For the first time since COVID, I’m able to take my students on field trips again, and we had a fantastic one yesterday. I took my upper division Vertebrate Biology class to one of our university’s preserves: the Fairfield Osborn Preserve on Sonoma Mountain. One of the preserve’s researchers and naturalists – Julie Wittmann – was our host for the day, and our primary target was herpetofauna (reptilian vertebrates and amphibians). We started out by surveying some of the coverboards that were established in 2015, and then we headed down to the creek to look for salamanders. All along the way, we saw AMAZING wildlife, with a couple of absolute highlights for the day.

Surveying coverboards, and a Western Skink we discovered under one of them:

Down by the creek, we found a variety of great wildlife:

While we were down at the creek, we also heard an exciting bird (although I was never able to spot it) . . . a Pileated Woodpecker was calling loudly (although sporadically enough that I was not able go get even an audio recording).

Not long before we were getting ready to head back from the creek, we had one more treat: an endangered Yellow-legged Frog (being handled here by an authorized preserve naturalist). This is only the second time I’ve seen one of these frogs in the wild.

On our way back to the parking lot, we took a swing by Turtle Pond, where we found this friend (a female Western Fence Lizard):

As we headed back to where we would have lunch before leaving the preserve, there were still two more surprised for us. First, one of my students spotted and captured this Coast Garter Snake:

A few minutes after finding the garter snake, one of the students backtracked on the path the way we’d just come, and discovered one more amazing friend.

It might look like a run-of-the mill blackberry bush, but if you look more closely . . .

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! This sighting absolutely made my day. Oh, who am I kidding, it made my whole year to this point. 🙂

Overall, we had a fantastic day on the preserve, and we have more vertebrate adventures planned for the semester, so keep an eye out for more updates soon.