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Posted in News on May 29th, 2013
It’s now that time of year when the Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus) have gone to seed, so the volunteers have turned their attention to Maltese Star Thistles (Centaurea melitensis, aka Tocalote), which are starting to bloom. You can read about these invasive thistles and our overall Star Thistle management strategy in this post from last […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on May 17th, 2013
We’ve recently added nine new insects to our BFS invertebrate list – one bug, three flies, two moths, one butterfly, and two bees. Here they are: Bug: A rough stinkbug – Brochymena sp. (Hemiptera:Pentatomidae) Rough stinkbugs, Brochymena sp. occur throughout North America. Rough Stink Bugs are often found on trees, where they are very well-camouflaged […]
Posted in News on May 14th, 2013
At the May 4 workday volunteers continued removing Italian Thistles from the west side of the lake berm and the area surrounding the “toad pond mound”. This was our last Italian Thistle removal for the season. We’ve treated the most the major infested areas, and it’s time to turn our attention to Maltese Star Thistles, […]
Posted in News on Apr 25th, 2013
Some time in the past, perhaps in the early 1970s, a very large mound of dirt was dumped on what is now the southwestern portion of the BFS in preparation for a development that never happened. Because the dirt in the mound has more clay than the native BFS soil, it retains more water, and […]
Posted in News on Apr 14th, 2013
Last Saturday volunteers continued our campaign to control invasive annual weeds, starting with a newly discovered patch of Sahara Mustard (Brassica tournefortii) growing behind the old infirmary. Unfortunately, the mustard had already set seed, but the plants we removed had a lot of unopened seed pods, so we were able to keep most of the […]
Posted in News on Mar 19th, 2013
The past Saturday volunteers continued the war on Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocepalus) in a clearing off the trail on the east side of pHake Lake. In the past this area had a fine stand to Italian Thistles, as well a patch of very scary looking Bull Thistles (Cirsium vulgare). Last year, volunteers removed all the […]
Spring at the BFS means that our volunteers return to managing invasive annual weeds, and this past Saturday, the volunteers removed Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus) from the entry drive and the east side of the ‘Neck’. The thistles are still in their rosette stage, but they have grown large enough to spot easily. The area […]
Last year we spotted the very nasty Sahara Mustard (Brassica tournefortii) in the Foothill Blvd parkway at the BFS. We have been keeping our eyes out for any that might spring up this year, but we almost overlooked them. Instead of being large plants with a typical open bushy appearance, this year’s Sahara Mustard plants […]
Posted in News on Feb 20th, 2013
This past Saturday, the BFS participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), an annual four-day event jointly organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada that engages bird watchers world-wide in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are. The BFS birds were counted […]
Posted in News on Feb 7th, 2013
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 […]