Native Wildlife | Curbstone Valley

An Absence of Deer

by Clare | Dec 4, 2014 | Farm Blog, Flora and Fauna, Native Wildlife

I’ve written a number of posts over the years of about our frustrations with trying to grow fruit trees, and vegetables, under tremendous deer pressure. I never expected to write a post about a paucity of deer on the farm. Usually we’re posting about deer that have...

California Giant Salamander

by Clare | Jul 10, 2014 | Farm Blog, Flora and Fauna, Native Wildlife

This morning was perhaps as near to perfect ‘salamander weather’ as one could hope to find mid-summer here along the coast. The coastal marine layer was so thick early this morning, there was actually some measurable precipitation. Not really enough to call it rain,...

Bilateral Anophthalmia in a Coast Range Newt

by Clare | Feb 3, 2014 | Farm Blog, Flora and Fauna, Native Wildlife

It’s no secret that California is now rushing headlong into its third year of drought. Hills and fields that should be emerald green at this time of year are still end-of-summer brown. Headlines are filled with stories about water districts implementing mandatory...

The Writing Spiders Return

by Clare | Sep 18, 2013 | Farm Blog, Flora and Fauna, Native Wildlife

I realize that I’ve posted about writing spiders before, so for more information about their feeding habits, and web construction, you can see the previous post here. However, this morning I encountered not one, but TWO species of Argiope spiders, suspended in their...

Allen’s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin)

by Clare | Mar 14, 2013 | Farm Blog, Flora and Fauna, Native Wildlife

Since we first moved to the farm, each year, around mid-late winter, I’d occasionally see a flash of copper and green whiz past me in the garden. Only catching a glimpse out of the corner of my eye, I assumed they were simply migrating Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus...

Sierran Treefrog (Pseudacris sierra)

by Clare | Apr 6, 2012 | Farm Blog, Flora and Fauna, Native Wildlife

In all the time we’ve been here, I’ve only ever seen one frog. Just one. We hear them frequently, sometimes down by the creeks, other times up on the slopes above us, but they’re rather shy, and we have some very dense woodland here, so being able to find our...