CodeWilster How many Tarantula(s) do you own?: plenty
Joined: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 295 User Online:
Location: Tehama county CA
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:42 am Post subject: Mt. Diablo hiking/buggin' - Concord CA
Before I throw up some pics and talk about my last trip, I never posted pics of the previous one when I went up there for the first time with Kyle Dickerson (noexcuse4you) after the last meeting. Thanks to him I really know how to find Ts!!! Here are those pics:
Start off with some scenery/habitat...
A burrow...
Premolt female that was in the burrow (Aphonopelma sp)...
Freshly molted what looked like a male from the underside (probably penultimate as it was pretty big)...
On the way home we found this guy (Kyle went to Yosemite and so I did not have a snake hook, whoops)...Yes it is a rattlesnake
Here's a link to Kyle's thread on CRIS that shows some more pics of the spiders, habitat, etc.
I am now working on uploading pics from my more recent trip from just a few days ago... _________________ A considerably greater amount of faith is required to believe that the complexity of this world happened by chance alone, rather than to believe there is a God.
CodeWilster How many Tarantula(s) do you own?: plenty
Joined: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 295 User Online:
Location: Tehama county CA
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:22 am Post subject:
Alright here we go! (I think I just crashed photobucket) This was my hiking trip Sunday August 30th 2009, just after dropping off some Ts and roaches with friends in Concord. I hiked with my girlfriend Sam, but my mom came too. She doesn't enjoy steep cliffs and so she stayed in the car (and read her Bible since we missed church lol). I am proud of Sam because she hiked a very long way and it was pretty warm. Not to mention all of the little flies flying around our ears and trying to drink the moisture from our eyes. I also shared hardly any water with her because I needed it to flush out Ts lol (I bought her jeans today so that makes up for it). Anyway ask all the questions you'd like after I post the pics. Enjoy!!!
Mt. Diablo State Park, Concord CA (North Gate/Mitchell Canyon)
Again, starting off with some scenery/habitat...
There was lots of poison oak everywhere...
For the third time this year, confirming my immunity to it...
Black ants...
These guys (grass spiders) were probably my favorites. They are everywhere, and make the most amazing funnel webs (look like a giant web tornado). Some of them were at least 2 feet in diameter and would expand into the dead grasses a couple feet from the ground, funneling into about nickel - quarter sized burrows. The spiders themselves are really neat looking too!
1st tarantula burrow of the day...
me looking to see who is home...
With a bit of water drained from a camelback, she shot out into my arms!!!
Sam holding the find, she was excited to see her first wild tarantula and was suprised to see such a large one come flying out of such a small hole...
Hmmmmm....keeper.
_________________ A considerably greater amount of faith is required to believe that the complexity of this world happened by chance alone, rather than to believe there is a God.
Last edited by CodeWilster on Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:39 am; edited 2 times in total
CodeWilster How many Tarantula(s) do you own?: plenty
Joined: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 295 User Online:
Location: Tehama county CA
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:36 am Post subject:
After taking a few pics we put the nice and now well-hydrated spider next to her burrow, where she happily returned...
Shortly after, we found another burrow with a premolt female in it (that we also freed back into her burrow and covered with a thin layer of leaves)...
Amazingly, in broad daylight as we continued walking, Sam spotted a mature male walking right across the trail in front of us. He wouldn't stop moving, this was the best pic I could get...
We both got the idea that we should go back to the first burrow and let him go there where the recently molted female was, and so we carried him over there and spent probably 20 minutes trying to find that burrow again...
What happened was awesome, he took about two steps until he hit her burrow entrance, and within a few seconds he was drumming away.
Because you all know how slow the process can be and it was getting late (had to go to Ken's!!!) We left the two love birds/spiders together and that pretty much concluded our trip, until next time!!!
Shot taken from the backseat, bye Mt. Devil!!!
Hope you guys enjoyed!!! Ask all the questions you want and as Marlene said, we should plan a hiking trip just before the meeting starts on October 3rd. I would love to take a small group up there. _________________ A considerably greater amount of faith is required to believe that the complexity of this world happened by chance alone, rather than to believe there is a God.
daveemory How many Tarantula(s) do you own?: 4,248,591
Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 503 User Online:
Location: Tarantuland
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:00 am Post subject:
Cody - fantastic adventure, fantastic pictures! However, I'm a little surprised that you "picked up" a random male and deposited it at a "random female"'s burrow, as you just encouraged pre-marital relations between two individuals clearly living in sin.
CodeWilster How many Tarantula(s) do you own?: plenty
Joined: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 295 User Online:
Location: Tehama county CA
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:33 am Post subject:
Kyle, I did not...whoops. I told a couple guys at Kens we found a MM and one said it's a tad early and that lots more will be maturing and walking around more toward fall. Our next SFBATS meeting is in October and sounds like we'll be up there again and so I'll see if I can find another one. I know my female just molted and so did yours so things will be ready to go! By the way, we found most of these Ts further up the trails and mountain where we found ours and the others last time, and I found a way to get from that parking lot to the hotspot in about 5 minutes walk!
To everyone else, it would be cool to do it just before the SFBATS meeting in the morning. We'd have to figure out baby sitters for our stuff though, and I'd have to discipline myself to leave the mountain so I could get to the meeting on time!!! I'd probably be going alone for the first time too (I always go with my mom since she gets free gas in a company car but I think she is busy that date). The park is open to everyone (bring $6) but I would only want to go up there with about half a dozen people to a dozen or so people, just so things don't get too crazy. I would REALLY appreciate a hike and not an all-out collecting trip _________________ A considerably greater amount of faith is required to believe that the complexity of this world happened by chance alone, rather than to believe there is a God.
CodeWilster How many Tarantula(s) do you own?: plenty
Joined: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 295 User Online:
Location: Tehama county CA
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:37 am Post subject:
To PC,
They were already a wed couple, they just got in a fight over what they should name their 300 kids and so the male had wandered off and got lost.
_________________ A considerably greater amount of faith is required to believe that the complexity of this world happened by chance alone, rather than to believe there is a God.
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