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Purple is nature’s rarest color but purple animals do exist: here’s nine | BBC Wildlife
[Posted by Chuck Almdale, submitted by Lillian Johnson]
BBC Discover Wildlife has interesting articles, great photos and short films, and it’s all free. It is, however, getting a little tricky to navigate through their advertising. In this one, ignore everything in the right sidebar, and everything everywhere about “viewing,” “continuing,” and “converting.” Just scroll down to read and see. There are three short films/soundscapes: Violet-backed Starling, Violet (Purple) Sea Slug, Imperial Amazon. I can think of a few more violet-named birds that didn’t make the cut, and one of them nests in the SoCal mountains. How many can you think of?
Purple is nature’s rarest colour but purple animals do exist: 9 beautiful, incredible purple animals that look like they’ve been painted
On land and in the sea and sky you can find animals that display a dazzling array of rainbow colors. Bright fur, feathers, skin and scales serve to attract mates, scare off predators or blend into tropical habitats. However, there is a shade that’s not seen as much as you might think – and that’s purple.
By Charlie Lyon, 15 October 2026
Malibu Creek State Park
1925 Las Virgenes Rd, Calabasas
Saturday, 8 November 2025 at 8am
Please note that trip date has been changed from Nov. 7 to Nov. 14.
This is always a lovely walk past grassy fields and groves of Live Oak. We should see resident species such as Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawk, Band-tailed Pigeon, Acorn Woodpecker, Oak Titmouse and Western Bluebird. Creeks, fields, hillsides, cliffs all abound. It’s very scenic and some of our members’ favorite state park.
We’ll look for raptors, hummers and swifts, flycatchers, swallows, wrens, warblers, finches, sparrows, late migrants and wintering birds. (Did I omit anything?) Phainopepla and Merlin are possible. Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks and American Kestrel all nest here and generally stay all year. Nanday Parakeets as well. Swifts and swallows may still be overhead. Wrens, Thrashers, Vireos. Are the White-tailed Kites there again? The sapsuckers? Have the Lewis’ Woodpeckers returned? Come and find out. Deer, Coyote and Bobcat are resident although seeing a Bobcat is a rare treat.
Links to prior trips: Jun 2026, Nov 2025, Jun 2025, May 2024, Nov 2012, Nov 2011, Nov. 2010
Family guide: 1-3 miles walking on pavement and dirt trails. Morning temperatures start cool.
[Directions] From the Ventura Fwy (101): exit at Las Virgenes Rd. Go south on Las Virgenes Rd. for about 3 miles. Continue past the traffic light at the intersection with Mulholland Hwy. The Park entrance is on the right just south of the traffic light.
Coast Route: From PCH, take Malibu Canyon Road inland. The main entrance of the park is on the left about 1.5 miles past the traffic light at Piuma Rd. (Don’t turn at the entrance to Tapia Park which is just after Piuma Rd.)
We’ll meet in the second (lower) parking lot near the bathroom block. Look for the sign that says “Main Trailhead Parking.” If you cross a bridge over a creek, you drove too far. Either way, allow 45 minutes travel time from Santa Monica.
If you don’t have a CA State Park pass, the day-use fee is $12 per vehicle, $11 for seniors, or $3/hour. Go straight after you pass the kiosk. State parks passes can be purchased at the Administration Office (see map below). If you’re 62 or over, the Golden Bear Pass is $20 per calendar year, so buying one in November isn’t suggested. Wait for January.
Meet at 8:00 a.m. in the Main Trailhead parking lot. Watch for roadside birds on your way into the park.
For additional information, call Jean; reservations not needed: 213-522-0062
Trip Change: Malibu Creek State Park: now 14 Nov., 8 AM Saturday
Other than the date change, everything remains the same.
Malibu Creek State Park
1925 Las Virgenes Rd, Calabasas
Saturday, 8 November 2025 at 8am
Please note that trip date has been changed from Nov. 7 to Nov. 14.
Family guide: 1-3 miles walking on pavement and dirt trails. Morning temperatures start cool.
[Directions] From the Ventura Fwy (101): exit at Las Virgenes Rd. Go south on Las Virgenes Rd. for about 3 miles. Continue past the traffic light at the intersection with Mulholland Hwy. The Park entrance is on the right just south of the traffic light.
Coast Route: From PCH, take Malibu Canyon Road inland. The main entrance of the park is on the left about 1.5 miles past the traffic light at Piuma Rd. (Don’t turn at the entrance to Tapia Park which is just after Piuma Rd.)
We’ll meet in the second (lower) parking lot near the bathroom block. Look for the sign that says “Main Trailhead Parking.” If you cross a bridge over a creek, you drove too far. Either way, allow 45 minutes travel time from Santa Monica.
