Bernal Hill wildflower interlude

My neighborhood's hilltop has appeared on the blog numerous times. I think this year's spring wildflower show is the most extensive that I have ever documented. For 40-ish very urban acres of San Francisco dogpark, I think you have to agree. Not bad!

I dedicate this blog post to the memory of Barbara Pitschel, former Head Librarian of San Francisco Botanical Garden's Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture (which is where I knew her from), and a long-time member and newsletter editor of the local California Native Plant Society. Barbara and her husband Roland lived in Bernal Heights. She died last August.

Barbara and Roland's long history in the field of ecological restoration in San Francisco began in 1972 when they became involved in Bernal Heights Park, which is now recognized as one of the city's significant natural areas. They helped in the successful effort to transfer this property, a remnant of the original landscape, from the Department of Public Works, where it was a candidate for development, to the Recreation and Park Department (RPD), where it will be preserved in perpetuity in a natural state. The transfer agreement stipulated that any maintenance work undertaken at this park would be only to restore it to a "pre-1825" condition. The Bernal Hilltop Project was the first ecological restoration project attempted in San Francisco and one of the earliest such efforts in California. She and Roland received the Trust for Public Land Award for 30 years of volunteer park stewardship. Barbara was also a member of the Special Libraries Association and was a charter member of the Society for Ecological Restoration.

Barbara would be happy to know that populations of goldfields (Lasthenia californica) and buttercup (Ranunculus californica) vastly outnumbered weedy invasive Oxalis pes-caprae this year.





Goldfields especially, just totally off the hook.







Alas, I'm not hardcore enough to identify species of Lupinus in the field... At the very least Bernal Hill has a few different forms of this very variable pea-family plant making an appearance this year.









The palmately compound lupine foliage is pretty too.



The tomcat clover population seems to grow every year. Trifolium willdenovii?





I think there's more Viola pedunculata too:



Checkerbloom (Sidalcea sp.):



Sidalcea in the grass



Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum):



California poppy, coastal form (Eschscholzia californica v. maritima)



There seems to be a bit more of the pure-orange form this year.





We have the very last of the shooting stars now. (Dodecatheon sp.)



Some lightly tended patches of Salvia spathacea and Iris douglasiana in the southeast corner are going strong.



It's clear that someone maintains them with a bit of weeding now and then. Thank you, whoever you are. There's a bit of something else coming up in here now. I'm not sure what it is, so I left it.



I guess I can't ignore the non-natives too... Chasmanthe and crocosmia grow all over San Francisco and we have them on Bernal Hill too.



You may recall California is a biodiversity hotspot for wild radish. Besides some of the grasses (about which I know nearly nothing), this is Bernal's most prodigious weed, if you don't mind calling it a weed.



Plantago lanceolata comes to us from England, according to the Google. I don't hate it.

Heron's Head Park

I first learned about Heron's Head Park in March 2008 when I took that Ecology of the Bay class at City College. I didn't have my camera with me the day we came here so I didn't blog about it then.

"Before the Gold Rush in 1850 changed California forever, San Francisco Bay was ringed by wetlands. In the 150 years since, over 90% of these wetlands have been lost to development...

Today Heron's Head Park is one of the few wetland areas protected on the City of San Francisco's bay coastline. It was born in the early 1970s, when the Port brought landfill to India Basin to create what was to be Pier 98, a shipping terminal. But the project never materialized and the newly created peninsula went untouched. Over time, the fill settled and eroded into the bay, leaving portions of the intended pier slightly below sea level. Aquatic plants began to take root, trapping silt nutrients from the bay's tidal flows. Eventually a salt marsh emerged on the site. Soon shorebirds and aquatic wildlife were attracted to the area, transforming the accidental marsh into a valuable natural habitat. Today Heron's Head Park serves as an important rest stop for migratory birds along the Pacific flyway, supporting eighty or more species of birds annually."

I'm quoting from "A Field Guide to Heron's Head Park" edited by Mark Chambers and published by City College of San Francisco in 2004. Heron's Head Park is so named for the shape of the peninsula, which looks like a heron's head when viewed from the sky, as shown below (north is at the bottom of the picture).



Heron's Head has a new visitor center, paid for with federal stimulus money. Um, thanks? It seems like San Francisco pays for a lot of its virtue with federal money. The City, like the state, is so financially over-extended and mismanaged, it would be a very different place indeed if all the federal money coming in suddenly dried up. On the other hand, California sends a lot more money to the federal government than many other states, so I guess we've got it coming.

Anyway whatever.



The building is still under construction, but I see solar panels and a green roof.



The tidal marsh runs along the peninsula's south side. It has the look of tidal marshes everywhere, but with an urban-industrial backdrop.



San Francisco had a busy port once, but that all goes to Oakland now. You'll have to find some other blog to tell you what's going on. We're just here to look around.



I don't know much about birds, but I believe that's an American avocet (Recurvirostra americana). Other long-billed birds you may see at Heron's Head include curlews, whimbrels, and godwits--all of them in decline or imperiled.



Is that a snowy egret (Egretta thula)?



Western gulls (Larus occidentalis, below) are distinguished from California gulls (L. californicus) by the bright red spot on the bill (Californians have a black spot)







You can watch the birds from a number of observation stations adjacent to the marsh.



Marshland has a special beauty, doesn't it?











In addition to being a haven for wildlife, Heron's Head also serves the community as an accessible natural space. Life in the surrounding community is grim for many; it is among the region's poorest.





I'm better acquainted with the plants than the birds, of course. Last year's buckwheat inflorescences (Eriogonum latifolium):



California sagebrush (Artemisia californica):



Ah, I found some bees behind the coyotebush (Baccharis pilularis)



You find all the usual California-native plant suspects at Heron's Head, none of them looking especially fabulous in January. I noticed that a lot of the weedy fennel had been flamed recently to manage its spread. There were burned-out crowns everywhere.

At the Heron's Head peninsula tip:





Looking west from there,





Zooming in for a view of my beloved Bernal Hill, through the January mist.