March 10, 2021 Briar Summit Open Space
On a cool, intermittently rainy day (at last!) I took a short trip to the Briar Summit Open Space Preserve. I found this on a map, read a couple reviews and thought it would be worth checking out on a day when I didn't want to travel too far due to the weather.
I find these "open space preserves" in the Los Angeles area somewhat interesting. At times, they are large and have miles of hiking trails. At others, they're like this--a paved road at the end of a residential area. The road leads up to a DWP site (locked gate near the top). Evidently Jeopardy host Alex Trebek donated this land. Parcels such as this end up as open space only because they are unsuitable for development. Needless to say, my expectations were quite low.
And, yes, not really a "get out in nature" experience. That being said, though, the habitat was in remarkably good shape with several ceanothus plants in full bloom with many more flowers than any others I've seen this year in the local mountains. The roadside (not really a trail per se) was dotted with many California brittle bush plants--some already blooming but many still to bloom. Overall, the soil seemed moist and there were a fair amount of birds flitting around.
Considering the weather, I found a surprising number of insects including one of those super tiny mites (poor photo due to size and it running around and me contending with a wind), a very pretty leafhopper and a couple of trupanea flies. And I also found several healthy looking whitemargin sandmat plants which I don't see too often. While I don't think I'll be spending a lot of time here, I certainly will visit again once more flowers are in bloom as I'm sure they will be attracting many more insects than I saw on this cool day.
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