“The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
Marcel Proust
Years ago, I had just finished a SCUBA certification course in Thailand and our instructor was taking us out to a dive site noted for regular sightings of Whale Sharks, the world’s largest fish (up to 40 feet in length, in case you’re curious). But when we arrived at the spot the conditions were horrible – choppy waves had kicked up sand and underwater visibility was maybe 20 feet. There would be no whale shark sightings that day. We were all very bummed. Except for our instructor.
“I’ve been diving all over the world for over 20 years,” he told us. “Some of the very best dives I’ve ever had were in conditions much worse than this. When the water is very clear you have a tendency to look at everything at once, as a landscape. But limited visibility forces you to take a close look at all the incredible things right in front of your face. Normally, you’d float right over all the small stuff and never know it even existed.”
Needless to say, we all had an amazing dive that day.
I was reminded of this Life Lesson last week when Brunson and I were wandering the vineyard. It was late afternoon and the lighting was incredible and the recent rains had turned the hillsides green and Mount St. Helena stood out beautifully to the east and…
“Hey, check that out,” Mike exclaimed, breaking my reverie.
He pointed into the branches of the tree above us. On the edge of a limb sat a tiny 
Northern Pygmy Owl, maybe 6 inches tall. It was sitting perfectly still, seemingly oblivious to the chattering, irritated group of Robins perched on the other side of the tree. After a minute it dove down off the limb right toward our heads and then shot off across the vineyard and into the wilderness, chased by the Robins which were obviously anxious to get that predator off of their turf. It was the first Pygmy Owl I’ve ever seen in the wild
Maybe I learned (re-learned?) my lesson after that. Several days later I was hunting mushrooms on Serenity Hill overlooking the estate lake. I was blown away by all the shapes and sizes and varieties of fungus on the forest floor and I spent a good 20 minutes slowly strolling, head down, eyes to the earth. I jumped a bit in surprise when I nearly stepped on a large turtle, about 8 inches across, basking in the sun on the leaf litter.
I’ve seen plenty of turtles on the Estate but never close up. The turtles that hang out around the edge of the lake are very skittish and scurry into the water before you can get anywhere close. But this turtle was up on top of the hill, about 50 yards from the lake. And a very steep hill, road and drainage ditch stood between it and the lake. What the heck was it doing there? As I stood and pondered I realized that I knew virtually nothing about turtles. I picked it up for a close examination before I decided to carry it back to the water’s edge and release it. And when I got back to the office I got on the computer to do some research.
Turns out the Western Pond Turtle (Clemmys marmorata) has a lifespan of up to 40 years and is the only fresh-water turtle native to the North American Pacific Coast west of the Sierra-Cascade divide. Historically, this turtle could be found from Baja to Washington but these days the population has plummeted and believed to be virtually gone from its northern and southern range. Today, the Western Pond Turtle is listed as a Category 2 federal candidate species and The California Department of Fish and Game considers it to be a species of special concern. In short, there aren’t a lot of these guys around anymore.
I also discovered that pond turtles regularly utilize upland terrestrial habitat. Females will dig shallow nests and lay eggs on land. These turtles also regularly overwinter in uplands, burying themselves beneath the leaf litter.
What a bunch of very cool information, right? And it all started by focusing on the small picture.
So come on out to Michel-Schlumberger and check out all of the little things going on. You’ll be blown away.
Peace and Pond Turtles,
Tony
