Thanks to Nell Baldwin of the Pomona Vertebrate Biology class for confirming the identification.

On Saturday Nancy Hamlett (Harvey Mudd College) came to snap photos (posted below) and noticed one leg dangling low while the heron was in flight across the lake. Fortunately, flight has not been impaired, so no wing damage. It is able to fish along the small islands’ shorelines and then return to tall cattail clump, where it is safe from coyotes or other predators.

The bird has continued this pattern through today, Wednesday, November 4th. The BFS lake may be just what this heron needs to acclimate to its injury.

The first three photos, taken by Prof. Hamlett, show the heron on its perch and feeding from the island shoreline. The fourth shot was contributed by Yvonne Garcia. The remote cam happened to be on the shoreline in an attempt to capture Western Pond Turtles. Instead, the heron landed right in front of it and provides some close up video action of both feeding and taking flight. On the latter video, the injured leg joint is clearly seen.

Please respect this heron and its current condition.

The video shows two raccoons (Procyon lotor) on one of the islands of Phlake also interacting with the camera. The model is the Cuddeback “No Flash”, which takes a single still frame shot followed by a video capture. At night, the camera’s infrared “flash” is operational. The flash window is approximately 3 inches long by 1.5 inches high and consists of an array of red LED’s. When taking a video the array flashes rapidly, perhaps one flash per “frame” taken. While this is far less shocking than a typical photo flash, it is noticeable. The raccoons are clearly interested, maybe even a bit perturbed by it. Stick with the entire 45 seconds as the first raccoon approaches the camera, goes behind it, jostles it and comes back around, moving on to business. Another comes over the top and seems to be surprised by the flashing array. To us, the array flashes red, what the raccoons see may be just a pulsing white light. Raccoons have excellent night vision, but have no color capability (monochromatic).

You can view the video embeds in full screen by clicking on the icon on the bottom of the screen, second from the right.

Sage Thrasher at the BFS

The Sage Thrasher is the smallest thrasher. It has a brownish-gray back, prominent dark streaking on white underparts, thin white wingbars, white tips on the corners of the tail, and a short (for a thrasher) straight bill. It often adopts an upright posture as seen the photo, and will frequently run instead of fly if disturbed. The Sage Thrasher is mostly found in the western US (but mostly east of California) in Artemisia-dominated valleys and plains. It is a rare migrant in the LA Basin. The nearest sighting to the BFS reported in eBird is from October 17, 2008, at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area.

You can see more photos of the Sage Thrasher in our photos database.

The update includes taxonomic changes, additions and deletions of taxa, new photos and links to specimens at the Rancho Santa Ana and UC Riverside herbaria.

As with all flora and fauna lists, expect additional modifications in the future. Some families need to be revisited and expanded or refined. Among those would be some usual suspects (Poaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Boraginaceae) as well as Juncaceae, Cyperaceae and Onagraceae.

Many new photos have been databased but are not yet linked to the list. You can access these by clicking “Photos” on the home page. This will take you to a searchable database of photos for both flora and fauna at BFS. The regular species lists are reached by clicking “Biota” on the home page.

I took photographs from BFS for several days of the Station Fire, and even from this distance they showed the immensity of the event.  In none of the photos below is there a single “cloud”, it is all fire weather and smoke.

Update 27 September: The Station Fire is now at Day 33, and it’s still not quite out (98% contained). I’ve added a couple of additional photos to Stephen’s. –NVH

Dawn, Day 5, August 30 – smoke from the Station Fire over the East Field. Photo by Nancy Hamlett.

Day 5, August 30 – Pyrocumulus cloud from the Station Fire seen from the BFS

Evening, Day 5, August 30 – Station Fire

Day 6, August 31 – Station Fire from BFS

Afternoon, Day 7, September 1 – Station Fire, over BFS

Sunset, Day 7, September 1 – Station Fire from BFS

Sunset, Day 7, September 1 – Station Fire, from BFS

Day 25, September 19 – a water-dropping heli-tanker flies over the BFS on the way to the Station Fire. Photo by Nancy Hamlett.

On Saturday, September 19, additional water-dropping helicopters were called in to put out hot spots in advance of “Furnace Week”. This particular helicopter, #720, is a Sikorsky Skycrane stationed in San Bernardino. The helicopters, which are equipped with heat-sensing infrared technology, are invaluable for sensing and putting out hot spots in rugged, inaccessible terrain.

After several hours of internet searches and review reading, I purchased a Cuddeback N0Flash model for about $325.  This one takes digital videos of between 10 and 60 seconds, color in the day and infrared lighting at night (hence, the “NoFlash” designation).  It takes a single digital still upon tripping and then the video.  The infrared “flash” does not frighten wildlife and really aids in capturing action.  The camera is much more sensitive as well and photos have significantly better resolution, though this is far from a high-grade digital SLR type camera.  Lighting determines whether the recording has true color and/or too much contrast.

Using a combination of several inexpensive “bubba cams” and one higher quality video-capable unit has worked nicely as a documentary tool for wildlife activity at BFS.

It comes as no surprise to people familiar with BFS that the place supports quite a few coyotes.  What the cameras have revealed is just how prevalent they are throughout the field station and at all times of day and night.   It is not all that common to see them during daylight hours, especially mid-day, yet the cameras have clearly recorded them moving about at the human lunch hour.  The Cuddeback has made some fascinating videos (see the blog post linking vid captures uploaded onto YouTube) showing groups of coyotes moving and playing together at night on the eastern sections of BFS.   The cameras have also grabbed shots of a bobcat and her two cubs, rabbits, squirrels, thrashers and raccoons.  Reports of fox sightings by students last year have yet to be confirmed with photographic evidence, however.

Don’t be surprised if you run across these cameras placed along trails or roadways and kindly leave them untouched.  Oh, by the way, they also snap photos of people, a few of whom weren’t supposed to be here!

Wildview bubba cam shot by BFS lake

Coyote at Abilene Way (NW BFS) "Bubba Cam"

Coyote along western BFS border (Xtreme 2)

Bobcat with cubs, south-central BFS (bubba cam)

BFS landscape near RSA (Cuddeback NoFlash)

Coyote at dawn, eastern neck BFS (Cuddeback No Flash)

Coyote along western border fence at BFS (Cuddeback)

As can be seen,  the Cuddeback does taken a sharper image.   I will be posting additional photos in the near future.

‘eBird’ is an online checklist program launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. eBird is free and available to anyone, although to get the most out eBird’s features, you may want to register (also free). You can access the eBird data in several different ways; for instance, here is a screenshot of an eBird ‘Bar Chart’ showing the frequency of sightings by date:

You can also download the data as an Excel spreadsheet.

Check out our BFS eBird page for complete instructions on how to access the data.

Many, many thanks to Cathy McFadden, Vivian & D. Kenneth Baker Professor of Biology at Harvey Mudd College (and one of LA County’s top birders!), for carrying out the monthly surveys and for putting the data on eBird!