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Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve
The Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve is a public open space preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The preserve is located along both sides of Bear Creek Road, west of State Route 17 and Lexington Reservoir, and mostly north and east of the Skyline Boulevard and Summit Road sections of State Route 35. It surrounds the Presentation Center, a conference and retreat facility run by the Sisters of Presentation. The preserve is owned and managed by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. A first phase, including about 500 acres west of Bear Creek Road, was opened to the public on June 8, 2019. It includes six miles of hiking and equestrian trails, a 52-space parking lot, and restrooms for visitors. The remainder of the preserve remains closed to the public, and will open in two additional phases – phase 2 between 2020 and 2026, and phase 3 after 2026."Bear Creek Redwoods Preserve". Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Accessed June 8, 201/ref> Ecology The prese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County, California, San Benito County together form the U.S. Census Bureau's San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area, which is part of the larger San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California, Oakland combined statistical area. Santa Clara is the most populous county in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Northern California. The county seat and largest city is San Jose, California, San Jose, the List of United States cities by population, 10th-most populous city in the United States, List of cities and towns in California, California's third-most populous city and the List of cities and towns in the San Francisco Bay Area, most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Home to Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Bullfrog
The American bullfrog (''Lithobates catesbeianus''), often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is a large true frog native to eastern North America. It typically inhabits large permanent water bodies such as swamps, ponds, and lakes. Bullfrogs can also be found in man made habitats such as pools, koi ponds, canals, ditches and culverts. The bullfrog gets its name from the sound the male makes during the breeding season, which sounds similar to a bull bellowing. The bullfrog is large and is commonly eaten throughout its range, especially in the southern United States where they are plentiful. Their presence as a food source has led to bullfrogs being distributed around the world outside of their native range. Bullfrogs have been introduced into the Western United States, South America, Western Europe, China, Japan, and southeast Asia. In these places they are invasive species due to their voracious appetite and the large number of eggs they produce, havi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ohlone
The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley. At that time they spoke a variety of related languages. The Ohlone languages make up a sub-family of the Utian language family. Older proposals place Utian within the Penutian language phylum, while newer proposals group it as Yok-Utian. In pre-colonial times, the Ohlone lived in more than 50 distinct landholding groups, and did not view themselves as a single unified group. They lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering, in the typical ethnographic California pattern. The members of these various bands interacted freely with one another. The Ohlone people practiced the Kuksu religion. Prior to the Gold Rush, the northern California region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Lorenzo River
The San Lorenzo River is a long river whose headwaters originate in Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains and flow south by southeast through the San Lorenzo Valley before passing through Santa Cruz and emptying into Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean. History The first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolà expedition, gave the river its name when it passed through the area on its way north, camping near the west bank on October 17, 1769. Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, traveling with the expedition, noted in his diary that, "Not far from the sea we came to a large river...It is one of the largest that we have met with on the journey...This river was named San Lorenzo." "Not far from the sea" indicates that the party probably crossed the river at one of what later became the commonly used fords. The fords, in turn, became the locations for the first two bridges across the river - at today's Water Street and Soquel Avenue. In 186 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zayante Creek
Zayante Creek (Ohlone: ''Sayant'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 15, 2011 stream within the San Lorenzo River watershed in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The U.S. government has designated Zayante Creek as impaired with respect to sediment. Lompico Creek, a tributary of Zayante Creek, is listed for impairment by pathogens. In the period 1998 to 2000 a restoration project was conducted for this stream to improve anadromous fish passage, rearing and Spawn (biology), spawning. There has been a permanent U.S. Geological Survey stream gauge, gauging station on Zayante Creek which has operated since the year 1959; the mean altitude of the Zayante Basin, carved within the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, is . Significant tributaries to Zayante Creek are Lompico Creek and Bean Creek (Zayante Creek), Bean Creek. Soils formations along the mainstem (hydrology), mainstem of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Gatos Creek (Santa Clara County, California)
The Los Gatos Creek runs in California through Santa Clara Valley Water District's Guadalupe Watershed from the Santa Cruz Mountains northward through the Santa Clara Valley until its confluence with the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose. The Guadalupe River then continues onward into San Francisco Bay. The creek begins in the Santa Cruz mountains near the Santa Clara/ Santa Cruz County border, just south of the peak Loma Prieta. It then flows northwesterly to Lake Elsman, a reservoir owned by the San Jose Water Company, then on to Holy City and Chemeketa Park, then northward into the Lexington Reservoir. The creek then flows through the Los Gatos Canyon and through the town of Los Gatos and Vasona Reservoir, then northeasterly through Campbell and San Jose where it meets the Guadalupe River. History The creek was named after the Alta California land grant Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos ("Corner of the Cats"), which itself was named for the cougars and/or bobcats ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belted Kingfisher
