Western Sojourns: Travels with Camissonia

Sunday, April 11, 2021

ANSTINE-AUDUBON NATURE PRESERVE: 4/3/21 (Vista, San Diego County, CA)

I was checking out San Diego Audubon's website when I found an update that their Anstine preserve in Vista was reopening for visitors on a reservation-only basis on Saturdays from 9am to 12pm. After so many open spaces had been closed last year during the height of the COVID pandemic, I wanted to get out to explore once again. I made the reservation online for Saturday April 3rd and we spend a pleasant hour walking the easy trails of the 11-acre property. The preserve is in a quiet residential neighborhood, except for the sounds of someone amped up on his electric guitar trying (and not succeeding very well) to play something that emoted "heavy metal." Fortunately, the cacophony faded away as we ventured further along the trails.

We arrived around 10am - weather was great with sunny skies, a light breeze, and pleasant temperatures (around 65F). No lifers for me in terms of birds, but did observe a small but fun assortment:

Western Scrub Jay

Bushtit

Wrentit

Oak Titmouse

Mountain Chickadee

Red-Tailed Hawk

American Crow

California Towhee

Spotted Towhee

Here's a blurb on their website about the preserve:

https://www.sandiegoaudubon.org/what-we-do/anstine.html/title/more-about-anstine

The Anstine-Audubon Nature Preserve is an eleven-acre site located within the County of San Diego adjacent to the cities of Vista and Oceanside. It is managed as an open space area by San Diego Audubon.

The property was previously owned and occupied by John and Lois Anstine (pronounced 'an-steen') from the late 1940's to the late 1990's. During this time they added to the house and built other structures, manipulated the creek and created a pond, and planted and maintained flower beds and a small fruit orchard. In the mid-1990's, Mr. Anstine asked San Diego Audubon to manage and maintain the property as open space. Mrs. Anstine passed away in 1988 and Mr. Anstine passed in 1999.

Three native plant communities occur within the boundaries of the Anstine Preserve - Coastal Sage Scrub, Southern Willow Riparian Forest, and Coast Live Oak Woodland. Non-native and disturbed conditions are also present as a result of habitat removal, construction, and other human activities on and off site. Since 1999, nearly one-hundred species of plants, eight species mammals and six reptiles, and more than one-hundred species of birds, have been recorded on the site.