One of the earliest spring wildflowers to appear in the oak woodlands of Northern California is the Henderson's Shooting Star (Dodecatheon hendersonii), sometimes known as "mosquito bills".  This pink/lavendar flower has swept back petals and forward-pointed stamens.  The almost prostrate, elliptical green leaves are common place in the cool semi-shady slopes of oak woodlands... many times growing on slopes covered with mosses.  These basal rosettes of leaves dry up by summer.

This plant is rather common here at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center and is a great reminder that spring is on its way.

Many observers of California wetlands, ponds, and streams are more than familiar with newts ... an orange and brown salamander of sorts.   However, most do not realize that there is a trio of species that occur in the west:  1) the California Newt (Taricha torosa),
2) the Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa), and 3) the Red-bellied Newt (Taricha rivularis).  They all look similar to the novice. 

All Taricha members have glands in the skin that secrete the potent neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin.  This toxin is a hundred times more toxic than cyanide.  This is the same toxin found in the famed poisonous Pufferfish and the harlequin frogs (poison-arrow frogs).  The toxin is only dangerous if ingested.

Reproduction occurs during winter usually with the onset starting with the first heavy rains.  The females release gelatinous egg masses that contain between 7 and 30 eggs.  Here you see eggs clusters found in a large vernal pool at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center, and are most probably those of the rough-skinned newt.

With the onset of the current storm system, rains within the last 48 hours have renewed a stagnant winter runoff.    Parson's Creek is flowing again at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center (HREC) located in southeastern Mendocino County.

The rain has also been welcomed by Dr. Emilio Laca, Professor at the Plant Sciences Dept. at UC Davis.  Dr. Laca states that the idea of planting strips or subareas to improve rangelands has a long history, but most of the research was done before the new concepts of spatial ecology were fully developed.   Here at HREC, Laca is capturing, measuring, and analyzing precipitation surface-runoff in 30 meter by 50 meter plots ... in order to assess six different treatments. 

These large runoff plots are possibly the largest-ever rangeland plots that collect surface runoff.   The measuring device is a large tip-bucket type of water collector that was designed and fabricated by Dr. Laca's staff and the HREC staff... the large size is unique.  Here you see one of those tip-bucket measuring devices (photo 1) and one of the collection channels that feed runoff water to the tip-bucket (photo 2).

The 2012 lambs born at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center were almost all born during the month of January.   All of the lambing took place inside the Center's main sheep barn facility, but the ewes and lambs were placed out into various pastures and fields soon after supervised birthing.   

Pasture rotation of the ewe/lamb groups has been quicker than normal this year due to the low forage growth this season.  Here you see a mother ewe and her lamb foraging in a blue oak savannah type habitat.