Three bird haiku by Celeste White, Photos by Jim Dowling.
Hummingbird Experience
I found a hummingbird on the ground where I live. I was afraid that the cats would harm it so I picked it up in the palm of my hand. It was alive but very still in my hand, giving me the opportunity to pet it and comfort it. The bird stayed in the palm of my hand for a short time. I walked with it (in my hand) inside my building and then transferred the hummingbird to an employee where I live. She walked with it (in the palm of her hand) through the hallway and outside where the hummingbird then flew away.
It was an incredible experience!
March–April 2022 — Bird Walks
Camels In California?
Yes, there are camels in California! It all started when the U.S. Army at Camp Verde in Texas imported several hundred camels from Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece to deliver supplies to the arid Southwest. The United States was on the cusp of the Civil War, and southwestern California was strategic, but had various local groups with questionable allegiance to the Union. A detachment of thirty-one camels ended up at Fort Tejon at the northern end of the Tejon Pass, also known as the Grapevine in Kern County, California. It was the western terminus of the experimental U.S. Camel Corps. From June 24, 1854, to its abandonment on September 11, 1864, Fort Tejon was home to U.S. Dragoons followed by California Volunteer Troops, including companies of the 2nd California Volunteer Cavalry.
INTERPRETING NATURE The Park to Playa Trail — Walk Your Watershed
Adapting to pandemic conditions has pushed many of us to seek outdoor adventures close to home, visiting spots we may have overlooked or even dismissed in the past. The Park to Playa Trail is an ideal candidate to visit for a walk in a local watershed here in Los Angeles, with 13 continuous miles traversing the Ballona Creek Watershed from the Baldwin Hills all the way to Dockweiler Beach. Plan it right, and you can have your own birding big day, visiting coastal sage scrub habitat, manicured parklands with established tree cover, paved and less-paved stretches of Ballona Creek, and then beach habitat. Basically, gnatcatchers to oystercatchers on a single urban trail.
March and April 2022 Evening Program Presentations—Online
WED., MAR. 9, 2022, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Coffee and Conservation
Link: https://bluejeans.com/418433012/1977
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Wed. , Apr 13, 2022
7:30 – 8:30 PM
Link: https://bluejeans.com/226548979/739
Birds of the Season- February 2022
Photo: Lewis's Woodpecker (melanerpes lewis), © Ian Routley, Courtesy of Macaulay Library
Birders are used to many types of change. Migration, increasing and decreasing bird populations, loss and gain of habitat, and varying access to favored birding locations are all familiar ones. Climate change adds an element that is transforming the distribution and habitats of birds, with the effects becoming more apparent every year.
Rare Bird Alert - February 25, 2022
Neotropic Cormorant | Pacific Golden-Plover | Red Knot | Solitary Sandpiper | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Zone-tailed Hawk | Rough-legged Hawk | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Brown-crested Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | Least Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Cassin’s Vireo | American Pipit (japonicus) | Swamp Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Gray-headed” Junco | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Green-tailed Towhee | Hooded Oriole | Scott’s Oriole | Black-and-white Warbler | Lucy’s Warbler | American Redstart | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager | Black-headed Grosbeak
Coffee and Conservation — Bill Wilson (Birds & Beans)
Online event
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022 AT 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Half of the people in the US have a cup of coffee every day but few understand the environmental impact of coffee. Even fewer prioritize origin and know how coffee farming affects people, farms, forests, and birds all over the world.
Bill Wilson is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Birds & Beans coffee. With the help of three other families and support from Scott Weidensaul, Bridget Stutchbury and Kenn Kaufman, they launched their company in 2008 to save the Smithsonian ‘Bird Friendly®’ shade grown coffee certification.
Bill will share the story of Birds & Beans, which is not only Bird Friendly®, but also USDA Organic, and Fair Trade, and show how this approach helps to save birds, tropical forests, family farmers and their workers, local rural economies and the Earth we all share.
Photo: Scott Weidensaul
Rare Bird Alert - February 18, 2022
American Oystercatcher | Pacific Golden-Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Glaucous Gull | Neotropic Cormorant | American Bittern | Zone-tailed Hawk | Rough-legged Hawk | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Brown-crested Flycatcher | Least Flycatcher | Hammond’s Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Bell’s Vireo | Swamp Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Gray-headed” Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Orchard Oriole | Scott’s Oriole | Black-and-white Warbler | Lucy’s Warbler | American Restart | Summer Tanager | Black-headed Grosbeak