Bolsa Chica’s Furry Residents By far the most visitors to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve (BCER) are here to see birds. It’s a world class birding site and well deserves its worldwide reputation. But the dry land parts of the Reserve are also home to mammal species characteristic of our region and essential to its…
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by Mike Armstrong PROBABLY the most visible native mammal on the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is Otospermophilus beecheyi, the Beechey’s Ground Squirrel. They are seen in many parts of the reserve, but most obviously along both sides of the Mesa Trail and on the slope above the trail along the Pocket Wetland. This species lives…
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Written by Mike Armstrong Everybody knows something about the California Condor: endangered, awesome and so on. But this article is about one of his relatives that isn’t endangered but is useful, graceful, and interesting – the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), a frequent visitor to Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. He is probably the largest bird that…
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Written by Mike Armstrong If you do habitat restoration that involves planting native plants, at some point you have to get down and dirty in the dirt. Down here you get to meet plenty of bugs. They are not what an entomologist would call “bugs,” that term is technically reserved for a specific group of…
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Written by Mike Armstrong Old maps of the New World often show blank spaces marked “Tierras Desconocidas” or “Lands Unknown.” Well, we have one of those lands right next door at Bolsa Chica. When you look at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, you mostly see the flat plain between the bluff that holds the Brightwater…
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