Free email delivery
Please sign up for email delivery in the subscription area to the right.
No salesman will call, at least not from us. Maybe from someone else.
Bobcat Trapping & Malibu Lagoon Update
Here Kitty, Kitty…
(Bobcat Trapping Endangers Desert Life)
It’s not widely known among desert wildlife lovers that they themselves may sometimes be one of the biggest threats to the wildlife they love. That’s certainly true in the case of the desert folks who love to post photos of the bobcats coming to visit their homes or drink from the birdbath in their yard. More…
The above article, written by “Steve” was published on 12/7/12 by The Sun Runner – The Magazine of the Real California Desert online magazine.
It was sent to us by Mary Prismon, SMBAS conservation co-chair.
*******************************
Malibu Lagoon Project Winding Down
The construction fences are down, the paths are open, the birds are busy and excited, most of the plants are in, but the parking lot may still be a bit small, and a shade structure is unfinished.
Some recent news: Native Seeds Spread at Malibu Lagoon.
By Jessica E. Davis, from Malibu Patch. 3/13/13
The official ribbon-cutting opening of the lagoon will be on Friday, 5/3. SMBAS will be there with telescopes to point out the birds to everyone. Join us. Time to be announced.
[Chuck Almdale]
Strong video
I just saw the film MIDWAY By Chris Jordan. http://vimeo.com/25563376
This is the most powerful and carefully-crafted piece on the destructive plastic of the Pacific gyre.
The message comes through quickly and viscerally in less than four minutes without any preaching.
We in the conservation community must relate items like this to current debate on the constant growth of the petroleum industry, such as the XL pipeline. Millions are ignorant of the widespread damage caused directly or indirectly by our addition to oil and its byproducts.
LucienP, Conservation Chair
You know it’s spring when…
The California Coast Live Oak starts to bloom! In less than 10 days, a dark-leaved almost skeletal tree that lost a lost of leaves in the last windstorm…is suddenly turning gold! No wonder this is such a “migrant trap”. Already, warblers and kinglets are coming here to sing…and feed. See the little holes in the gall? The tiny wasps have drilled their way out of their winter home. Every time I look out the window there’s a bird in this tree.
photos by LucienP
Coast Live oak catkins
Oak gall houses small wasps during winter.
Catkins and new sprouts on Coast Live oak.
Request for referral
I have been working with a middle school class on basic birding and conservation. The students are interested in trying to attract birds with nesting boxes. Does anyone have the name of the person who is building and tending the bluebird boxes at Penmar Golf Course at the southern edge of Santa Monica?
If so, please email me at plauzoles@me.com
Lu Plauzoles, SMBAS Conservation
Fair weather, fair birding at Sycamore
A hardy group of hikers met at the Sycamore parking lot on a bright and calm morning. The storm-swept skies were calm, just 36 hours after this season’s biggest rain event. Birding started early in the parking lot with a Sharp-shinned Hawk calmly perched 15 feet up a small bare tree above our cars.
Sharp-shinned Hawk (J. Waterman 3/9/13)
It was the start of a good day of raptor sightings as we walked up the main road and then up the Serrano Canyon trail. Not many species, but the almost-constant presence of the Black-hooded Parakeets may have quieted many other species.
A pair of parakeets (J. Waterman 3/9/13)
When we reached the quarry/rockslide in Serrano the Canyon Wren treated us to a laughing concert, but hid from the view of all our birders. We hiked up the trail another half mile to the only creek water in the park and returned soon after 1PM.
[Lu Plauzoles, trip leader]
| Sycamore Canyon | |
| Bird List 3/9/13 | |
| 50 – 70° F. | |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 1 |
| Common Loon | 1 |
| Surf Scoter | 40 |
| CA Quail | 5 |
| Brown Pelican | 3 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 2 |
| Western Gull | 3 |
| Black-hooded Parakeet | 9 |
| Anna’s Hummingbird | 3 |
| Allen’s Hummingbird | 1 |
| Nuttall’s Woodpecker | 3 |
| Northern Flicker | 5 |
| Western Scrub-Jay | 4 |
| Common Raven | 3 |
| American Crow | 8 |
| Oak Titmouse | 6 |
| Bushtit | 4 |
| Canyon Wren (voc) | 1 |
| Bewick’s Wren | 1 |
| Wrentit | 20 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 1 |
| California Thrasher | 3 |
| European Starling | 2 |
| Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 30 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 2 |
| California Towhee | 4 |
| Spotted Towhee | 1 |
| White-crowned Sparrow | 20 |
| Golden-crowned Sparrow | 12 |
| House Finch | 2 |
| Total Species | 33 |
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 