Sedgwick Field NotesOccasional Ramblings for Volunteers and Friends of the Sedgwick Reserve

June 2006

Happenings at the Reserveby Barbara Huebel

Tom Shepherd.

Shepherd Farms at the Sedgwick

The long-awaited re-introduction of farming to the Sedgwick Reserve is now readily apparent as one enters the Reserve. Tom Shepherd, a 30 year veteran of organic farm-ing and a member of the Farmer’s Market for the last 22 years, was awarded the lease to farm 100 acres of land, located to the north and east of the entrance road. At this time, he has planted over 30 acres includ-ing over 850 fruit trees (peaches, plums, nectarines, apples, cher-ries, and apricots) and eight vari-eties of table grapes. In addition, you’ll find 25 varieties of currents, gooseberries, watermelon, can-taloupe, Persian cucumbers, and tomatoes. The latest crop added to the list is 15 acres of dry beans (lima, black and turtle beans).

Photovoltaic Arrays Installed at Sedgwick

If you take a drive up Lisque Canyon and glance north towards the Air-port Mesa, you’ll notice some new structures peeking out on the hill. Thanks to the generosity of the J.E. and Lillian Tipton Foundation, the Reserve is

the recipient of four new photovoltaic arrays. The combined 20 kw array will generate enough power to meet the Re-serve’s needs with power to spare. Any surplus power will be fed back into the grid. The four arrays are situated direct-ly above the amphitheater and will rotate as appropriate to maximize exposure to the sun. At the bottom of the hill in the field behind the trailer, you will also notice a pole which will support a tracking device used to track the sun’s movement. Information from the tracking device will be transmitted to the panels which will rotate accordingly. REC Solar is responsible for the installation which has taken only two weeks.

Bird Walksby Fred Machetanz

Since mid-June I’ve heard reports of a small, blue, sparrow-like bird at Sedgwick, singing of summer from wires and bushes near the mustard-laden fields in the Figueroa drainage and near the Coyote Bush patch at the start of Lisque Canyon. A more complete descrip-tion indicates the singer is spectacularly sky blue on head, back and rump, has a rusty band across the upper breast, white under-

parts and two distinct white or buff wing bars. This is

the male Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena, named after the gemstone, lapis lazuli. The seldom seen female bun-ting, with the important duties of nest-building and incuba-tion, has a gray-brown head, neck and back, and faint wing bars, the conical bill of a sparrow. She occasionally may be glimpsed low in the bushes.

The Lazuli Bunting is a summer resident and sometime transient in coastal valleys of Santa Barbara County. It is found in summer throughout the Western States from sea level to nine thousand feet. Although these buntings return to winter in Western Mexico, remarkably they stop off in Arizona, New Mexico and Baja where they complete a molt started on their breeding grounds.

The female bunting constructs a cup-shaped nest and lines it with fine rootlets and animal hair. Audubon early de-scribed a nest lined entirely with bison hair (Bent). Females also incubate the 3-4 eggs for about twelve days. Both sexes feed the young which fledge in ten to twelve more days. The male’s feeding duties start in earnest with the feeding of the newly fledged young while the female is making preparations for a second brood. According to Daw-son, the secret to Lazuli Bunting nesting, at least in the Santa Barbara area, is Arteme-sia heterophylla —Mugwort. He describes twenty nests that he found in one year in the 1920s and fourteen were in pure stands of Mugwort.

During winter months Lazuli Buntings eat mostly seeds but in breeding season over half the diet consists of arthropods

including spiders, caterpillars, butter-flies, grasshoppers, beetles, ants and bugs. The seeds of wild oats, Miner’s Lettuce, various grasses (includ-ing needlegrass), and Chickweed are noted as part of the bunting’s diet. In feeding on grass, the bunting sometimes rides the grass stems down to the ground and then strips the seeds from them.

