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Mosquitoes in L.A. County | LAist
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
As mosquitoes are flying insects, and many birds (not enough!) catch and eat flying insects, I figure it’s valid to post this here. Plus hot news on fun viruses like West Nile, Dengue, Zika, Yellow fever and Chikungunya which your 2nd-favorite flying friends are bringing with them, to you. Keep an eye on your ankles. Encourage flycatchers to live near your house. Black Phoebes love to nest under your eaves or on your porch light.

(Coutesy of Don Loarie / Creative commons via Flickr)
More Mojitos, Less Mosquitoes: How To Rid Your Home Of The Pesky Biters
LAist | Caitlin Hernández | 12 Aug 12 2022 | 5 min read
From the article:
In Southern California, mosquitoes have it made. Our continuous warmer temperatures have practically created a year-round mosquito season, which gives them more of an opportunity to grow, lay eggs, and spread diseases like West Nile virus. But as we hit the peak of summer weather, mosquito activity is rising.

Malibu Lagoon Monthly Field Trip: Sunday, 28 August 2022
Rules for Malibu Lagoon trip are
unchanged from last month.
Results of last month’s poll:
- Total poll recipients 54
- Total responses 23 or 43%
- Plurality of votes: Will come no matter what others do, will don mask if feeling unsafe, usually won’t if feeling safe.
- My goal was to determine if dropping restrictions would frighten people away. Mostly it won’t. However, some people wanted the restrictions to remain. Out of deference to them, the same restrictions will remain in effect for the foreseeable future.
The following rules will be in effect:
- Registration required, max. 30 people. No drop-ins, please.
- Register to Chuck: misclists@verizon.net, not to this email or to the blog, please.
- Masks are not required but will be appreciated.
- Bring your Covid-19 Vaccination Record Card and a photo ID card. They will be checked. If you do not have two shots and a booster recorded on your card, you must wear a mask while you are with the group.
- If we checked your Covid card In March-July, we won’t check it this month.
- Bring your own binoculars; telescope too if you have one.
- All Field Trips are designed to maximize your safety, while also enjoying birds. CDC Guidelines are followed. Participants are encouraged to observe safe distancing, and face coverings are required for those who are not fully vaccinated (2 shots + booster) for Covid-19.
- Participation in social activities, such as field trips, comes with an inherent risk of exposure to infectious disease. Prospective participants should self-evaluate or discuss with their doctor if their participation merits this risk. If you’re sick or experiencing any symptoms that indicate you might be sick, STAY HOME.
- The 10am Children & Parents Walk is NOT yet reinstated.
- For general questions or help registering, contact Chuck: misclists@verizon.net
- Additional information on our permanent Covid-19 blog page:

(Kirsten Wahlquist, both photos 8-28-16)
The migrating shorebirds are picking up in numbers and diversity as are gulls and terns. Many may still have their bright breeding plumages. Migrating Snowy Plovers are returning from breeding. And the Jumping Mullet are living up to their well-deserved reputation.
Some of the great birds we’ve had in August are: Green-winged Teal, Brandt’s & Pelagic Cormorant, Snowy Egret, White-faced Ibis, Osprey, White-tailed Kite, Red-tailed Hawk, Semipalmated Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, Ruddy & Black Turnstones, Sanderling, Western & Least Sandpipers, Pectoral Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Least, Forster’s, Royal & Elegant Tern, Black Skimmer, White-throated Swift, Belted Kingfisher, Merlin, Western Wood-Pewee, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Western Kingbird, Oak Titmouse, House Wren, Orange-crowned, Warbler & Wilson’s Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Savannah, Song & Lincoln’s Sparrow, Western Tanager, Red-winged Blackbird, Bullock’s Oriole.
It will be, as as they frequently say in Malibu over a double-spiced mocha frappachino with sprinkles, served in a golden slipper: “A sege of heyrōnys!”


(Jeffrey Davidson 7-10-16)
Adult Walk 8:30 a.m., 4th Sunday of every month. Beginner and experienced, 2-3 hours. Species range from 35 in June to 60-75 during migrations and winter. We move slowly and check everything as we move along. When lagoon outlet is closed we may continue east around the lagoon to Adamson House. We put out special effort to make our monthly Malibu Lagoon walks attractive to first-time and beginning birdwatchers. So please, if you are at all worried about coming on a trip and embarrassing yourself because of all the experts, we remember our first trips too. Someone showed us the birds; now it’s our turn. Bring your birding questions.
Children and Parents Walk: Still canceled due to Covid-19 pandemic, immunization and masking problems, especially with young children. Maybe in September.

