Diario de arnel

For this year’s City Nature Challenge (CNC), I supported the effort within the Sacramento region, focusing primarily in areas around the city of Elk Grove, CA, about 20 miles south of Sacramento proper. My main areas of coverage was (1) the Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, a marshy wetland just to the southwest of Elk Grove off Hood-Franklin Road; (2)Arnie and Iris Zimbelman Park and the adjoining stretch of Elk Grove Creek, all located near the city center; and (3) the Laguna Creek Trail, from its staging area off Waterman Road to Jack E. Hill Park, near the city’s eastern boundary. Conditions on all three days varied from mostly cloudy to mostly sunny, with warm temperatures and a fairly constant breeze. I don’t think I could have asked for better conditions.

Below is a list of all the observations I submitted for the Sacramento Region’s 2024 CNC, with asterisks denoting those observations for which my submittal was the only record as of this writing (on May 9, 2024):

Sacramento Region CNC – 2024

Plants:
• Italian Thistle (Carduus pycnocephalus)
• Spotted Spurge (Euphorbia maculata)*
• Matted Sandmat (Euphorbia serpens)*
• Yellow Iris (Iris pseudoacorus)
• Canarygrass (Phalaris sp.)
• Interior Live Oak (Quercus wislizenii)
• Wild and Domestic Radishes (Raphanus raphanistrum var. sativus)
• California Wild Rose (Rosa californica)
• Purple Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius)
• Rose Clover (Trifolium hirtum)
• White Brodiaea (Triteleia hyacinthina)

Lichens:
• Pseudothelomma occidentale*

Mollusks:
• Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum)
• European Snail (Xerotricha conspurcata)*

Spiders:
• Colonus hesperus
• Marbled Cellar Spider (Holocnemus pluchei)
• Menemerus semilimbatus
• Wall Spider (Oecobius navus)*

Insects:
• Hyatt’s Carpenter Ant (Camponotus hyatti)*
• Bathroom Moth Fly (Clogmia albipunctata)
• Seven-spotted Lady Beetle (Coccinella septempunctata)
• Diplolepis polita
• Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys)*
• Western Leaf-footed Bug (Leptoglossus zonatus)
• Argentine Ant (Linepithema humile)
• Harlequin Bug (Murgantia histrionica)
• Indian-Meal Moth (Plodia interpunctella)*
• Thaumatomyia glabra*

Reptiles:
• Northwestern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis occidentalis)

Birds:
• Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
• House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)
• Western Bluebird (Sialia Mexicana)

Mammals:
• California Ground Squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi)

In the end, I provided 9 observations that were unique to this CNC, demonstrating how one can make a bigger difference with these smaller CNC events. For comparison, I would usually turn up only one or two unique observations for the San Francisco Bay CNC.

Finally, it was during this CNC that I reached the 100th species for my iNaturalist life list in Sacramento County. This 100th species was some Yellow Iris (Iris pseudoacorus) that I found and photographed along the edge of Laguna Creek, just a few feet from the Laguna Creek Trail. Although this iris is a non-native species that can overtake shallow creek areas, it was still rather spectacular looking and fitting enough for my 100th Sacramento County species.