McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve - Discovery Hike

McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve is located north-east of Fresno, about 30-40 minutes. It is privately owned and only allows guided hikes to the public for a fee. Today the Open Preserve Day was sponsored by REI and was absolutely free.

My friend and I decided to sign up for a Discovery Hike, a docent-led 4 mile round trip hike. It is very easy and pretty much flat along the way. The views are not as great as you could get if you went on a Table Top Hike, but is still very peaceful.

Wildflowers were not at the peak of their bloom, but still there were plenty there!

Our docent turned out to be a biologist who was truly interested in her field, so very often she would spot a little frog or a millipede that would draw her attention and show it to us. Among a few finds was a western spadefoot toad (no, I would not have remembered the name if I did not write it down ;), some sort of weird cricket (gosh, I love crickets! #justkidding), a tadpole, a western toad, milkweed, more tadpoles, a white cow and a big fat tadpole.

Western Spadefoot Toad

Big fat cricket!

Tadpole

Baby Western Toad

Milkweed

Tadpole heaven

Super little baby toad

White cow!

Big fat tadpole

I don't think I have had a hike where I learned so much!

We also decided to go to watch the Bird of Prey presentation, but I was hugely disappointed. Those poor birds were captured from the wild to be shown to the public. The woman presenting the birds kept saying that she had a falconry license and was allowed to capture only 2 birds a year. Are you kidding me??? Why would any reasonable person decide to capture an animal from the wild to keep it in the cage? Why not rescue them from a rehab facility? Why would California even allow this kind of thing? Another disappointment in humanity. I get that these birds are used for educational purposes, but I am also certain that there are enough of them injured that cannot be released and need help (to the woman's credit, one of the owls was a rescue). 

Wild animals should remain in the wild.

Here is a decent article showing what can happen if you interfere with nature. And another article to consider when getting an exotic pet. I understand that many animals live longer lives in the captivity, but do you think it is worth it for them? Would you want to live a long life in prison? I wouldn't.