Muir Woods with a thermal imager
I was back in California for a few days; it was my first time in North America since buying a thermal imager, so I decided to check if it can be helpful in finding those endemic species of the Pacific Northwest that are so difficult to see by other means. I had only two hours in Muir Woods National Monument, but saw a fog shrew, a few deer mice, a couple of dusky-footed woodrats, and, of course, some striped skunks and mule deer. I guess bringing an imager to coastal Oregon or extreme NW California would be a blast.
Ironically, the best sighting of the night was a huge Pacific giant salamander.
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Venkat Sankar
Cool! After having some success with thermal imagers in New England, I was also wondering if we could find shrews (maybe even Arborimus tree voles) with them in Pacific NW. I’m hoping to test out my imager in Humboldt this summer, but it looks like I probably won’t have time. Still need to see a Fog Shrew…