Hi Troop 4057,
With Thanksgiving break coming up, you may want to go for a hike between eating yummy food. In this second November update, I have written about plants to look out for, and birds and wildflowers you may find in the area.
When hiking, it is recommended to wear long socks or long pants in case there are ticks or other bugs. The most common poisounous plant in this area is poison oak. Poison oak causes an itchy rash when it touches your skin. If you want to know about more poisonous plants the link to an article is here: https://www.curated.com/journal/314000/poisonous-plants-to-look-out-for-when-hiking. Make sure to avoid all of these plants.
If you hike around the Baylands, there’s a lot of wildlife and here’s a reference guide to birds you might find along your hike: https://inaturalist.org/places/baylands-nature-preserve-palo-alto-ca-us. In Foothills Park, you might see the Blue Skullcap, which is a flower related to the mint family. It grows near marshes and meadows and wetland like areas. This flower was origanlly used as a medicine to treat allergies, infections, cancer, and headaches. Despite its name the Blue Skullcap it has a purple like color. If you want to know more about this flower a link to an article is here: https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/nassauco/2017/05/30/fact-sheet-blue-skullcap/
Have fun hiking!
Thanks,
Calista (Your Troop Librarian 🙂