Date: 18 March 2008 (Day 74 of the Vernal Pool)
Main Vernal Pool*. (Date of Picture: 18 March 2008)
The Main Vernal Pool: The main pool formed on 5 January 2008 with a depth of 9 inches, about half of its full depth of 16 inches. It filled to over-capacity (~18 inches) on 3 February 2008, and was still at full depth on 18 March 2008. Water will remain in the pool through at least 1 July 2008 even without further rain.
The fairy shrimp have surprised us twice this year. First, both species persisted longer this year than has been observed in the last decade, perhaps due to the colder than normal weather. Second, there apparently has been a second hatching of our Santa Rosa fairy shrimp, which has never been observed before here, so they will stick around even longer. Although the larger fairy shrimp species is now dead, after completing their reproductive cycle, the pool still contains immense numbers of easy-to-see, full-grown Santa Rosa fairy shrimp. The shrimp are all either mating (look for two pairs of stalked red eyes on what look like especially long shrimp, with the "extra" pair of eyes in the middle) or carrying eggs. They should stick around for another 2-3 weeks, until about the first week of April.
All the other stars of the pool are around, including huge numbers of orange-red copepods, probably Cyclops. The tadpoles are now over an inch long, and should be developing their rear legs by the end of March. They may begin leaving the pool as baby frogs and toads by mid-April. Garter snakes are now showing up for their lunchtime (~11 a.m. to ~1 p.m.) tadpole snacks.
See Introduction To The Pool Critters to learn more about them.
The two small pools formed and were nearly full on 1/5/08, and are still pretty full, although plant growth is beginning to obscure a lot of the water.
See Changes of the Main Pool Vs. Time for plots of the variation of Pool depth and numbers of pond inhabitants in prior years, and the three years of pictures of A Year of the Pool and Vegetation linked at Field Guide to the Santa Rosa Plateau.
Click on the pool pictures to get larger versions. See also closeup of Main Pool.
Small Vernal Pools next to Vernal Pool Trailhead*. (Date of Picture: 18 March 2008)
Flowering Plants: The SRP is ablaze with flowers, including vast fields of blue dicks and red maids, good displays of ground pinks and milk maids, and the ever-popular chocolate lilies in full bloom. See Current Bloom Reports.
Trails: All open and in fine shape.
Varmints: Rattlesnakes should almost all be in their winter homes until about April. However, sometimes baby rattlesnakes have to emerge to find some food, so they may still be encountered.
In the last year, mountain lion sightings have averaged ~two per month. The entire Reserve was closed on 2 March 2004 after a hiker encountered a 60 pound mountain lion who did not run away from him. Efforts to hunt and trap the lion were unsuccessful, and the Reserve was reopened on 8 March.
See Mountain Lion Attacks On People in the U.S. and Canada to understand how rare it is for a mountain lion to attack people. There is an average of only a single mountain lion attack once every two years in the entire state of California.
For every mountain lion, deer or fox sighting at the SRP, there are literally thousands of coyote sightings. See Wild Animals at the Santa Rosa Plateau.
* Panoramas stitched together with a wonderful free program called autostitch.