If you don’t have a CA State Park pass, the day-use fee is $12 per vehicle, $11 for seniors, or $3/hour. Go straight after you pass the kiosk. State parks passes can be purchased at the Administration Office (see map below). If you’re 62 or over, the Golden Bear Pass is $20 per calendar year, so buying one in November isn’t suggested. Wait for January.
Meet at 8:00 a.m. in the Main Trailhead parking lot. Watch for roadside birds on your way into the park.
For additional information, call Jean; reservations not needed: 213-522-0062
More on the Chinese Gen-Z Bird People, and other feathery news
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
Avian fakery runs amok.
This one is very short, showing three birds in action and one going nuts.
The next one, also very short, is sort of a how-to-pretend-you’re-a-bird and is just plain weird.
The next video is longer, shows more birds, and finishes with a psychological analysis of why they’re doing it and what might work better to solve their “996” problems.
Here’s a report from DW, a German news station, on bird-watching rather than bird-being. Supposedly three out of ten people in the U.S. are birdwatchers. (Maybe that’s Gen Z people.)
The following is a CNN article about Gen Z people, focusing on those in Great Britain, who are taking up birdwatching with a passion.
Why Gen Z is going bonkers for birding
By Jack Bantock
Jul 28, 2026
Few people anywhere love birds more than Lira Valencia. Merely glimpsing the azure-blue flash of a Kingfisher flitting around her beloved corner of South London is enough to risk making her late for any engagement that day.
And yet, it’s a passion nested upon a barefaced lie.
Exasperated, like so many students, by the miserly state of the job market after graduating university during the pandemic, Valencia spotted a rare opening to put her zoology degree to good use in the field: a position with a bird charity in sunny Malta.
The problem? Eyeing London’s prodigious pigeon population marked the broad extent of her birdwatching pedigree. One pair of secondhand binoculars, a few trips around her local parks and a fib about her true level of birding experience later, she was taking flight to the Mediterranean.
“In my early 20s, if someone told me that I would be a bird watcher, I’d laugh because it’s just not something I ever thought of growing up,” Valencia, 30, told CNN.
“Obviously it started off as a lie, but then it actually started to really rub off on me. That’s the thing with it: once you start, you can’t really stop.”
Malibu Creek State Park
1925 Las Virgenes Rd, Calabasas
Saturday, 8 November 2025 at 8am
Please note that trip date has been changed from Nov. 7 to Nov. 14.
This is always a lovely walk past grassy fields and groves of Live Oak. We should see resident species such as Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawk, Band-tailed Pigeon, Acorn Woodpecker, Oak Titmouse and Western Bluebird. Creeks, fields, hillsides, cliffs all abound. It’s very scenic and some of our members’ favorite state park.
We’ll look for raptors, hummers and swifts, flycatchers, swallows, wrens, warblers, finches, sparrows, late migrants and wintering birds. (Did I omit anything?) Phainopepla and Merlin are possible. Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks and American Kestrel all nest here and generally stay all year. Nanday Parakeets as well. Swifts and swallows may still be overhead. Wrens, Thrashers, Vireos. Are the White-tailed Kites there again? The sapsuckers? Have the Lewis’ Woodpeckers returned? Come and find out. Deer, Coyote and Bobcat are resident although seeing a Bobcat is a rare treat.
Links to prior trips: Jun 2026, Nov 2025, Jun 2025, May 2024, Nov 2012, Nov 2011, Nov. 2010
Family guide: 1-3 miles walking on pavement and dirt trails. Morning temperatures start cool.
[Directions] From the Ventura Fwy (101): exit at Las Virgenes Rd. Go south on Las Virgenes Rd. for about 3 miles. Continue past the traffic light at the intersection with Mulholland Hwy. The Park entrance is on the right just south of the traffic light.
Coast Route: From PCH, take Malibu Canyon Road inland. The main entrance of the park is on the left about 1.5 miles past the traffic light at Piuma Rd. (Don’t turn at the entrance to Tapia Park which is just after Piuma Rd.)
We’ll meet in the second (lower) parking lot near the bathroom block. Look for the sign that says “Main Trailhead Parking.” If you cross a bridge over a creek, you drove too far. Either way, allow 45 minutes travel time from Santa Monica.
If you don’t have a CA State Park pass, the day-use fee is $12 per vehicle, $11 for seniors, or $3/hour. Go straight after you pass the kiosk. State parks passes can be purchased at the Administration Office (see map below). If you’re 62 or over, the Golden Bear Pass is $20 per calendar year, so buying one in November isn’t suggested. Wait for January.
Meet at 8:00 a.m. in the Main Trailhead parking lot. Watch for roadside birds on your way into the park.
For additional information, call Jean; reservations not needed: 213-522-0062
