Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - December 31, 2024

Common Ground Dove | Sandhill Crane | Pacific Golden-Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Vega Gull | Least Bittern | Swainson’s Hawk | Zone-tailed Hawk | Short-eared Owl | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Hammond’s Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Western Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Bell’s Vireo | SIBERIAN PIPIT | Lapland Longspur | Thick-billed Longspur | Sagebrush Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Hooded Oriole | Virgina’s Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Pine Warbler | Painted Redstart | Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - December 19, 2024

Sandhill Crane | Pacific Golden-Plover | Mountain Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Vega Gull | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Pacific Loon | Flesh-footed Shearwater | Zone-tailed Hawk | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Hammond’s Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Western Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Bell’s Vireo | Verdin | Lapland Longspur | Chestnut-collared Longspur | Thick-billed Longspur | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Grasshopper Sparrow | Clay-colored Sparrow | Black-chinned Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Baltimore Oriole | Lucy’s Warbler | Palm Warbler | Pine Warbler | Painted Redstart | Hepatic Tanager | Indigo Bunting

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - December 6, 2024

Tundra Swan | Red-necked Grebe | Pacific Golden-Plover | Mountain Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Swainson’s Hawk | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Hammond’s Flycatcher | Western Flycatcher | Lapland Longspur | Chestnut-collared Longspur | Thick-billed Longspur | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Gray-headed” Junco | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Sagebrush Sparrow | Nelson’s Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Orchard Oriole | Black-and-white Warbler | Tennessee Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - November 29, 2024

Inca Dove | Common Ground Dove | Pacific Golden-Plover | Vega Gull | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Least Bittern | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Western Kingbird | Western Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Cassin’s Vireo | Clay-colored Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Hooded Oriole | Baltimore Oriole | Scott’s Oriole | Black-and-white Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager | Blue Grosbeak

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - November 22, 2024

Inca Dove | White-winged Dove | American Golden-Plover | Pacific Golden-Plover | Vega Gull | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Tricolored Heron | Western Cattle Egret | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Eastern Phoebe | Grasshopper Sparrow | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Sagebrush Sparrow | Black-and-white Warbler | Tennessee Warbler | Palm Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager | Blue Grosbeak | Indigo Bunting

Volume 87

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Ralph W. Schreiber 2021 Ornithology Research Awards

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Call for Applications

The Los Angeles Audubon Society presents an annual research grant, the Ralph W. Schreiber Ornithology Research Award, to support research relevant to the biology of birds.  Award recipients are limited to students and amateur ornithologists with limited or no access to major granting agencies and who reside in southern California (from San Luis Obispo, Kern and San Bernardino Counties south) or are currently enrolled in a southern California academic institution.  There is no geographical restriction on the research area.

One or more awards will be given out in 2021.  Between $1500 and $5000 are awarded each year. The application deadline for the 2021 Research Award is April 30, 2021; grants will be awarded in June, 2021.

Direct any questions to Ryan Harrigan, Grants Committee Chairman, @ Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, Box 951496, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496, By email: iluvsa@ucla.edu

Dr. Schreiber was curator of birds and mammals at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, known for his research on Pacific seabirds, including the impacts of the pesticide DDT on Brown Pelicans, who died in the prime of his career.

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Coronavirus Nature Opportunities

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Coronavirus Nature Opportunities

While the Coronavirus raises havoc, it has also created an unprecedented opportunity for everyone to truly note, appreciate, and enjoy our surroundings, and experience nature from our own homes, gardens, and environments.

I have my own little ecosystem on a 4’ x 10’ balcony just outside my city condo, where nature’s drama plays out every day. Most of my personal contact with the animal kingdom rests with dogs, cats, guppies, goldfish, and a mountain lion I met napping on the hood of my car! I have ridden hunter-jumper through Torrey Pines Park chasing ecstatic hounds posing as foxes. In grad school, there were red fox dens in our stone Civil War wall and a cardinal who made her nest against our dining room window. We left seeds for the birds and meat for the foxes in Winter.

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Western Tanager, Vol. 87 No. 2, November-December 2020

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The Daily Commute of the Low-Flying Geese of Westchester California

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The Daily Commute of the Low-Flying Geese of Westchester California

The world-famous geese residing in Westchester, California, as everyone knows, love to hang out in the sunny green fields next to LAX airport during the day and watch the airplanes take off and land. They sit in amazement and discuss the size of the planes and try to distinguish between a Pratt & Whitney, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, or Rolls Royce, etc. They spend hour upon hour pondering the cutting edge engineering and technology involved in running one of the busiest airports in the world.

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The Return of the White-crowned Sparrows

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The Return of the White-crowned Sparrows

This first day of October, I am addressing a small flock of White-crowned sparrows. They are feasting at the toyon bushes at the edge of the Japanese garden at Kenneth Hahn park. They have migrated here from as far away as Alaska. No wonder they are hungry!

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Wasp Puzzle

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As a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya a few (OK, “many”) years ago, I taught physics at a rural secondary school and maintained a rear, prep area stocked with cabinets and shelves of paraphernalia for classroom demonstrations and laboratory assignments. Since the school was only about 8 miles north of the Equator, classrooms usually were open-air for natural ventilation.

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OUTDOOR EDUCATION: Mentors

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OUTDOOR EDUCATION: Mentors

But there is one bird that has recently returned that always reminds me of a dear friend, and mentor, who literally changed the course of my life. Barbara Courtois was the coordinator of the Environmental Education Program at Ballona when I first became a volunteer at the wetlands, in 1999. She would proudly tell you that she was a “lifelong learner”.

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MESSAGE FROM MARGOT: Considering the State’s Plan for the Ballona Wetlands

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MESSAGE FROM MARGOT: Considering the State’s Plan for the Ballona Wetlands

The Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve (BWER) is the last coastal wetland in Los Angeles. It is sandwiched generally between Marina del Rey to the north, Playa Vista to the east, bluffs to the south, and the double dune system to the west, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The wetlands are bisected by the Ballona Flood Control Channel, which carries rainwater and dry season urban flow from the upper Ballona Creek Watershed through the urban core to the ocean. The BWER is owned and managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), a State resource agency.

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