More Looking Down

Liam and I are so used to looking UP at birds most of the time we’re in the field that we’ve resolved to learn much more about what’s below our feet. To that end we joined a hike led by resident naturalist Dr. Paul Maslin at the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve, joined by my wife Kathleen and daughter Alita.

Our first look down was of samples of the rock beneath our feet. At the lowest point in the reserve, down near Big Chico Creek, exposed benches of sandstone, sandwiched between layers of marine sediment packed with the shells of aquatic animals of 75 million years ago is known as the Chico formation. Above that rests a layer of glossy gray Lovejoy Basalt, and capping off the bluffs is the pock-marked aggregate known as the Tuscan formation – a ancient mud-flow full of the rocks it gathered as it oozed across the land.

Next we studied some of the plants found along a steep trail carved along the hillside with the help of Robert Fisher, hiking through slopes of hounds-tongue and gooseberry and finding small wonders like the flaming red larkspur and low-growing Hartwig’s ginger, with its deep red flowers hiding beneath the wide green leaves. Liam soaked up Robert’s identification tips on the plants we were seeing, while Alita snapped great photos of witch’s butter.

I must admit that I couldn’t resist turning my ear to the trees while my eyes were on the ground, and enjoying the ten-fold increase in vocalizing black-throated gray warblers!