News from the Bernard Field Station

A new plant invader has been spotted at the BFS – Melia azedarach. This tree is commonly known as Chinaberry, but also has many other common names, including Texas Umbrella Tree, Persian Lilac, White Cedar, Bead-Tree, Cape lilac, Ceylon Cedar, and Pride of India. Several sprouting clumps of M. azedarach growing in the Foothill Blvd […]

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We’ve recently added six new insect taxa to our BFS Invertebrate List – two bee flies, a shore fly, a butterfly, a cuckoo bee, and a wasp. Thanks to the folks who helped observe, photograph, and identify these insects, including Jonathan Wright, Hartmut Wisch, John Ascher, Joel Kits, Martin, Wayne Mathis, and the folks at […]

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Since our last update we’ve added fifteen new taxa to the BFS invertebrate list, including 1 katydid, 2 bugs, 2 beetles, 3 flies, 1 butterfly, 5 bees, and 1 wasp. As always, many thanks to everyone who’s helped observe, photograph, collect, and identify these inverts, including Ben Stapp, Jonathan Wright, Hartmut Wisch, John Ascher, David […]

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The BFS Mammal List has been recently updated. In the last year, in addition to confirming that we still have the Western Harvest Mouse, we’ve added five new species to at the list – all bats: Tadarida brasiliensis (Mexican Free-tailed Bat) Eptesicus fuscus (Big Brown Bat) Lasionycteris noctivagans (Silver-haired Bat) Lasiurus cinereus (Hoary Bat) Myotis […]

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We’ve recently updated the BFS invertebrate list, and I’m afraid that our blog posts have not kept pace with our new invert finds. Altogether since our last invert blog update, we’ve added an additional 57 taxa, including 3 spiders, 1 silverfish, 1 dragonfly, 2 grasshoppers, 6 bugs, 10 beetles, 10 flies, 5 moths, 3 butterflies, […]

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We have just finished a major update to the BFS Plant List. Nomenclature has been updated to conform to The Jepson Manual, 2nd ed., CalPhotos links will now bring up photos of both the old and new names, links to herbarium specimen data have been updated, and BFS photo links now point to the BFS […]

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Two new plants have recently been discovered at the BFS. Many thanks to Leroy Gross and Erika Gardner of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden for identifying the plants and making voucher specimens. Gilia angelensis A patch of Gilia angelensis (Chaparral Gilia) is flowering in a grassy area along the path by the Foothill Blvd […]

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Update: On March 11, the valiant BFS Volunteers removed every known Sahara Mustard plant on the BFS. Way to go, Volunteers! The very nasty Sahara Mustard (Brassica tournefortii) has just appeared at the BFS in two small infestations along Foothill Blvd. near the BFS entrance and the near College Avenue. The Sahara Mustard, a native […]

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We have a new species addition to the BFS Bird List — the Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus), which was spotted by Dr. Paul Stapp’s class on September 29. The brilliant yellow head makes identification of this blackbird easy, and its loud, rusty-hinge call is also quite distinctive. Yellow-headed Blackbirds occur throughout the US west of […]

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Dr. Paul Stapp‘s Mammalogy from Cal State Fullerton is trapping rodents at the BFS this week and caught a Western Harvest Mouse (Reithrodontomys megalotis), in their trapping grid in the SW part of the station (near the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden). This species has not been seen at BFS since 1990, so we’re glad […]

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