In Birds of North America, it is noted that Lazuli Bun-tings migrate at night, and, though no studies have been done on their cues for orientation for migration, it is assumed that they are similar to those of the Indigo Bunting, a close rela-tive, on which extensive migration orientation research has been done. The Indigo Bunting uses spatial patterns of stars for orienting at night, especially those within 35 degrees of the North Star.

During the summer there are three small blue birds which may be mistakenly identified at Sedgwick—the West-ern Bluebird, the Blue Grosbeak and the Lazuli Bunting. The largest, the male bluebird, has a blue head, back, wings and tail, a completely red breast and a small pointed bill. The male grosbeak is deep blue, with chestnut wing bars and a heavy beak. The small male Lazuli Bunting is turquoise blue with a rusty band on its upper chest, a white belly and two white wing bars. The female bluebird is much duller and grayer that the male and has a solid gray throat with no wing bars. Hoffman remarks that the female Blue Grosbeak and Lazuli Bunting are quite similar but that the smaller bill of the bunting and her characteristic tail flip are helpful diag-

nostic marks. Today is June 16, 2006, and I made a spe-

cial trip to Sedgwick just to see this bunting. I was rewarded by finding one on Lisque Canyon in a Coast Live Oak just beyond the Coyote Bush. Its cerulean blue jumped out at me from the oak’s dark foliage —giving me unexpected pleasure. I hope that you, too, may see this delightful bird—and share my pleasure.

The Lazuli Bunting—A Delightful Bird

Lazuli Bunting, adult male;Kern Co., CA; June

Lazuli Bunting, adult female; Kern Co., CA; June

Images are from the Birds of North America Cornell University

Cuttings from the NurseryBy Steve Schulz

Botanic Name: Caulanthus amplexicaulis var. barbaraeCommon Name: Santa Barbara Jewel Flower

Family: Brassicaceae. Mustard

The Mustard Family consists of over 300 genera and well over 3000 species worldwide. A majority of the species are erect annuals and short-lived perennials growing in temperate climates. Only 12 species are native to North America.

The Santa Barbara Jewel Flower is endemic to Santa Barbara County and found only on Figueroa Mountain in ser-pentine debris. It is an erect spring annual with a single main stem, growing to 4 feet in height. The leaves are obovate to oblanceolate, 4 to 6 inches in length, and form a basal whorl and are alternates along the stem. The leaves and lower stem are sparsely hispid (short stiff hairs), entire to deeply lobed with a distinct midrib. The flowers are simple, a half inch in diameter alternate along the upper stem on short petioles and purple in color. There are 4 petals, arising from an urn shaped calyx enclosing a superior ovary, a generally 2 lobed pistil and 4 pair of stamens fused at the base. The fruit is ascending, cylindrical to an inch in length

Because of its rarity and limited habitat range there is not an overabundance of information available at the present time.

K.I.N.by Susan Brooks

100 KIN students, their teachers and parents came to-gether for the May 23rd Celebration Day at the Sedgwick Reserve. The Native Plant Nursery once again provided the ideal setting for displaying the students’ work. As the class-rooms rotated through, each KIN student group presented and discussed their work to classmates, accompanying do-cents, and guests. Five laptop computers displayed Power-Point presentations created by student groups from Ontive-ros School.

Students were treated to up-close demonstrations of live birds and herps native to the reserve. The excellent teaching of these animals’ biology and natural history was provided by SRS Technologies’ Wildlife Biologists: Alice Abela, John LeBonte, and Morgan Ball. The studio was the location for Karen Osland’s displays and presentation on Chumash use of natural materials. CCBER staff designed and led this year’s art activity. Each student nature printed their own garden pot to take home.

KIN teachers and students were recognized with in-dividual certificates for each participant. The Celebration

Day luncheon was generously provided by local community suppliers: Santa Ynez Pizza Shack, Tom Shepard, Olsen’s Bakery, and Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. The lun-cheon and service was seamlessly executed by volunteers and staff under the direction of Mary Jane Delgado.

