From vacant lot to stream side habitat And right next to one of the busiest train lines in town.
INTERPRETING NATURE: Snowy Plover Retrospective
SNPL, you ask? The Western Snowy Plover has been federally listed as threatened since the 1990s, and various agencies have been monitoring it along the Pacific Coast for decades. LA Audubon has been conducting surveys since 2007. It’s estimated that just 2500 snowy plovers currently breed along the Pacific Coast.
Birds of the Season–April 2021
With the onset of spring, rainfall remained sparse, though this was hardly unexpected. With precipitation at about twenty-five percent of normal, we are now past any chance to make up the deficit. Much of the western United States is in the same situation, or worse. Thankfully, plants and animals are fairly well-adapted to deal with these conditions- at least in the short term. Humans, with their voracious appetite for water, are less so.
Rare Bird Alert - April 16, 2021
Common Goldeneye | Red Knot | Neotropic Cormorant | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Zone-tailed Hawk | Tropical Kingbird | Purple Martin | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Black-and-white Warbler | Palm Warbler | Black-throated Green Warbler | Summer Tanager | Indigo Bunting
Rare Bird Alert - April 9, 2021
Long-tailed Duck | Common Goldeneye | Common Ground Dove | Solitary Sandpiper | Neotropic Cormorant | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Broad-winged Hawk | Zone-tailed Hawk | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Black-and-white Warbler | Lucy's Warbler | Plam Warbler | Black-throated Green Warbler | Summer Tanager
4th of July Owl Prowl in the Southern Sierras
Rare Bird Alert - April 3, 2021
Common Ground Dove | Solitary Sandpiper | Neotropic Cormorant | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | GREATER PEWEE | Tropical Kingbird | Olive-sided Flycatcher | Hammond's Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Purple Martin | Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Yellow-headed Blackbird | Black-and-white Warbler | Palm Warbler | Summer Tanager
Rare Bird Alert - March 26, 2021
"Eurasian" Green-winged Teal | White-winged Dove | Common Ground Dove | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Neotropic Cormorant | American Bittern | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron |Zone-tailed Hawk | Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Ash-throated Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | GREATER PEWEE | Hammond's Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | WHITE WAGTAIL | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Yellow-headed Blackbird | Black-and-white Warbler | Palm Warbler
Rare Bird Alert - March 19, 2021
"Eurasian" Green-winged Teal | Spotted Dove | Common Ground Dove | White-winged Dove | Pacific Golden-Plover | Franklin's Gull | Neotropic Cormorant | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Swainson's Hawk | Zone-tailed Hawk | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Ash-throated Flycatcher | GREATER PEWEE | Tropical Kingbird | Hammond's Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Cassin's Vireo | Bank Swallow | WHITE WAGTAIL | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Scott's Oriole | RUSTY BLACKBIRD | Black-and-white Warbler | Palm Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager
Adventures in Nature Wherever We Are
My first close encounter with a whale was at SeaWorld in San Diego, California, currently home to many orphaned and injured ocean inhabitants. I took the back scene tour that raised funds for animal rescue and welfare including “Lunch with Shamu,” one of several generations of Shamu-named orcas. Seated at a table alongside Shamu, I bit into my peanut butter sandwich only to have Shamu leave the water and slide down our eight-person table to my sandwich. Whales have huge, muscular tongues they use to lick food off of their baleen, much as we lick peanut butter off of the roofs of our mouths. From the response of the trainer, this was an unplanned snack.