Sawyer Camp Trail

The Sawyer Camp Trail is a six mile hike located in the San Andreas Fault rift valley in San Mateo. The trail offers views of the Crystal Springs Reservoir. The reservoir consists of two artificial lakes and was formed when San Mateo Creek was dammed by the Crystal Springs Dam. Now, the reservoir functions to ensure the survival of important species in the area.
The hike itself was amazing. Although the trail itself wasn't very challenging, the scenic beauty of the trail allowed the hike to be enjoyable. Views of the reservoir are breath-taking and even the more inland parts of the trail were surrounded by beautiful trees and wildlife. Overall, the hike was very pleasant and enjoyable.

The Dish - Bullock's Oriole

The Bullock's Oriole is a medium-sized songbird with a long tail and a thin, straight, pointed bill. It is usually orange or orange-yellow. Range/Habitat - They live is open woodlands, or woodlots with tall trees. Diet - Bullock's Orioles eat caterpillars, fruits, insects, spiders, and nectar. Nesting - Their nests are hanging and made of neatly woven hair, twine, fibers, grasses, and wool and lined with willow cotton, wool or feathers. Their nests are in isolated trees at the edges of woodlands. Behavior - These birs probe in trees and flower for insects and nectar. They also visit feeders for sugar water.
I know this picture is hard to see, but if you look closely at the center of the photograph, the bird is resting on a branch. It helps a lot if you enlarge the photo.

The Dish - Great Egret

The Great Egret is a large white bird that can reach up to one meter in height. They are also known as the Great White Heron, but this term is not used frequently. Range/Habitat - They are usually found is areas with trees and shrubs over water and islands. But the Great Egret feeds in shallow water or drier habitats. Diet - They mainly feed on fish, frogs, small mammals, and small reptiles and insects. Behavior - The Great Egret nests in colonies with other herons and make their nests out of sticks covered with greens. During courtship, they hold large plumes over their back. When feeding, they walk slowly, stand, and stab prey quickly with a lunge of the bill.
Like the Great Blue Heron, because the Great Egret I saw was not in its usual nesting habitat, the Great Egret I saw was feeding on lizards and small mammals.

The Dish - Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron is the largest and most widespread heron in North America. They are tall and usually stand around 38-54 inches. Range/Habitat - They are found comminly in mud flats, marshes, and agricultural areas at high to mid elevations. They nest in trees in colonies near water and then disperse to feeding areas. Diet - Great Blue Herons feed on fish, amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates, small mammals, and even other birds. Behavior - These herons usually stand silently and then stab their prey with a quick lunge of the bill. They stalk their prey slowly. Young herons can first fly around 60 days old, but continue to return to their nest and are fed by adults for another few weeks. They do pair up, but only for nesting season, and adults form new bonds each year.
Because the dish is not located near water, I would suspect that the Great Blue Heron that I saw was probably away from its nest looking for reptiles and small mammals to feed on.

The Dish

The Stanford Dish is a radio telescope in the Stanford Foothills. Built in 1966, the $4.5 million dish was originally used to study the chemical composition of the atmosphere. But the dish was later used to communicate with satellites and spacecraft. The dish also transmitted signals to every Voyager craft dispatched by NASA. The area around the dish consists of a 3.5 mile trail. The trait itself has many hills and beautiful views or Stanford, San Jose, and even San Francisco.
Hiking the dish became somewhat of a more daunting task than I had anticipated. I chose to start the hike around 10 am. The hike is usually supposed to take about 1 hour and 30 minutes, but because I was also stopping frequently to take photographs, the hike took around 2 hours and 15 minutes. Although it was fairly hot and the hike took longer than expected, the views were amazing and I even got a chance to see some pretty amazing wildlife. Overall, hiking the dish was an enjoyable experience.

Photos From Dish

My Project

So I am a senior in high school, and I have been given the last month off of classes to hike and learn how to take digital pictures in nature. I will be blogging everyday about what I have been doing, how the project is going, and posting some pictures of the places I have been!