Celebration Day brought KIN’s fifth year to a close. We are planning for next year. Since the last Field Notes, we have learned that the Hutton Foundation and Mid-State Bank have awarded funding for Los Alamos’s Olga Reed El-ementary School and Santa Ynez School, respectively. Gen-erous funding has again been received from the UCSB Of-fice of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity. Over the summer, Jane Murray will be working on integrating the Arroyo Hondo Preserve’s coastal watershed, riparian areas, and steelhead habitat into the KIN curriculum. Keep your calendars open in the fall for continuing education work-shops on these topics.

Thank you to all who have made the KIN program a suc-cess for the kids and their communities.

UCSB ReceptionA number of people asked me to include a copy of my speech in the newsletter; well, as requested, here it is:

Good afternoon.It seems to me that change often gives us an opportunity

to reflect on the past.When Barbara asked me if I would say something today

on behalf of the volunteers, I began remembering my first days of training here at the Reserve.

In late September 2000 we met in Duke’s old studio. We were each handed a form asking what we wanted to do at the Reserve. After spending some time talking with my fellow students I wrote down “Does not play well with children!” Training began, and each week we had a talk by someone representing a different field of study relevant to the Re-serve.

Well, my plans of not working with children were shot down with the first bus load of students and the docent co-ordinator saying “there are 60 kids on this bus and you will all be involved taking groups out today.” I am not sure if you can imagine my apprehension that day. What made the difference was seeing Mike’s enthusiasm as we met the bus and his excitement in sharing the Reserve with those inquir-ing young people. This excitement must have rubbed off, because since that day my fellow docents and I have intro-duced over 10,000 visitors to the Reserve.

Richard Louv in his book Last Child In The Woods quotes a fourth grader from San Diego: “I like to play indoors better ‘cause that’s where the electrical outlets are.”

Mike and the people who work with him along with the docents have established a program that introduces kids to a world without Play Stations or MP3 players. It gives them a chance to look for insects and animals, to listen to the wind in the trees; to even get their hands dirty planting for the future.

Thomas Berry wrote: “Teaching children about the nat-ural world should be treated as one of the most important events in their lives.”

Working with the Docents Mike has set a foundation for nature education that continues to expand with each new year. First the K-12 visits, then the KIN program, public hikes, Chumash summer classes, LA Conservation Corp—the list goes on. Those who have been with him know that hiking with Mike is always an education in plant ecology. For the docents he has opened a door to continuing education and service that I am sure will continue on into the future.

How does one say farewell to an educator, mentor and friend? I like the word “Aloha” because it combines both goodbye and hello. Goodbye for now and the potential of a future meeting.

Aloha Mike, thanks for all the laughs and adventures you have given us. We wish you and your family the best of luck.

Thank you Andy

The Hiking ProgramBy Nick Di Croce

With some cool mornings in May, we decided to stretch the Public Hikes Program into the month of June. But the warm weather that set in during the first week of June threw us for a loop and the group was small – but hardy. Susan Brooks, Carolyn Rathbun and Mike Williams took a group around the Blue Schist Trail, and Steve Schulz and Elizabeth Quick took the “wheelies” on a nice stroll through the Bone Canyon area. A good day for all.

Docents can plan on hearing soon about the “Sum-mer Sizzles.” Those are the hikes we will run during the summer and into the fall for our docents – in the early morning – just to keep ourselves in trim and to rehearse all those interpretive points we have been learning. We will probably give the docent guides that Lucy Thomas coordinated a checkout on these hikes. We will also try out some of the lesser-used upper trails so that we can learn them and use more of them during the normal Public Hikes. For those who want to sizzle with us, be prepared.

Where on the Reserve???

Last issue’s Where on the Reserve?

This is the parking area below the dam and the trail head for the “Blue Schist Trail”

Many of you have been on this trail!