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No salesman will call, at least not from us. Maybe from someone else.
[By Lu Plauzoles, posted by Chuck Almdale]
We plan to meet at 8:30AM at the parking lot below the Sooky Goldman Nature Center. (restrooms there) I believe most navigation systems will recognize that site.
I will try to scout the area two days before the walk to ascertain the correct route and post any changes on the blog. However, expect to be taking N. Beverly Drive north past the Beverly Hills Hotel from Sunset Blvd. Left at the fork (tri-light) with Coldwater Canyon and then the very narrow Franklin Canyon Drive.
The north entrance from Mulholland Drive and the Tree People site IS STILL CLOSED because of road damage from rainstorms four years ago.
From Santa Monica, please allow 35-40 minutes travel due to early-morning traffic.
Please exercise extreme caution in respecting stop signs on the park road. Intersections are camera-controlled and since this is National Park Service land, photo-enforcement is serious and enforceable. (Like, $300-worth!) Do not expect cellphone reception in this narrow canyon.
We expect to walk down the length of the canyon and come back to the parking structure via the same route. Total approximately 1.75 miles walking. Approximately 2 hours with good looks at lingering warblers and wrens in classic southern California riparian/chaparral habitat, as well as the occasional waterfowl in the reservoir. Let’s see if the Common rAvens still own the real estate. The prize bird if we can spot one is the Hutton’s Vireo!
Call me or better, text me for details and questions: 310.779.0966
Lu Plauzoles
Link to Franklin Canyon Park MRCA website
Link to Franklin Canyon Park Map (or see below)
A Recent Plea for Pigeons (population control)
[By Lu Plauzoles]
I read this on The Guardian. A rational solution to the pollution of the water near Santa Monica Pier? It certainly doesn’t sound very expensive.
Lasers, hawks and even guns haven’t solved the UK’s pigeon problem. There is a better way
The Guardian: by Sydney Lobe, 4 May, 2026
The author has been spending time with the National Pigeon Advocacy Association (NPAA) and its president, Sue Joyce (AKA Sue the Pigeon Lady). Joyce has a vision of an avian utopia where the pigeon “problem” is solved for good.
You are all invited to the next ZOOM meeting
of Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society
Evolution in Urban Dark-eyed Juncos, with Dr. Pamela Yeh and her graduate students Mars Walters, Sierra Glassman, Prasheetha Karthikeyan, & Joey Di Liberto
Zoom Evening Meeting, Tuesday, 6 May, 7:30 p.m.
Zoom waiting room opens 7:15 p.m.
|
Then give it about 30 seconds for “Zoom Workplace” to show up
(If the button above doesn’t work for you,
see detailed zoom invitation below)
The Yeh Lab is excited to be giving a talk on evolution in urban dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis). Dr. Pamela Yeh, Associate Professor at UCLA, will start by discussing some of the history of the lab’s work on the juncos and providing an overview of the work being done in her lab. PhD student Mars Walters will talk about a long-term behavioral shift in UCLA’s dark-eyed juncos induced by the COVID-19 lockdown. PhD student Sierra Glassman will talk about her in-progress research on urban genomic evolution of juncos across California. MS student Prasheetha Karthikeyan will discuss her ongoing research on the flocking behavior of urban dark eyed juncos on the UCLA campus during their nonbreeding season. Lastly, another PhD student, Joey Di Liberto, will present new research on how female juncos adjust the volume of their eggs across their nests as well as over the breeding season; and what this means for how birds manage reproductive investment in changing conditions.
Dr. Pamela Yeh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. She studies how human activities affect the evolution of species, focusing on the evolution of birds in urban environments and the evolution of drug resistant bacteria in urban and agricultural areas. She is also interested in the role biology plays in public health, and how biological data and insights can both inform public health research as well as public health policy.She received her PhD in Evolutionary Biology from UC San Diego and has conducted post-doctoral work in the Center for Genomics Research and the Systems Biology Department, both at Harvard University. She has been at UCLA since 2013. Dr. Yeh is also an External Faculty at Santa Fe Institute.
Mars Walters is a Ph.D. student in the Yeh Lab at UCLA. They are studying the evolutionary mechanisms shaping urban phenotypes in the dark-eyed junco, from behavior to genomics. They earned an MS in from the Yeh Lab in 2022 and a BS from the University of Georgia in 2013. Mars has worked as a field ornithologist and researcher for USGS, the Audubon Society, and the Smithsonian Institute in diverse ecosystems across the United States.
Sierra Glassman is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a second-year PhD student in the UCLA Ecology & Evolutionary Biology program in Dr. Pamela Yeh’s Lab. She is interested in birds’ responses to human-induced environmental change. She researches the morphology, behavior and genomics of urban adaptation in Dark-eyed Juncos. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Integrative Biology in 2024, where she researched the vocal and foraging behavior of Anna’s Hummingbirds. She also has worked as an assistant for the UC Berkeley Schell Lab, where she aided urban mammal cognition and biodiversity research.
Prasheetha Karthikeyan is a first year M.S. student in the Yeh Lab, studying the social and antipredator behavior of dark-eyed juncos. She earned her B.S. in Environmental Science from UCLA, where she discovered a passion for urban ecology and joined the Yeh Lab initially as an undergraduate research assistant During this time, she also worked in positions focused on conserving Threatened and Endangered Species, with an emphasis on wildlife impacted by urbanization.
