An Academic Resource of the Claremont Colleges
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Sep 18th, 2011
We have a new addition to the BFS Bird List — the Sora (Porzana carolina). The Sora is a small, secretive bird of freshwater marshes and is most often found in cattails and bulrushes, where it forages for snails, small crustaceans, insects, and seeds. At the BFS it was seen foraging among the cattails between […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Aug 26th, 2011
Look who was spotted crossing the main east-west road yesterday evening! This new addition to our invert list is a male fall-breeding California native tarantula, Aphonopelma eutylenum – the California Ebony Tarantula. It is more accurately called Aphonopelma “eutylenum type” as this species has been described by several different validly published names. In the fall, […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Jul 11th, 2011
During her regular monthly BFS bird survey on July 4, Prof. Cathy McFadden spotted a new addition to the BFS Bird List – three Eurasian Collared-Doves, Streptopelia decaocto, flying over the HMC property, possibly coming out of the old toad pool area. Originally native to India, Eurasian Collared-Doves spread into Turkey and the Balkans in […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Apr 20th, 2011
Some recent insect photography expeditions have turned up a number of new additions for our BFS Invert List. We have yet to sort through all our photos, but we have so far turned up representatives of three new insect families – Stratiomyidae (Soldier Flies), Chrysopidae (Green Lacewings), and Melyridae (Soft-winged Flower Beetles). Soldier Flies (Stratiomyidae) […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Mar 27th, 2011
We have nine new additions to the BFS invert list: Dactylopius sp. (Cochineal) Our first addition is an insect that any casual observer might notice at the BFS, but it had somehow been overlooked in our list making – Cochineal (Dactylopius sp.) – that white cottony stuff on Opuntia sp. cacti (Prickly-Pear or Indian-Fig): Dactylopius […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Jan 28th, 2011
We’ve added two new tiny cuties (at least we think they’re cute!) to our BFS Invert List. Harsi Parker and I spotted these at the BFS on January 16. (To be truthful, Harsi did all the spotting, photographing, and identifying. I held things for photographs.) We found the first in a Coast Live Oak along […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Jan 17th, 2011
Prof. Cathy McFadden and Paul Clarke recorded a new species at BFS this morning. They spotted “a Peregrine Falcon rapidly leaving the east field with a California Towhee in its talons and a very upset Cooper’s Hawk hot on its tail!” The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) was previously on both the Federal and California Endangered […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Nov 22nd, 2010
In the fall most of the BFS is brown and sere until the rains come, but a few species of plants bloom profusely at this seemingly inauspicious time. One of these is Pine-Bush, Ericameria pinifolia – the shrubs with bright yellow flowers dotting the landscape now. A few weeks ago Harsi Parker and I spotted […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Oct 7th, 2010
In an earlier post reporting addition of nearly 100 new taxa to the BFS Invertebrate List, I mentioned that we’d feature some of them in future posts. Well, that number is now well over 100, but here’s a run-down on one group of new additions — butterflies… So far in 2010 we’ve added nine new […]
Posted in News, Sightings, Web Updates on Oct 6th, 2010
We have another new addition to the BFS Bird List – the Spotted Sandpiper, Actitis macularia, which was spotted at pHake Lake on September 25. It’s perhaps a little surprising that they haven’t been spotted at the BFS before. They’re the most widespread breeding sandpiper in North America, and in this area they’re common in […]