Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

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Calfirecap
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Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by Calfirecap »

This years Spring SDSF AKA Santa Cruz Survey AKA Soquel Survey will be held on Saturday April 23rd.

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This is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for herping, so with any luck, and some help we'll be able to fill in some of the gaps in our species count. For those of you who haven't been to this event, our spring survey usually produces large quantities and good diversity of both reptiles and amphibians. We will be surveying riparian and Oak woodland habitats.

I'll post more details later, but I needed to get this out there now, weekends are filling up fast.

As always this is a data only collecting event and all CDFW rules and regulations apply.

Chime in if you would like to attend

Lawrence
Zach_Lim
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by Zach_Lim »

Count me in!
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Calfirecap
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by Calfirecap »

So here are the details for the Saturday April 23rd Survey:
We are going to meet up at the Soquel Demonstration State Forest Headquarters and enter the forest from a back way in.
The address is: 4750 Soquel-San Jose Rd, Soquel CA 95073. The phone number is (831) 475-8643 and there will probably be someone there, should you need to call. If no answer try (831) 475-3234. I don't have cell coverage there.

To get there from the San Jose area:
Take Hwy 17 South toward Santa Cruz.
Take the Summit Rd. exit and cross over the highway.
Make a left onto Summit road and go 3.8 miles to where the Soquel-San Jose Rd. 'T's' with Summit.
Make a right onto Soquel-San Jose Rd.
Go 6.8 miles
Look for the CALFIRE sign on the left.

To get there from Santa Cruz:
Take Hwy 1 toward Monterey
Take the Porter St./Bay Ave exit.
Go left onto Porter (Porter becomes Soquel-San Jose Rd about a 1/4 mile from there)
Travel Soquel-San Jose Rd 4.2 miles and look for the CALFIRE sign on your right. (Just past Olive Springs Rd)

To get there from Monterey:
Take Hwy 1 toward Santa Cruz
Take the Porter St./Bay Ave exit.
Go right onto Porter (Porter becomes Soquel-San Jose Rd about a 1/4 mile from there)
Travel Soquel-San Jose Rd 4.2 miles and look for the CALFIRE sign on your right. (Just past Olive Springs Rd)

We will meet up at 8:30 AM and car pool in from there. So far this has been a VERY good year for herping so I anticipate lots of encounters with a respectable variety. With that said Ticks have been very bad this year so plan on using tick repellant.

For those who are planning on attending please let me know, I'd like to get a tentative head count.


Lawrence
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Calfirecap
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by Calfirecap »

The survey is tomorrow and I'm bumping this so folks can easily find the directions. I've got about 10 people so far, rain today, temps in the 70s tomorrow, so it should be a productive day.

Lawrence
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Fundad
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by Fundad »

Good Luck A Team.

:thumb: :beer:
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yolodave
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by yolodave »

See you in the morning.

Dave
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yolodave
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by yolodave »

A great day in the Soquel Demonstration Forest. After recent rain, and the sun shining upon us, it was perfect weather to look for herps. A reporter from the local NPR station came along. He is working on a story about citizen science and the efforts of our group.

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The ticks were outrageous in the open brushy areas.

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Early on, we found a big Arboreal Salamander.

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The ticks were not kind to our Northern Alligator Lizards.

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These two Northern Alligator Lizards were found under the same log.

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This was an especially handsome specimen.

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A nice patternless Northern Alligator Lizard.

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Ring-necked Snakes were plentiful.

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A beautiful male Skilton's Skink.

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A natural sulphur laden pool hosted over 40 newts.

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All in all, a great day in the field. Thanks Lawrence for maintaining this survey for so many years.

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El Garia
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by El Garia »

Wow… looks and sounds like a productive day, all around. I wish I could have been there.

Thank You to all who participated! That looks like a great group of folks you had there!

Derek
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Calfirecap
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by Calfirecap »

Yes, it was a good day out in the field thanks to a great group of people and quite pleasant weather. We didn't get a tremendous diversity, but for what we didn't get in variety we made up for in numbers.

The first Alligator Lizard of the survey was spotted early on in the day out on the crawl with temps in the high 50's
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Here's one more Northern Gator, 1 of 10.
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We saw a few Skilton's Skinks as well, this one was still cold enough to photograph in situ.
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Pacific Ringneck snakes were plentiful. Thirty three in total, crushing our previous one day total record of 17.
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One quite stout Arboral Salamander.
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Zach did a magnificent job of providing sound bites to the reporter from the UCSC radio station KAZU doing a piece on citizen science and field herping in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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Dave and Sarah Zeldin came up from Riverside to represent our Southern California brothers and both got in on a little media action.
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Dave and Dave engaged in the standard survey photo shoot
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Totals for the day:
Pacific Ringneck snakes: 33
N. Alligator Lizards: 10
Skilton's Skinks: 5
Coast Range Fence Lizards: 4
Rough Skinned Newts: 55
Arboreal Salamanders: 1
California Slender Salamanders: 95

Thanks to everyone who participated it was a great day for all of us, and a few even got a lifer or two.

Lawrence
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Owen
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by Owen »

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:
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:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
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:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
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SlitheringHuman
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by SlitheringHuman »

Ha! That's my leg. Walked about 20 feet in and out, came back with 16 ticks... :lol:

But, it was a great day! Thanks for the fun!
hellihooks
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by hellihooks »

I see more patternless alligator lizards in Santa Cruz, than anywhere else I can think of... :shock: I GOTTA get back up there for another of these (surveys) :)
brendan_bane
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by brendan_bane »

Hello herpers,

I'm the reporter who joined this survey. The story airs today! Have a listen at the link below, or tune into 90.3 KAZU at 8:45am or 4:44pm. There's plenty of both Lawrence and Zach, as well as local herpetologist Barry Sinervo.

I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for letting me tag along :D

http://kazu.org/post/herpers-help-scien ... e#stream/0

Best,
-Brendan
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Calfirecap
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Re: Soquel Demonstration State Forest 2016 Spring Survey

Post by Calfirecap »

Thanks Brendan,
You did a marvelous job on this piece. With all the taping you and Julia recorded I'm amazed you got were able to sort it all out so quickly.
:thumb:
Lawrence
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