4/1/2022
10:00 – 13:00
Distance traveled: 1.5 km

Today, I took my Vertebrate Biology students up to the university’s Fairfield Osborn Preserve to survey part of the preserve’s network of coverboards, and to explore the creek with SSU alumna Julie Wittmann, who is now the Community Naturalist Program Coordinator for the preserve. The coverboards weren’t particularly productive, but by the end of our visit, I don’t think anyone left disappointed. 

March 28, 2022
09:30 to 11:30

Today, the Sonoma Land Trust hosted my Restoration Ecology class in a field trip to view the various phases of salt marsh restoration at Sears Point. It was a gorgeous day, and we learned a lot about the history and ecology of this place as we walked to the end of the levee and back. I another little surprise: one of our trip leaders, Neal Ramus, was an undergrad at SSU at same time I was, and it was good to reconnect. 

March 26, 2022
17:00 – 17:45

This afternoon, my new Canon Rebel arrived, so I took a short afternoon walk to give it a test drive.” I went through Draper Park, and then headed east on the bike path. I only walked a few blocked before I turned around, but it did give me the chance to see and hear a few birds. In addition to the birds, I saw a couple of friendly neighborhood cats.

March 11, 2022
9:00 to 10:30

Vertebrate Biology “field trip” on campus, to practice our birding skills. We had a surprisingly successful day, seeing and hearing lots of birds, and also finding a turtle shell (a slider, I think), by one of the lakes.

March 4, 2022
09:30 to 11:30

This Vertebrate Biology field trip was designed to expose students to some of the basics of birding, and get experience identifying some common local bird species. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. to find the weather overcast (but not quite raining),and some landscapers using noisy equipment near the ponds. We spent about two hours walking the paths around some of the ponds, a total distance of 1.5 km.

May 10, 2018
1:30 to 3:00 p.m.

Instead of a final exam, I assessed my Field Biology students’ naturalist knowledge by hosting a BioBlitz on the Sonoma State campus. For 90 minutes, we all tried to observe and identify as many species as possible on campus. I worked solo, while they worked in teams, and we were all competing against one another. I think there was one team who found more species than I did. (Of course, this still means I win, since I can take credit for having taught them about local natural history hahahaha).

November 16, 2016

Thanks to the generosity of Tony Nelson from the Sonoma Land Trust, my Restoration Ecology class was able to set up four wildlife cameras along the creek, to begin to investigate the diversity of animals – particularly mammals – on campus. Not only did Tony loan us the cameras, but he came on campus to teach us how to install them. The cameras were set up for only 4 days – November 11 through 15 – so we didn’t document many species, but we did get some great photos. And for a first outing, I’d say it was successful. I’m looking forward to longer sampling periods in the future.

June 2 to July 3, 2012

These are wildlife sightings made during my Western Pond Turtle field season

May 6, 2012

Nicole and I went on a field trip today with the local California Native Plant Society chapter, although the site we visited was already very familiar to me – it’s our Western Pond Turtle field site in Lake County, California! It was different being up there and not looking for turtles. I learned some things about plants (which is good; I’m ridiculously ignorant about plants), saw and heard a bunch of great birds (including Pileated Woodpecker and MOUNTAIN QUAIL! Only the second time in my whole life I’ve ever seen Mountain Quail).

April 3 and 4, 2012
Overcast and drizzly

This week, I took two sections of introductory biology students (BIOL 122) up to the Preserve to make some wildlife observations. Our actual goal was to survey some trees for Sudden Oak Death, but I never go to the Preserve without the supplemental goal of making wildlife observations, especially since there is always at least a few students who tell me that this trip is the first time they’ve ever gone hiking in some sort of “natural” or wilderness area.

March 31, 2012
Late evening

Nicole and I had the opportunity to go on this California Red-legged Frog survey as part of a workshop on local endangered and threatened species offered by the Laguna de Santa Rosa. I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves. (In the photos with three frogs, the one in the center is an American Bullfrog).

January 20, 2012
Rainy, after dark

I spent the evening helping graduate student Tracy Bain with her California Tiger Salamander field study. We were recording data on salamanders as they approached Stony Point, preparing to cross the road to access the vernal pool where they breed. Stony Point Road (near Meecham) is terrifying, especially in the rain, because the cars so by so fast! As you might imagine, this is often disastrous for the little tiger salamanders trying to cross the road in the dark, in the rain. In order to reduce road mortality in this critically endangered species, a series of three tunnels were installed under the road, along with driftnet fencing, in the hope that the salamanders would use them to cross safely under the road. On this night, I was assisting with data collection to see if the salamanders were, in fact, using the tunnels.

December 4, 2011

The final Field Herpetology trip of the semester took us to Galbreath Wildlands Preserve in Mendocino County, primarily to look for Rough-skinned Newt.

October 22, 2011

Today, Field Herpetology returned for a second visit to Boggs Lake, to excavate another Western Pond Turtle nest that we had located during our field season back in June, in order to raise the baby turtles long enough to determine their sex, as part of an ongoing research study. In addition to the turtles, we saw a good variety of other wildlife, as well.

September 24, 2011

Nick, Nicole and I took the Field Herpetology class on a field trip to Boggs Lake for a tour of our field site and an overview of the research that we’ve been doing on the nesting behavior and sex determination of Western Pond Turtles.

September 23, 2011

After dropping my kiddo off with their dad for the weekend, I went on a solo birding adventure to Shollenberger Park. Loads of great birds (as usual), including American White Pelican, Northern Shoveler, Greater Yellowlegs and Pacific Golden Plover – a new bird for me!

September 18, 2011

We visited two sites for California Giant Salamander: Purisima Creek in Half Moon Bay, and Sierra Azul, near San Jose. We walked the creek at both locations, searching for salamanders.