Map to Meeting Place
Directions: Malibu Lagoon is at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Cross Creek Road, west of Malibu Pier and the bridge. Look around for people wearing binoculars.
Parking: Parking machine installed in the lagoon lot: 1 hr $3; 2 hrs $6; 3 hrs $9, all day $12 ($11 seniors); credit cards accepted. Annual passes accepted. You may also park (read signs carefully) on either of PCH west of Cross Creek Road, on Cross Creek Road, or on Civic Center Way north (inland) of the shopping center. Lagoon parking in shopping center lots is not permitted (i.e. they tow cars).
Prior checklists:
2021: Jan-July, July-Dec 2022: Jan-June
2020: Jan-July, July-Dec 2019: Jan-June, July-Dec
2018: Jan-June, July-Dec 2017: Jan-June, July-Dec
2016: Jan-June, July-Dec 2015: Jan-May, July-Dec
2014: Jan-July, July-Dec 2013: Jan-June, July-Dec
2012: Jan-June, July-Dec 2011: Jan-June, July-Dec
2010: Jan-June, July-Dec 2009: Jan-June, July-Dec
[Written & posted by Chuck Almdale]
Birds & Dinosaurs – Joined at the Hip | Yale News
[Posted by Chuck Almdale, suggested by Edna Alvarez]
More evidence that those friendly feathered animals living around, above, even below us, are the direct descendants of those toothy cold-blooded killers who used to rule the world (not counting bacteria).

Birds & Dinosaurs — Joined at the Hip
Yale News | Jim Shelton | July 27, 2022 | 5 minute read
From the article:
All baby birds have a moment prior to hatching when their hip bone is a tiny replica of a dinosaur’s pelvis. That’s one of the findings in a new, Yale-led study in the journal Nature that explores the evolutionary underpinnings of the avian hip bone. It is also a modern-day nod to the dramatic transformation that led from dinosaurs to birds over tens of millions of years.
Link to list of publications by co-author and lab director Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar
Sample title: The early origin of a birdlike inner ear and the evolution of dinosaurian movement and vocalization. Science 372(6542): 601-609. Hanson M*, Hoffman EA, Norell MA, Bhullar B-AS. (2021).
Link to the paper: The developing bird pelvis passes through ancestral dinosaurian conditions
Abstract:
Living birds (Aves) have bodies substantially modified from the ancestral reptilian condition. The avian pelvis in particular experienced major changes during the transition from early archosaurs to living birds. This stepwise transformation is well documented by an excellent fossil record; however, the ontogenetic alterations that underly it are less well understood. We used embryological imaging techniques to examine the morphogenesis of avian pelvic tissues in three dimensions, allowing direct comparison with the fossil record. Many ancestral dinosaurian features (for example, a forward-facing pubis, short ilium and pubic ‘boot’) are transiently present in the early morphogenesis of birds and arrive at their typical ‘avian’ form after transitioning through a prenatal developmental sequence that mirrors the phylogenetic sequence of character acquisition. We demonstrate quantitatively that avian pelvic ontogeny parallels the non-avian dinosaur-to-bird transition and provide evidence for phenotypic covariance within the pelvis that is conserved across Archosauria. The presence of ancestral states in avian embryos may stem from this conserved covariant relationship. In sum, our data provide evidence that the avian pelvis, whose early development has been little studied, evolved through terminal addition—a mechanism whereby new apomorphic states are added to the end of a developmental sequence, resulting in expression of ancestral character states earlier in that sequence. The phenotypic integration we detected suggests a previously unrecognized mechanism for terminal addition and hints that retention of ancestral states in development is common during evolutionary transitions.
Three more articles on this paper: Xeniasday, Wiley Analytical Science, Hartford Courant.
Link to prior announcement here.
Suggestions:
- Bring your mask. You may want to wear it at least during the first 30-45 minutes when the group is a bit compact and crowded. Covid-19 BA.5 variant – the most infectious variant to date (cue Jaws music) – is on the rise, L.A. County has the highest rate in the nation (or so I’ve recently read in the L.A. Times) and L.A. County will probably soon institute mandatory indoor mask mandate.
- If you feel sick, stay home and isolate.
- If you have been around anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19, or who is experiencing Covid-19 symptoms, please be considerate of others, and stay home.
High temperature predictions: 70°, 73°, 74°, 74°, 93° (whaaaat?).
(Middlin’) high tide of 3.35 ft. is at 9:09 am!
Dilly-dallying / shilly-shallying? We still have a few openings.
To reiterate a few rules:
- If I checked your Covid card last month, I won’t check it again.
- For all others, bring your covid vax card. Yes, I have a list.
- Trip has a few openings. Send me an email if you want to be on it.
- Email to Chuck: misclists@verizon.net.
- Masks are not required but are appreciated.
- Temperature likely to be in mid-to-high 70’s.
- It will be, as one birder succinctly commented last July: “A trewloue of turtuldowẏs!”
The prior rules, still in force
- Registration required, max. 30 people. No drop-ins, please.
- Bring your Covid-19 Vaccination Record Card and a photo ID card. They will be checked. If you do not have two shots and a booster (preferably three boosters) recorded on your card, you must wear a mask while you are with the group.
- If we checked your Covid card last month, we won’t check it this month.
- Bring your own binoculars.
- All Field Trips are designed to maximize your safety, while also enjoying birds. CDC Guidelines are followed. Participants are encouraged to observe safe distancing, and face coverings are required for those who are not fully vaccinated (2 shots + booster) for Covid-19.
- Participation in social activities, such as field trips, comes with an inherent risk of exposure to infectious disease. Prospective participants should self-evaluate or discuss with their doctor if their participation merits this risk. If you’re sick or experiencing any symptoms that indicate you might be sick, STAY HOME.
- The 10am Children & Parents Walk is NOT reinstated. Not yet, anyway.
- For general questions or help registering, contact Chuck: misclists@verizon.net
- Additional information on our permanent Covid-19 blog page:
