NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:An inventory of Wrightwood’s natural history

We met at the San Bernardino National Forest fire station at 7:30 a.m. for our Wrightwood natural history field trip. We saw three coyotes, most likely a female with two pups. Vic gave a general introduction covering our itinerary and discussed basic botany.

We talked about native vs. Argentine ants; honeybees, colony collapse disorder and the need for bees to pollinate food crops. We found rabbit fecal pellets and discussed “coprophagy” wherein rabbits, which have poor digestive systems, eat their own pellets to get more nutrients from it.

We discussed sandstone, the volcanic origin of mountains, and when California’s Sierra Mountains arose from the ocean. We learned that Mormon Rocks was the setting for the filming of “Star Trek” episodes and Westerns.

Plants we saw: Western choke cherry, from which pioneers made choke cherry jam; Mexican elderberry, an edible used by Native Americans as a dye and to make musical instruments; chamise; Pomona locoweed, which is poisonous; prickly poppy; scarlet buglar; horehound, used by pioneers as candy and to make cough drops; storkbill, cranebill, or red-stem Ffilaree; black mustard; yerba Santa; sapphire eriastrum and the poisonous purple nightshade.

We drove up Highway 138, turning left onto Highway 2 to Wrightwood. We stopped after the Korean orchards at a road off to the right with a lot of mailboxes and a large parking area.

We saw a large, very dark Western fence lizard in a Joshua tree and a coachwhip lizard with a long tail. We found a dead carpenter bee.

Plants: Joshua tree; Pinyon pine with edible nuts; California juniper; buckwheat; big sagebrush; Indian paintbrush and rabbitbrush.

We drove into Wrightwood, stopping at Cinnamon’s Bakery for coffee and pastries. Vic pointed out the difference between north-facing and south-facing slopes.

We saw Western kingbird and the lesser goldfinch.

We drove to the Big Pine visitor center where we added oak titmouse to our bird list. We pointed out that the 1928 building burned down in 1987 and was rebuilt and restored down to the original color of paint.

Plants: California black oak, with acorns prized as food by the Indians; Jeffrey pine; Fremont cottonwood and black locust.

We drove up Table Mountain Road. We stopped for a picnic lunch at the tubing/Frisbee golf area. We discussed temperature rise at the end of the last Ice Ages; population growth; looming food, fish and water shortages; desalination; water usage and the source of Orange County’s water; cotton growth; irrigation and selenium buildup.

We saw the Mojave Desert overlook, circular irrigation spots on the desert, Victorville, El Mirage Dry Lake, Edwards Dry Lake, and small volcanic cones on the desert floor, as well as Merriam’s chipmunk, Western gray squirrel and Stellar’s jay.

Plants: eastwood manzanita, flannelbush and locoweed.

We drove up 4N21 road to the observatory, where we saw a golden eagle.

We looked at the big slide on the mountain across from us, and discussed bighorn sheep. We stopped to look at white fir and talked about the differences between pines, spruces and firs.

We drove to the Grassy Hollow visitor center and looked at birds at the feeders, including pygmy nuthatch, mountain chickadee, dark-eyed Junco, white-breasted nuthatch, brown-headed cowbird and purple finch.

We talked about Merriam’s chipmunk and California ground squirrels. I talked about my background and work with Corps kids. We saw giant sequoia.

We drove to the end of Highway 2, where it is closed. We looked at carpenter bees and discussed other solitary bees such as yellow-faced and black-faced bumbebees.

We stopped just before the green shist slope. Along a water seep we found coffeeberry, Fremont cottonwood, incense cedar, rabbit’s foot grass, sugar pine, sweet clover, a sedge and a gray-green plant that was about to bloom with a very large yellow flower.

We stopped along Highway 2 to look at actinolite and green shist.

We discussed the minerals that form granite (mica, feldspar, and quartz) and the three basic kinds of rocks (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary). I did my rock rap.

Jane Ann found a very nice quartz/granite specimen with garnets in it.

We stopped at Mountain High east ski area and looked at willows. Vic talked about willow galls and gall flies. We saw sandbar willow and red willow, and also California wild rose and big-cone Douglas fir.

We drove down Lone Pine Canyon while Vic talked about the San Andreas Fault. I noted that Sumner and Kate Wright, pioneers from the early 1900s who founded Wrightwood, built their house over the San Andreas fault because it had a fresh water spring that they used to keep their milk, butter, and eggs cold.

On the final leg of the drive back we saw yucca; Eastwood manzanita with berries that Indians used for food; short-joint beavertail cactus, chia and mountain mahogany. Our field trip ended back at fire station. Mileage: 76,979.