Photo by Doug Mandel
This joint SEA/CNPS field trip had ten people join walk leaders Juliet Malik and Sarah Risher for the Bioblitz Nature Walk at Nur Pon Open Space on September 8th. There were both new and familiar faces, all contributing to the identification and discussion of the various plants, birds, and insects present. We saw tall evening primroses in bloom, a native digger bee foraging on naked buckwheat flowers, gum plant, a lone ponderosa pine, California pipevine, Canada geese, a great egret, and many caterpillars of the genista broom moth –an important native control of invasive broom plants!
We also discussed the importance of our native oaks as keystone species supporting more life forms than any other tree genus in North America – a true rockstar worthy of our attention and protection. It was a fun couple of hours using the iNaturalist App to aid identification, posting observations as part of Biodiversity Week, and sharing stories. Some participants reached the goal of 30 identifications for the 30×30 Biodiversity Challenge! To get your free app to help you identify local plants, fungi, and insects, go to inaturalist.org and download it on your phone.
Nur Pon Open Space, formerly Henderson Open Space is now largely free of homeless camping, however, it still requires daily patrols by RPD and weekly cleanups due to people still sneaking in at night and camping. It is still a pleasant cool shaded place to take a walk with considerable use of hikers. Due to abuse over the decades, it is a good place to learn non-native plants but there are still many natives.