Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve is located in Santa Cruz, California.

Año Nuevo State Park is located in Pescadero, California.

June 16, 2023

We explored the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve from 10:00 am to 12:45 pm, in conditions of fog and a medium wind.

Our observations at Año Nuevo State Park were from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm, with overcast skies and a medium wind.

Overall, there was a high of 72° F.

Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve

When we arrived at the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve, the sky was filled with a gray and moist fog that slowly blew past us. This ecosystem is incredibly unique. There is only 6,000 acres of this type of habitat in the world, with only 2,000 acres currently protected. The soil comes from sandstone that is 10,000 years old. There is a mix of dune plants from both the coast and ponderosa pine communities. There were two fires that burned through parts of the Reserve, one in 2008 and the other in 2020. There is an abundance of bird species present because of the heterogeneity of the area, stemming from it being an ecotone. Ecotones are formed from there being steep transitions between ecosystems.

Some of the pines at the Reserve include knobcone pines, ponderosa pines, Monterey pines, and the common Douglas fir. Knobcone pines are characterized by closed cones that are sealed by resin. They grow clustered in whorls on trunks and branches. The knobcone pines have serotinous cones, which means that they hang onto the tree for an extended period as an adaptation to growing in fire-prone areas. These pines are also well adapted to growing in poor soils in areas with a mild climate.

Some unusual and endemic plants that we saw at the Bonny Doon Ecological Preserve include the Yellow Clustered Broomrape and the Ben Lomond Spineflower. The Yellow Clustered Broomrape is a parasitic plant that takes nutrients from the host plants: Eriogonum spp., Artemisia spp., and Eriodictyon spp. The Ben Lomond Spineflower is an annual in the buckwheat family.

The areas where the fire traveled through the Bonny Doon Ecological Preserve experienced a secondary succession, or disturbance. There are a variety of plants that follow fire, including: deerweed, silver bush lupine, pitcher sage, bracken fern, and yerba santa. In the first photo, you can see the burned tree trunk surrounded by deerweed and silver bush lupine. There was another post-fire area full of yerba santa in full bloom, as in the second photo. The last photo shows the bracken fern and yerba santa growing together.

The transition to a more mature state of secondary succession occurs through the seed germination and growth of manzanita, chamise, and ceanothus. In the first photo, the light green and red manzanitas demonstrate the strategy of recovery through seed germination. As time passes, the domination of the space by yerba santa will give way to the maturing manzanitas. In the second photo, we see established yerba santa in the back, with ceanothus, chamise, and manzanita beginning to grow into the space. The last photo shows an established ceanothus in bloom, with small, leathery leaves that show adaptations to low water conditions.

Another strategy for fire recovery is top sprouting. While the other section of the reserve was recovering predominately in the form of seed germination, top sprouting dominated this area of the reserve. We did not see the same succession process of smaller herbaceous plants initially growing, with shrub seed germination following. Top-sprouted manzanita dominated, sprinkled throughout with flowering bush poppies and flowering silver bush lupines.

This is the season of reproduction, as we can see through the plants. The bright red berries are the fruits produced by manzanita. Speckles of yellow and light purple splashed together as the bush poppies and yerba santa flowered, thriving in sandy soil conditions. Silver bush lupine and deerweed were often growing together, flowering and producing seed. The lupine has a classic pea-like fruit and purple flowers. The deerweed has yellow flowers that turn red once they have been pollinated.

In one area there was a shallow body of water flowing. This area had seep monkeyflowers and willow trees. When we looked closely, the willow leaves were covered with larvae of willow leaf beetles (middle photo). The right photo shows that we noticed that on another area of the leaves, they were pupating!

Ano Nuevo State Park

After lunch, we headed over to the coast to visit Ano Nuevo State Park.

When we got to the coast, the hillsides were filled with yellow blooms from coastal bush lupines. They smelled amazing, but were also a clever way for ticks to find just about everyone in our class. That day was a major tick-check day for the whole class! We also encountered an interesting plant that looks like a coastal bush lupine, but is not! It is called the false lupine, or the California Goldenbanner! The flowers look nearly identical, but the leaves are not palmate and are in groups of three.

The California red-legged frog is listed as a threatened species because of loss of habitat. It no longer lives in 70% of its previous range and is mostly found on the coast. Although the algae was not particularly pretty in the small pond, it was still exciting to see these amphibians hanging out.

The big draw of Año Nuevo State Park are the elephant seals. They spend 90% of their life at sea and return to land two times a year: to breed and for catastrophic molting. The history of elephant seals is a sad one. After reaching near-extinction, they found 20 individual elephant seals on an island in Baja, California. This created a bottleneck effect, which limits the genes available to the population. The good news is that there are now 160,000 elephant seals along the California coast, which are all descendants of the original 20 individuals. Males are enormous, weighing 3-4,000 pounds. Females weigh around 800 pounds. Reproduction occurs between one male and multiple females, with babies weaned after 30 days. Great white sharks love to eat elephant seal babies and hang out in the area just beyond the island.

The day we visited the beach, there were hundreds of free-floating hydrozoans called “by-the-wind sailors,” or Velellas. The middle picture shows their “sails” and their rich, blue color. There were also large groups of gulls, pelicans, ducks, and turkey vultures.

I could not help but gush over the barn swallow babies. They were in their perfect, open cavity, mud nest and joyfully eating the food their parents brought. There is such a difference between their sweet, patient waiting and when they open their oversized baby beaks when a parent has arrived.

Scientific Name Glossary:

Knobcone Pine: Pinus attenuata

Yellow Clustered Broomrape: Aphyllon franciscanum

Ben Lomond Spineflower: Chorizanthe pungens var. hartwegiana

Deerweed: Acmispon glaber

Silver Bush Lupine: Lupinus albifrons

Pitcher Sage: Lepechinia calycina

Bracken Fern: Pteridium aquilinum

Yerba Santa: Eriodictyon californicum

Coastal Bush Lupine: Lupinus arboreus

California Goldenbanner, or False Lupine: Thermopsis californica

California red-legged frog: Rana draytonii

Elephant Seal: Mirounga angustirostris