Ecological Musings: Foothill College Campus, Los Altos, CA -- April 11th, 2025

Background:

I’m currently taking a California Ecology class. One of the class assignments is to keep a field journal of each of our weekly trips. Today’s journal is about exploring on-campus flora and fauna at Foothill College.

Baseline Data
Name: Foothill College Campus
Address: 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Coordinates: 37° 21′ 40.68″ N, 122° 07′ 44.04″ W

Date: April 11, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

🌤️ Weather Overview (Palo Alto / Los Altos Hills area)
Temperature:
• High: ~70 °F (21 °C)
• Low: ~50 °F (10 °C)

Cloud Cover: Partly cloudy with occasional breaks – moderate cloudiness typical for mid-April

Wind:
• Direction: Light winds, generally from the west–northwest
• Speed: ~5–10 mph (8–16 km/h) – mild breezes

Humidity: Around 60% relative humidity

Precipitation: None — dry conditions, no recorded rainfall

Foothill College, surprisingly, has an abundance of flora and fauna across its campus. This is likely because the campus is nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains. I got my bachelors and SCU, my masters at NYU, and I’m currently taking my pre-med post-bacc classes at Foothill. Despite having gone to so many different campuses, I’ve never seen quite as much vibrant nature as I’ve seen at Foothill. We have so many different species of birds such as the American Cliff Swallows (that make cute little burrow homes up in the roofs), Red Tailed Hawks, and Dark Eyed Juncos. The grounds of campus are also peppered with a variety of little critters, as well, such as millipedes, slender salamanders, and frogs. We came across some interesting fauna as well. I didn’t realize we had loquat trees on campus. We also have an abundance of sticky monkey flower and yarrow. Our little on-campus adventure introduced me to a whole host of new organisms on campus that I had never noticed before.