Category: Naturalist
-
Creating a Video of Vegetative Cover Sampling
As part of my graduate obligations for a course in methods of measuring and monitoring plant populations, I had to do some type of course project. Though our instructor offered several options of varying difficulty, it was clear that he really wanted someone to attempt to produce a video outlining how to do a method.…
-
Desert Tortoise Training
From this post title, it might appear that I took part in training desert tortoises. In reality I participated in a workshop to learn how to survey, monitor and handle desert tortoises. The 2-day workshop is conducted annually in Ridgecrest, CA by the Desert Tortoise Council and covers a tremendous amount of material including: an…
-
Revisiting the North Etiwanda Preserve
When I studied population biology in junior college we conducted our field work in a large expanse of land along the alluvial fan that drained the San Gabriel Mountains to the Inland Empire valley below. Our specific field site was a 750+ acre area containing coastal sage scrub and coastal sage chaparral plant communities that…
-
Night Blooming Cerus, Peniocereus greggii
The Night Blooming Cerus, or Queen of the Night, (Peniocereus greggii) is a Sonoran Desert cactus that most of the year would be virtually impossible to find. It’s main stem is a thin, dull-green to brown stalk that resembles the branch of shrubs like the palo verde, Ironwood, or creosote bushes that it normally grows…
-
Mobile Apps for Naturalists
Since nearly everyone carries a smartphone these days, we can now carry a small library worth of field guides with us inside our phones so we never miss an opportunity to identify an interesting organism. With this in mind, here are a few mobile applications that are today’s field ecologist or naturalist should definitely consider having…