By Emma Grace Howlett ‘25
The first thing I noticed as I stepped onto Pomona’s campus as an enrolled student were the many lizards darting away from my falling footsteps, their scaly hides dappled green and brown. They scuttled away, but not fast enough! Excited and curious to meet such a small new friend, I scooped one up from the pavement to say hello. In frozen apprehension the lizard rested on my palm, so light I could barely feel the scales of its spiny feet. I gently released the lizard, and watched as it joined the many more skittering across the pavement. While the lizards largely disappeared during the colder months of December and January, they have finally returned to bathe in May’s soft sunlight.
As a first-year during Orientation Week, I was desperately trying to acclimate to my new environment and make friends at the same time. During such an overwhelming experience, I found comfort in becoming acquainted with my new environment by observing the alien wildlife. While the lizards were my first friends, they were by no means my last! It is in gratitude for the wild creatures of Pomona that I offer these anecdotes about the abundant and diverse wildlife I have befriended on campus.
During my early weeks at Pomona, I established a routine of going for early morning runs, which allowed me to explore the campus before it came to (human) life during the afternoon. My favorite place to run is by The Farm, a student-run organic farm on campus, where a network of trails winds through towering, twisting oak trees. Also home to a compost center, chicken coop, and native plant garden, The Farm is a tranquil oasis. The undeveloped land also allows room for coyotes to roam! On more than one morning I have run into a coyote – or two! While they quickly scamper away from my view, their elusiveness and self-assured presence add a feeling of wildness to campus.
Even more elusive is the great horned owl. Though they can be regularly heard hooting from the sycamores on Marston Quad, they are rarely seen. Last fall, the Pomona College Choir held a handful of rehearsals outdoors (due to Covid), and, in the midst of a rousing chorus of Margaret Bonds’ “The Ballad of the Brown King,” an owl swooped over our heads into a Marston Quad sycamore. Its ethereal silhouette observed us for the rest of rehearsal, its eyes momentarily reflecting back the warm glow of the street lamps.
Yet owls are not the only great, noble birds found on campus. While sitting in the courtyard by my dorm, I watched, stunned, as a wild hawk soared through the sky, wings outstretched in a magnificent 4-foot wingspan. Coming to roost in a tree nearby, its fierce amber eyes appraised me, aglow with an aura of dignity as I sat frozen in a state of wonder.
Though a fraction of a hawk’s size, hummingbirds leave me with the same feeling of awe. Fairly numerous on campus, hummingbirds, with their iridescent, shimmering backs, can often be seen flashing green and blue in the sunlight. Its wings humming faster than the eye can see, it darts from flower to flower, pausing, hovering, then dashing to the next bush.
More ubiquitous are the shenanigans of squirrels, the frantic thumpering of a white-tailed bunny, and the fluttering wings of a yellow swallowtail butterfly as he meanders through the sky. Robins, mourning doves, and sparrows create such a loud, flute-like chorus of chirps that my parents can hear the symphony over the phone!
Although not technically wildlife, the many dogs on campus also bring me joy when they greet me. A few times throughout the semester, the Dogs on the Quad event brings some of the most adorable, fluffy dogs to campus for “de-stressing,” alleviating the pressures of exams, papers, and finals with the promise of petting an eagerly affectionate dog or two.
With the end of my time at Pomona approaching, I now have a group of incredibly caring, intelligent, creative, inspiring human friends, but that has not stopped me from continuing to make friends with the birds and the bees of Pomona. Observing the wildlife on campus brings short yet meaningful moments of joy and wonder into my days, and makes me appreciate Pomona’s campus as part of a larger, living and breathing ecosystem.