Field Journal Entry 7
Date & Location
October 18, 2023
Redwood Creek | 37°51’58.8’N 122°34’45.1″W | 450 ft
Frank Valley | 37°52’55.3″N 122°34’30.2″W | 146 ft
Site Description
Redwood Creek, located in Marin County, flows through a narrrow valley with steep, wooded slopes and is covered in various kinds of riparian vegetation. The general habitat is mixed confer forest where there are a variety of trees and shrubs like Douglas fir, California laurel, salmonberry and poison oak. A few of the key bird species found at Redwood Creek are Pine Siskin, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Chestnut-backed Chickadee and Stellar’s Jay.
After walking around the creek and along the road at Redwood Creek, we headed over to Frank Valley. Frank Valley is a short drive from Redwood Creek and it is located in Marin Country as well. It is primarily flat with some hilly areas and ridges. The valley’s habitat is a mixed conifer forest with some grassland and riparian woodland which includes a few of the same tree/shrub species as Redwood Creek along with Coast redwood and Live oak. Some key bird species that are found here are Pacific Wren, Brown creeper, Spotted Towhee and Hermit Thrush.
Species Account
Northern Flicker | Colaptes auratus
Northern Flickers are large woodpeckers found throughout North America. These woodpeckers are larger than other species — they are about 12-14 inches long. They have brown backs, white bellies and black markings all over its body. Males have red patches on their heads while females don’t have red patches and look more drab-colored. Northern Flickers like to spend most of their time feeding on the ground where they use their long bills to probe for insects along with seeds and berries. They are found in habitats like forests and woodlands and we saw two Northern Flickers perched on the top of a scrub tree! These birds mate monogamously for life where the male will defend their territory while the female watches over its nest and eggs.
Narrative
We started heading over to Redwood Creek at 8:20 am and got there around 9:00 am. There were clear skies and it was cold at the start but it got hot as the sun was coming out. We saw majority of the same species before as we were trying to review for our field quiz! We saw some new species we’ve never seen before like the Ruby-crowned Kinglet and got a chance to get better looks at old species as well. There were multiple flocks of Pine Siskins fly by and we all wondered if there was a predator nearby. After spending a few hours here, we headed over to Frank Valley around 11:20 am. It was a nice and peaceful walk along the trail and there was a little creek with logs where we all had to test our balance and walk over. There were a couple close calls but we all made it. Right before we headed back, we saw a few Brown Creepers! They were pretty cute but it was interesting to see how they only crawl upwards. We spent about an hour here before getting back to campus around 1:00 pm.
Sources
¹ Redwood Creek at Muir Beach. Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. (2020, April 2). https://www.parksconservancy.org/projects/redwood-creek-muir-beach
² Frank Valley Road (muir woods road) near Muir Woods National Monument. Marin County Public Works. (2023, August 25). https://publicworks.marincounty.org/frank-valley-road-near-muir-woods-national-monument/
³ Northern Flicker – eBird. https://ebird.org/species/norfli
