Montana De Oro, A Secret Gem of California

Montana De Oro, A Secret Gem of California

We enjoyed hiking at one of the most picturesque and serene locations on the Central Coast of California, Montana De Oro State Park, just 25 minutes off the 101 Freeway.   With majestic cliffs, the restless sea, coves strewn with spectacular rock formations, wildflowers, and hikes to soak up the vastness of the ocean and the constant murmur of the waves , this location is one of the hidden treasures of the California Coast.

Upon entering the Montana De Oro State Park after driving down Los Osos Valley Road, you will pass through a canopy of eucalyptus (planted in the late 1800s for commercial timber activity) to Spooner’s Cove.  A little further from Spooner’s Cove is the starting point of the Bluff Trail. The Bluff Trail is an easy three-mile walk on a broad path along the edge of cliff without any interruption of the magnificent views of the ocean. The trail is flanked by miles of short-brush filled with wildflowers such as the golden California Poppy, the violet thistle and other brightly-colored flowers giving the location its name, “Mountain of Gold". 

You can walk down to the coves and inspect the layered rock formations that rise at stunningly acute angles from the ocean. What seemed at first like sedimentary limestone rock at first, these sheets of rock had also intriguingly low-density.  These rocks are actually fossilized diatoms (micro-plants) deposited on the ocean floor from millions of years ago of marine photosynthetic activity.  The fossilized remains of these once-food producing (carbon-storing) organisms were now left with just their silica-rich cell walls intact.  The layers of the fossilized diatoms have been lifted out from the sea by tectonic activity to become these angled rocks.   We were surprised that these surface protrusions were also the tip of the remarkable “The Monterey Shale Formation” that extends miles below ocean floor and about 300 miles inland, recently deemed to hold billions of barrels of oil (resulting from the carbon-producing diatoms) that will now be recovered by the controversial process of “hydraulic fracking”.  

The Fascinating Hummingbird

The hummingbird has fascinated both naturalists and engineers.  A video of the Black-chinned Hummingbird  (also shown in the picture) that visits our backyard feeder is now available on Youtube at http://youtu.be/ljXb8siXI-Q

In the video, if you carefully observe you will notice the tongue of the bird sticks out after it has withdrawn its beak from the feeder.  This observation prompted me to investigate the role of the tongue in feeding.  Surprisingly, it was not until 2011 that the mechanics of hummingbird feeding was elucidated and some misconceptions removed. It was thought that the hummingbird drew the nectar by capillary action through a fine tube.  Today we know that the hummingbird has a forked tongue that allows the nectar to be aggregated on thin hair-like structures along the length of the tongue.  The nectar trapped on the hair-like structures is consumed when the tongue is withdrawn into the beak.  These structures are discussed in detail in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (June 7 2011) downloadable for free at http://www.pnas.org/content/108/23/9321.full.pdf+html.   When designing micro-aircraft, we also learned that the hummingbird flying at 30 kmph ( a typical flight speed)  dissipated about 4 Watts of metabolic power.  A typical hummingbird weighs less than 3 to 4 grams.  The power-to-weight ratio is 1000 W/kg an enormous value comparable to that of a V8 diesel engine in a car.   Thus, the hummingbird’s heart beats at the rate of 500-1000 times a minute and the bird needs to feed every fifteen minutes to keep up with its metabolic requirements. As a result, hummingbirds are always at the brink of starvation. I am sure that this hungry creature will appreciate a feeder in your backyard. I recommend using just plain cane sugar solution ( 1 cup of sugar  plus 4 cups of water) with no fancy additives.