Discovering nature at Lodi Lake
Every couple of weeks, Bob Stahmer packs up his binoculars and his image-stacking camera. He puts on comfortable hiking shoes, a hat and knee pads, and sets out to walk the nature trail by Lodi Lake.
Stahmer is on a quest to catalogue all the mushrooms, plants, birds, animals and insect species he comes across in the area. Sometimes he brings along colleagues or friends, like married couple Duane Wahl and Julie Giometti-Wahl. Giometti-Wahl is docent coordinator for the City of Lodi.
On a recent Tuesday, the trio could be spotted walking up and down the main trails and the smaller winding trails crisscrossing the nature area. Giometti- Wahl brought a walking stick she found along the way.
The project first started when a student at The University of the Pacific requested assistance in counting butterflies for a study he was conducting in the area. Stahmer volunteered to help, along with Kathy Grant, then docent and now the city’s watershed program coordinator.
The student has since moved away, but Stahmer decided to continue the counting, and expanded it to include all the plants and species in the area.
“I just go out there whenever I have a chance and take a nice walk. Usually I just walk all three large trails,” Stahmer said. “I just try to count everything I see in terms of plants, insects and birds, and I just make general nature notes. Sometimes I’ll do all three trails twice.”
The wet weather has brought out some mushrooms that have remained dormant for a long time, and Tuesday Stahmer came across a new species he hadn’t previously noted. The fungus was hanging like an icicle off of a downed log, he said. Its Latin name is Hericium coralloides, but it’s more commonly known as coral tooth fungus, and is related to the Bear’s Head or Lion’s Mane, Stahmer said.
Along with the fungus, he noted six different types of mushrooms and an average amount of birds, but no butterflies.
“They like flowers, and there aren’t that many right now,” he noted.
Stahmer plans to records of his findings from three calendar years, and hopes his notes can help the docents working in the area better understand what to expect when they bring students to the nature area for tours.
Giometti-Wahl said it was the third time she accompanied Stahmer out for a count. She appreciates the effort he puts into identifying the different types of mushrooms.
”I think it will help the nature area and people interested in it, if he can help identify what mushrooms are out there. Since it’s so wet we see mushrooms we haven’t seen in a long time.”
Sometimes Stahmer spots domestic animals that appear to have been released into the wild.
“I have seen domestic bunnies people release out there. They probably made a meal for the red shouldered hawks.”
Stahmer cautions against releasing non-native species into the park, since they can upset the natural ecosystem. Most turtles in Pigs Lake are non-native, he said.
“People think they are doing them a favor by letting them go. But they can out-compete the native species.”
Along with the usual population of deer that call the nature area home, sometimes more unusual animals make an appearance. Stahmer said a small fox has recently been spotted.
“The time I saw it last year a deer was trying to shoo it away. It appeared to be hunting the deer.”
Even an experienced botanist is sometimes taken by surprise.
‘“I was out at Pigs Lake when this bug thing in water took off and it scared the heck out of me. It was a river otter,” he laughed.