-pandemic year, I would be on a boat to Anacapa Island to look at the thousands of nests, adults and chicks! It is an incredible sight and one that happens right here in our very own back yard.

And Up North …

The numbers of Western Gulls in the Bay area are dwindling because their natural food supply is not as reliable as it has been in the past. And scavenging has also become more difficult. Gulls and other birds have historically used dump sites to scavenge for discarded (and unhealthy) human food remains. To discourage this practice, these areas are now deliberately being covered over more rapidly than they were in the past.
As a result, Western gulls have become a serious nuisance for baseball parks in the Bay area. For 20 years, both the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics have had thousands of gulls flying over both Oracle Park and the Oakland Coliseum. Originally, they came after the game was over, but they are now arriving as early as the 7th inning. They swarm the field, pooping on fans, making loud raucous noises, and distracting the players. When the games are over, they dine on leftovers of stadium food discarded in the stands … with a definite penchant for nachos and garlic fries.

How do the birds know when games are about to end? Nobody knows! About ten years ago the gulls made a hasty exit from the San Francisco stadium when a Red-tailed Hawk showed up. But the hawk decided it did not particularly like the neighborhood and left. Back came the gulls in full force. A falconer is one answer, and the Oakland stadium has done just that … but it is extremely expensive. Oracle Park also tried to lure a pair of Peregrine Falcons into making the stadium its permanent home, but that effort failed. Several other attempts at making kites that looked like raptors also failed. As far as I know, the ritual invasion of the Western Gulls is still going on. Makes one wonder if perhaps this brand of scavenging might not be so fruitful if humans properly disposed of their own food trash?

Most of the photos in this Treasure Hunt were taken by Donley Olson and Larry Jon Friesen. The baseball photo was from the Mercury News in San Jose.