I had a super fun time today doing something old, and something new! For the first time, I took some of my College of Marin students on an actual off-campus field trip, and we went to a place I have visited countless times before: Sonoma State’s Fairfield Osborn Preserve. I offered this optional weekend trip to my Introduction to Biology students for extra credit, and it was a fantastic day!
I was surprised to encounter some fairly thick fog while driving up Sonoma Mountain, but as I neared the preserve (near the lower parking lot), the fog cleared and it was gorgeous and sunny. Once everyone had arrived, we started out at the nature center, and then headed down the Marsh Trail towards Copeland Creek. We weren’t far along the trail when we descended back into the fog. I will admit that I love fog (and don’t see it nearly often enough for my liking), and I enjoyed watching the mist float slowly past. One of my students called it mystical, and I wholeheartedly agreed.
Along the way to the creek, we checked under several coverboards near the marsh, where we found two adorable little California Slender Salamanders (Batrachoseps attenuatus), several spiders and beetles, and evidence of some small rodent (probably a vole or deer mouse). After the recent rains, I was also expecting to see a lot of mushrooms, and I wasn’t disappointed.
We made our way down to the creek, where we spent most of our time. After asking everyone to take 5 minutes to just sit quietly and make some observations and sketch any organism they found interesting, I encouraged them to wander and explore. We turned over rocks and fallen branches, looked at the sori underneath fern leaves, found some interesting fungi, and peered into the water that trickled softly over the rocks. Here are some of their sketches, and some of the interesting organisms we found:
The fog continued to come in while we were at the creek, and the air was pretty chilly, so we started heading back up the trail a few minutes ahead of schedule. There was one more exciting find – a gorgeous, huge Western Jack-o-Lantern fungus under one of the white oak trees right next to the nature center.
I very much appreciated my students making the effort to drive up from Marin County, and I think everyone had a great time. I know I did, and being back up at Osborn felt really, really good.
On the way back down the mountain, I had a few cool sightings: an American Kestrel, a Northern Raven, and at least six deer, including a gorgeous buck. All in all, it was a pretty magical day for me.
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