Joey Di Liberto is a graduate student in the Yeh Lab at UCLA. Using the model system of Dark-eyed Juncos across the state of California, he is examining how animals may be adapting to urban pressures across individuals, populations, and subspecies levels. Prior to beginning work at UCLA, Joey obtained his BS from UC San Diego, and his MS at the College of William and Mary and throughout has worked to study behavioral ecology and conservation in a variety of avian species.
Meeting ID: 872 0865 2193
Passcode: 260045
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,87208652193#,,,,*260045# US (San Jose)
+16694449171,,87208652193#,,,,*260045# US
Join by SIP
87208652193@zoomcrc.com
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbxn0jWx6K
Join instructions
https://us02web.zoom.us/meetings/87208652193/invitations?signature=woC4vnK_Pbh8NsneHkMT9292jBf02bYXoGF1go0UxBM
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
You are all invited to the next ZOOM meeting
of Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society
Evolution in Urban Dark-eyed Juncos, with Dr. Pamela Yeh and her graduate students Mars Walters, Sierra Glassman, Prasheetha Karthikeyan, & Joey Di Liberto
Zoom Evening Meeting, Tuesday, 6 May, 7:30 p.m.
Zoom waiting room opens 7:15 p.m.
|
Then give it about 30 seconds for “Zoom Workplace” to show up
(If the button above doesn’t work for you,
see detailed zoom invitation below)
The Yeh Lab is excited to be giving a talk on evolution in urban dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis). Dr. Pamela Yeh, Associate Professor at UCLA, will start by discussing some of the history of the lab’s work on the juncos and providing an overview of the work being done in her lab. PhD student Mars Walters will talk about a long-term behavioral shift in UCLA’s dark-eyed juncos induced by the COVID-19 lockdown. PhD student Sierra Glassman will talk about her in-progress research on urban genomic evolution of juncos across California. MS student Prasheetha Karthikeyan will discuss her ongoing research on the flocking behavior of urban dark eyed juncos on the UCLA campus during their nonbreeding season. Lastly, another PhD student, Joey Di Liberto, will present new research on how female juncos adjust the volume of their eggs across their nests as well as over the breeding season; and what this means for how birds manage reproductive investment in changing conditions.
Dr. Pamela Yeh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. She studies how human activities affect the evolution of species, focusing on the evolution of birds in urban environments and the evolution of drug resistant bacteria in urban and agricultural areas. She is also interested in the role biology plays in public health, and how biological data and insights can both inform public health research as well as public health policy.She received her PhD in Evolutionary Biology from UC San Diego and has conducted post-doctoral work in the Center for Genomics Research and the Systems Biology Department, both at Harvard University. She has been at UCLA since 2013. Dr. Yeh is also an External Faculty at Santa Fe Institute.
Mars Walters is a Ph.D. student in the Yeh Lab at UCLA. They are studying the evolutionary mechanisms shaping urban phenotypes in the dark-eyed junco, from behavior to genomics. They earned an MS in from the Yeh Lab in 2022 and a BS from the University of Georgia in 2013. Mars has worked as a field ornithologist and researcher for USGS, the Audubon Society, and the Smithsonian Institute in diverse ecosystems across the United States.
Sierra Glassman is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a second-year PhD student in the UCLA Ecology & Evolutionary Biology program in Dr. Pamela Yeh’s Lab. She is interested in birds’ responses to human-induced environmental change. She researches the morphology, behavior and genomics of urban adaptation in Dark-eyed Juncos. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Integrative Biology in 2024, where she researched the vocal and foraging behavior of Anna’s Hummingbirds. She also has worked as an assistant for the UC Berkeley Schell Lab, where she aided urban mammal cognition and biodiversity research.
Prasheetha Karthikeyan is a first year M.S. student in the Yeh Lab, studying the social and antipredator behavior of dark-eyed juncos. She earned her B.S. in Environmental Science from UCLA, where she discovered a passion for urban ecology and joined the Yeh Lab initially as an undergraduate research assistant During this time, she also worked in positions focused on conserving Threatened and Endangered Species, with an emphasis on wildlife impacted by urbanization.
Joey Di Liberto is a graduate student in the Yeh Lab at UCLA. Using the model system of Dark-eyed Juncos across the state of California, he is examining how animals may be adapting to urban pressures across individuals, populations, and subspecies levels. Prior to beginning work at UCLA, Joey obtained his BS from UC San Diego, and his MS at the College of William and Mary and throughout has worked to study behavioral ecology and conservation in a variety of avian species.
Meeting ID: 872 0865 2193
Passcode: 260045
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,87208652193#,,,,*260045# US (San Jose)
+16694449171,,87208652193#,,,,*260045# US
Join by SIP
87208652193@zoomcrc.com
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbxn0jWx6K
Join instructions
https://us02web.zoom.us/meetings/87208652193/invitations?signature=woC4vnK_Pbh8NsneHkMT9292jBf02bYXoGF1go0UxBM
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
Update Franklin Canyon Access
Thank you Harvey V. for updating me on the very recent opening of the Mulholland Drive entrance to Franklin Canyon! Much easier access for those who may be coming from Hollywood or the San Fernando Valley!
https://mrca.ca.gov/parks/park-listing/franklin-canyon-park/.
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 