The belted kingfisher (''Megaceryle alcyon'') is a large, conspicuous water kingfisher, native to North America. All kingfishers were formerly placed in one family, Alcedinidae, but recent research suggests that this should be divided into three subfamilies. Taxonomy The first formal description of the belted kingfisher was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae''. He introduced the binomial name ''Alcedo alcyon''. The current genus ''Megaceryle'' was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848. ''Megaceryle'' is from the Ancient Greek ''megas'', "great", and the existing genus '' Ceryle''. The specific ''alcyon'' is Latin for "kingfisher". The ''Megaceryle'' large green kingfishers were formerly placed in ''Ceryle'' with the pied kingfisher, but the latter is closer to the ''Chloroceryle'' American green kingfishers. The belted kingfisher's closest living relative is the ringed kingfisher (''M. torqua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red-shouldered Hawk
The red-shouldered hawk (''Buteo lineatus'') is a medium-sized buteo. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico. It is a permanent resident throughout most of its range, though northern birds do migrate, mostly to central Mexico. The main conservation threat to the widespread species is deforestation. Taxonomy The red-shouldered hawk was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the eagles, hawks and relatives in the genus '' Falco'' and coined the binomial name ''Falco lineatus''. Gmelin based his account on the "barred-breasted buzzard" of John Latham and the "red shouldered falcon" of Thomas Pennant. Latham had described a preserved specimen from North America in the Leverian collection while Pennant's specimen formed part of the collection of Anna Blackburne and had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Giant Salamander
The California giant salamander (''Dicamptodon ensatus'') is a species of salamander in the family Ambystomatidae. ''Dicamptodon ensatus'' is endemic to California, in the western United States. The species once additionally included individuals now belonging to the species ''D. aterrimus'' (Idaho giant salamander) and ''D. tenebrosus'' ( coastal giant salamander), under the common name Pacific giant salamander, which now refers to the genus and family. Taxonomy The Pacific giant salamander (''D. ensatus'') was thought to consist of three geographic populations, an Idaho isolates, a group in northern California, and a group in Oregon and Washington. In 1989 genetic studies showed that the ''D. ensatus'' populations consisted of three species: the Idaho giant salamander (''Dicamptodon aterrimus'') in Idaho, and two highly divergent species with a narrow hybrid zone in California, the coastal giant salamander (''Dicamptodon tenebrosus'') (ranging from northern California to Washi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Salamander
The speckled black salamander (''Aneides flavipunctatus''), previously known as just the black salamander, is a species of salamander in the family Lungless salamander, Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the United States, U.S. state of California. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and temperate grassland. It is threatened by habitat loss. Taxonomy Previously, it was referred to as the black salamander, and was thought to have a fragmented range across most of California and southern Oregon. However, a 2019 taxonomic study found it to represent a species complex of multiple species: the speckled black salamander (''A. flavipunctatus sensu stricto''), the Shasta black salamander (''A. iecanus''), the Santa Cruz black salamander (''A. niger''), and the Klamath black salamander (''A. klamathensis''). These were thus split off as distinct species. Description The speckled black salamander can grow to long. The color varies, black with coarse can be the color or fine white ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steller's Jay
Steller's jay (''Cyanocitta stelleri'') is a bird native to western North America and the mountains of Central America, closely related to the blue jay found in eastern North America. It is also known as the long-crested jay, mountain jay, and pine jay. It is the only crested jay west of the Rocky Mountains. It is also sometimes colloquially called a "blue jay" in the Pacific Northwest, but is distinct from the blue jay (''C. cristata'') of eastern North America. The species inhabits pine-oak and coniferous forests. Description Steller's jay is about long and weighs about . Steller's jay shows a great deal of regional variation throughout its range. Blackish-brown-headed birds from the north gradually become bluer-headed farther south. The Steller's jay has a more slender bill and longer legs than the blue jay and, in northern populations, has a much more pronounced crest. It is also somewhat larger. The head is blackish-brown, black, or dark blue, depending on the subspecies o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexican Free-tailed Bat
The Mexican free-tailed bat or Brazilian free-tailed bat (''Tadarida brasiliensis'') is a medium-sized bat native to the Americas, so named because its tail can be almost half its total length and is not attached to its uropatagium. It has been claimed to have the fastest horizontal speed of any animal, reaching top ground speeds over . It also flies the highest among bats, at altitudes around . It is regarded as one of the most abundant mammals in North America. Its proclivity towards roosting in huge numbers at relatively few locations makes it vulnerable to habitat destruction in spite of its abundance. For instance, up to 1.5 million bats reside under just one bridge in Austin. The Texas Legislature designated the Mexican free-tailed bat the state mammal (flying) in 1995. The bat is considered a species of special concern in California as a result of declining populations. Taxonomy The Mexican free-tailed bat was described as a new species in 1824 by French zoologist Isi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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