March at Bouverie Preserve
A nesting bird couple and early season wildflowers are capturing the attention this week at Bouverie Preserve, a private 535-acre nature sanctuary near Glen Ellen.
For the past three years a pair of Peregrine falcons has nested on the northern edge of the property, said Jeanne Wirka, resident biologist. Their chicks are expected to hatch in April, but the pair often can be seen from the waterfall at the end of Bouverie’s Canyon Trail.
“There’s a cliff with a little cave up high, and a pair of falcons have nested in that cave,” she said. “Falcons mate for life, and we believe the same pair has returned each year.”
Bouverie’s mission is teaching school children to appreciate their natural surroundings. It is closed to the public except for Monday workdays, the next of which is Monday at 8:30 a.m., and Saturday nature hikes and seminars.
The next in the Backyard Naturalist Series is an April 2 seminar on wildflowers, with early-season flowers at their peak now. Wirka picks the Mission Bell as her favorite now in bloom.
“For about three years it doesn’t bloom at all, just sends out a leaf that is busy storing up food,” she said.“On average it takes about three years to bloom, a gorgeous lily stalk with beautiful checkered brown-and-yellow, bell-shaped flowers. Then it dies back and the whole process starts all over again.”
David Bouverie’s ranch was donated to Audubon Canyon Ranch in 1979. Every year about three thousand Sonoma County third and fourth graders visit to explore the land with docents.
More information about the preserve, public days and the docent program is available at 938-4554 or egret.org/visit_bouverie.
Photos: Gwen Heistand (Mission Bells) and Len Blumin (Peregrines)
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