The BEST Biology class I took in the summer of 1980

In the summer of 1980 I took a Biology class at Mira Costa Community College about the Natural History of Plants and Animals in Southern California. It was a wonderful experience.

The Professor was Dr. Benjamin (Ben) Banta. When he entered the classroom with his dog, a mix of German shepherd and Coyote, we knew this wouldn’t be a dull class. Another day he came to class with a Tarantula sitting on his shoulder. He was a genuine naturalist, and we loved his teaching style.

This was largely an experiential class. There were two overnight field trips on the syllabus––one to the Santa Rosa Mountains, and the other to the desert east of San Diego.

In addition we participated in a special project east of Del Mar on Saturday mornings, called the Arroyo Sorrento Project. Dr. Banta had started the project in 1977 when the area was still relatively untouched, with the original vegetation––the chaparral––still intact. The purpose of the project was to study the animals in this area before man’s advancement would destroy their habitat.

Extra credit could be earned by bringing in road kills. Dr. Banta had once been a curator at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. That’s where the road kills were taken for preservation.

But the really big extra credit––1,000 points––was for finding a Magic Gecko. And that became a big topic on the field trips. Magic Geckos are extremely rare, according to Dr. Banta, and we were going to places where there had been sightings. He had a picture of a Magic Gecko on his jeep, so we knew what to look for––a very special kind of lizard!

Well, we never found a Magic Gecko. But Dr. Banta did succeed in igniting in us a passion for the native plants and animals, and we did find a number of special lizards and many interesting and beautiful things.

The colors of the photos I took have faded into pastel tones during the past 43 years, but they still have a magic glow to them.

Music by John Clarke
Video by Gisela Sommer