During its early years, the Bernard Field Station was home to a raptor rehabilitation program, and several structures from that program remain at the field station. Among these is a large flight cage, which was also used for studies of owl predation of rodents (Brown et al. 1988, Kotler et al. 1988).
Once the raptor rehabilitation program ended, the flight cage fell into disrepair. The chicken wire of the enclosure was rusty and torn, leaving large gaps, and recently a hawk flew in and was trapped until the Director was able to “shoo” it toward an opening.
Not wanting any more bird trapped in the enclosure, we had the BFS volunteers remove all the old chicken wire at last Saturday’s workday. They also removed old metal flashing, loose boards, remnants of old experiments, and old electrical conduit. They also removed the deteriorated liner and a non-functional electric fence from a former small pond that had been used to rear juvenile Western Pond Turtles.
Here are some photos of the volunteers at work…
The crew of volunteers goes to work. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Peter Pellitier (Pomona ’14), Michael Lertvilai (HMC ’15) , and Bryan Visser (HMC ’13) cut and remove chicken wire. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Dean McHenry, Stacy Guzman (Citrus College), and Anne Clark (HMC ’13) roll up and compact the old chicken wire. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Stacy Guzman (Citrus College) and Anne Clark (HMC ’13) cart away the old chicken wire, while Michael Lertvilai (HMC ’15) and Tom Andrews cut more wire loose from the supports. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Maria Morabe (HMC ’13), Amy Long (Citrus College), and Kourtney Williams (Citrus College) trim branches of a Laurel Sumac that were entangled in the chicken wire. ©Nancy Hamlett.
…and here are some’Before’ and ‘After pictures of the flight cage:
Old chicken wire and metal flashing were removed from the flight cage. Left: before. Right: After. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Debris and remnants of old experiments were also removed. Left: before. Right: after. ©Nancy Hamlett.
The electric fence and disintegrated liner were removed from the old turtle pond. Left: before. Right: after. ©Nancy Hamlett.
The Larry Oglesby Slide Collection in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library has some photos of birds in the raptor rehabilitation program at the BFS including some young Western Screen Owls and a Barn Owl.
References:
- Brown, J.S., B.P. Kotler, R.J. Smith, and W.O. Wirtz II1. 1988. The effects of owl predation on the foraging behavior of heteromyid rodents. Oecologia 76: 408-415. Abstract | PDF
- Kotler, B.P., J.S. Brown, R.J. Smith and W.O. Wirtz, II. 1988. The effects of morphology and body size on rates of owl predation on desert rodents. Oikos 53: 145-152. Abstract | PDF (Subscription required)