A Front Row for Spring Overture : At Caspers Park, Rain Has Incited a Riot of Colorful Wildflowers and New Life

April is alive with the stirring of spring in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park.

You can see it in painted lady butterflies dancing among the sweet peas, taste it in the lemonade berries in bushes along the trail and hear it in the beehives among the sycamores and oaks.

“Listen,” said park ranger Stan Bengtson, pausing Thursday under a canopy of California live oak. “Hear that hum? That’s the sound of thousands of bees.”

But this April carries promises like few in recent memory, Bengtson said. Already this year, 18 inches of rainfall have bathed Orange County, turning its canyons, mountains and parks a lush green.

But only at Caspers does wilderness remain untouched. The coming bloom of wildflowers will lure an equally radiant crop of nature’s creatures to the canyons and mesas here.

Paul Polinski of Dana Point, president of Caspers Volunteer Naturalists, called this spring “the most beautiful time in the five years I have been going to the park. You can actually hear the water flowing, which is very rare in this area.

“Caspers is a wilderness park, which to me means it offers us a glimpse of what this area used to be like before it was influenced by man,” Polinski said. “This year, because of the rainfall, we get to see the park at its best.”

On a warm April day, when the sun in a cloudless sky heated the park’s 7,600 acres to the high 70s, even the most coldblooded rattlesnakes and lizards will be roused into activity, said Donna Krucki, a Caspers groundskeeper.

“We don’t have any creatures that actually hibernate in the winter, but they do slow way down,” she said. “But all it takes is a little sunshine and they all respond. We like to use the word ectothermic, rather than coldblooded for our snakes. They have a bad enough reputation already.”

In Bell Canyon, one of the deepest and longest of the park’s many ravines and canyons, the dotted colors of the beginning of the wildflower blossoms decorate the view.

“Look at these California poppies. We already have lots of them this year,” Krucki said. “Flowers tend to come in cycles. Right now, we have the things like the (padres’) shooting stars. In late spring comes things like the fried-egg poppies.”

The park is probably two weeks away from its wildflower peak, said Bengtson, a six-year Caspers veteran.

“By mid-April you’ll see large clusters of flowers,” he said. “This should be a splendid year.”

Among those basking in the lushness of this April, Krucki said, are the park’s most venerable species: the California live oak. She pointed out the young, light-green growth and flowering parts, called catkins, dangling about the outer branches of the oaks.

“The oaks are really enjoying all the rainfall,” Krucki said. “They’ve been real stressed for so long by the drought that they are just sprouting everywhere.”

The California oaks are an ancient tree, one that predates insects, which most plants rely on for pollination, Bengtson said.

“Oaks are wind pollinated,” he said. “They had to learn how to survive before there were insects around to help.”

Where there are flowers and grasses and young growth in abundance, there are butterflies. Caspers is already blanketed with them. County entomologist Nick Nisson said this April marks the start of a landmark butterfly season.

“The more food you have, you’ll see more of these insects,” Nisson said. “The lush leaves are an attraction for them. As the days get longer, we’ll see more and more butterflies.”

As the days get longer and warmer, all of the park’s creatures--including bobcats, gray foxes and spotted skunks, as well as reptiles--will be lured into the open, Bengtson said.

One of the most notorious creatures frequenting the park is the mountain lion. While cougar sightings are rare, most of the park has been closed to minors since 1986, when an El Toro girl was the victim of an attack, which became a highly publicized incident. In February, fearful of the attack risk and liability, county officials closed the entire park to children.

Krucki, who also works part time tracking mountain lions for the state Department of Fish and Game, said she has not seen a cougar in the park for a long time, although she has seen tracks.

However, sightings of much less fearsome and abundant varieties of wildlife are an everyday occurrence at the park. Those who want to see the wildlife can--if they take some advice.

“Come dressed in earth tones, something that will blend in,” Bengtson said. “Then find a good viewing place, on a knoll somewhere where you can see a meadow. And then just be quiet and wait.

“In about 15 minutes, the animals will forget about you as a threat, and they’ll come out and go about their business.”

Times staff writer Donnette Dunbar contributed to this story.

Blooms Booming

Here are the best locations in the county to see spring wildflowers and what is blooming or expected to bloom in the coming weeks.

Environmental Nature Center

1601 16th St., Newport Beach

(714) 645-8489

Flowers: California poppy, blue-eyed grass, California lilac, lemonade berry and various penstemons and snapdragons.

Crystal Cove State Park

8471 Coast Highway

Laguna Beach

(714) 494-3539

Flowers: Prickly pear, sea dahlia and various mustards.

Carbon Canyon Regional Park

4422 Carbon Canyon Road, Brea

(714) 996-5252

Flowers: Mustards and lupines.

Santiago Oaks Regional Park

2145 N. Windes Drive, Orange

(714) 538-4400

Flowers: California poppy, elderberry, California buckwheat, Indian paintbrush, Johnny-jump-up, owl’s clover, gooseberries and lupines.

Oak Canyon Nature Center

6700 E. Walnut Canyon Road

Anaheim

(714) 998-8380

Flowers: California lilac, bush monkey flower, miner’s lettuce, wishbone bush, fuchsia-flowered gooseberry, California peony, harvest brodiaea and various currants.

Irvine Regional Park

21501 Chapman Ave., Orange

(714) 633-8074

Flowers: Matilija poppy, California poppy, fiddle-neck, wild cucumber, California everlasting, wild rose, lupines, nightshades, sunflowers, currants and gooseberries.

Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary

29322 Modjeska Canyon Road

Modjeska Canyon

(714) 649-2760

Flowers: Lemonade berry, sugar bush, wild cucumber, California lilac, gooseberries, currants and sages.

O’Neill Regional Park

30892 Trabuco Canyon Road

Trabuco Canyon

(714) 858-9365

Flowers: Prickly phlox, wild hyacinth, popcorn flower, Indian paintbrush, bush monkey flower, California poppy, Padres’ shooting star and California bell

Ronald W. Caspers

Wilderness Park

33401 Ortega Highway

San Juan Capistrano

(714) 831-2175

Flowers: Blue-eyed grass, popcorn flower, fiddle-neck, miner’s lettuce, California poppy and Indian paintbrush

Source: Individual parks

COLOR, Flowering Favorites Naturalists say lupine, California poppy and baby blue-eyes are typical of the wildflowers that can still be found in abundance in wilderness parks and in some undeveloped areas of the county. Lupine Tall shrub with pea-shaped flowers; grows up to five feet. California Poppy An herb with four satiny petals up to 2 1/2 inches long Baby Blue-Eyes Wheel-shaped flowers are low and have stems up to 12 inches long Source: “Flowering Plants,” Borgo Press