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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Updated 2023 Let’s be honest, most people visit Bolsa Chica for the birds. Don’t get me wrong, birds are great, I even studied them in school. But Bolsa Chica is home to much more, and another group that usually gets ignored (unless it’s two males battling it out on the trail in front of photographers)…
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Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream. – Debby Boone The Stewards dream big. We dream of a Mesa with native plants thriving and supporting native wildlife. We dream of walking down the path with the native flowers blooming on either side mixed…
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SNAKES!!! Three in a row. After seeing one harmless snake in one full year at Bolsa Chica, I’ve now seen a rattlesnake each of the last two Stewards days. I even named him: Randy–the rattler. In the beginning of July, a couple walking the trails called me over to tell me they saw a snake….
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Summer time is always a slow time for the Stewards. We don’t plant in the summer so that leaves weeding and watering the native plants we had planted the season before. We can’t go below the Mesa to pick up trash either, because of the breeding birds. A lot of folks are also off on…
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Saturday’s work day wasn’t anything new (we watered the native grasses and tar plants), but we had a wonderful group of high school students who volunteered. The Fountain Valley KIWIN’S club members were an eager and hard working group who really got down to business. We had ordered the water truck with 2,000 gallons of water…
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This last Sunday was our June Sunday work day as well as our work day during the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Invasive Species Action Week (CISAW). We were even pictured in their blog about CISAW. We sure did go after invasive species last Sunday. We happily had a small group so I was…
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Last weekend was a busy weekend for me. We had the regular Stewards on Saturday and then a special work day for the Community United Methodist church on Sunday. Both days we pulled out crystalline ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum) and slender leaved ice plant (Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum) which turns red as it matures. These two invasive…
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Last Saturday we had Ms. Boardman’s Biology class from Cerritos College join the Stewards for weed picking and native plant planting. They did a great job considering the weeding was more difficult than usual. The native grasses we had planted back at the end of 2014 had been overtaken by the non-native grasses (mostly Hordeum…
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