Wine Corks to Bird Houses

There is something beguiling about wine corks. Some are beautiful bits of art, some are stained with the kiss of a favorite red wine and some are molded plastic trying to save plant resources (but in doing so become less earth-friendly after their short life as a cork is over).

What to do with them? Wine corks beg to be recycled. I have a cork board in my office that I made of wine corks over 20 years ago and it is still hardy and looking new, despite 20 years of being a pin cushion.

I have made them into trivets. They work wonderfully as a buffer between hot dishes and the tabletop. And here again they seem to last forever.

So what to do with them?

Perhaps a bird house?
I had a wooden bird feeder with a copper roof. The wooden structure was compromised when it fell in a wind storm. I set about repairing it only to find that the wood was badly deteriorated. But the copper roof was still charming and useful.

doorway: corks on sides

Hot glue gun in-hand, I set about constructing a bird house on the old bird-feeder base. I built up an entrance with wine corks on their side. The depth of the wine corks makes it impossible for scrub-jays or crows to reach the small chicks inside; a sales plus for any house-hunting wren.

walls: corks on end topped with a layer of corks on sides

For the walls I stood the corks on end. The corner corks are the plastic kind which allowed me to firmly attach them with a screw up from the bottom. There is an inner row of corks as well, making the structure quite cozy.

The copper roof had three attachment locations. A row of corks were laid on their sides to create firm attachment sites. And to finish it off, I tucked moss in to the gaps and chinks.


The Bewick’s wrens have been building a nest off and on in the lariat house hanging in a tree. This new wine-cork bird house will give them another option.

Wine corks as bird houses? We’ll see. It is better than tossing them into a landfill.

Recycling projects:
Dining room chairs
Electronics and saving gorillas
Gifts
Holiday Decorations

Painted Lady Butterflies Migrating Through LA

What a perfect way to mark the first days of spring. It's beautiful and mild. The recent rain has washed the foliage clean and nudged flowers into bloom. 

A spring migration is happening and here's your chance to see a wonder of the season. Go outside and stand facing north or east. Look toward open spaces, down the street, over the back yard. See if you don't spot a small to medium-sized butterfly flitting from south to north. It will be traveling, not stopping to feed, so look 10 - 20 feet off the ground.


The painted lady butterflies appear to be migrating through the San Fernando Valley again this spring in numbers easy to notice. It may not be the wave of butterflies that we saw in a few years ago, but there are enough that they are noticeable. 


Just stand still and watch the world for a moment; just five minutes. These two-inch butterflies are traveling from somewhere down south toward a specific destination to the north that remains a mystery to mere humans. They're traveling through my neighborhood right now and they are probably going through yours as well.

Rain Comes to Dry California

 What a difference an inch of rain can make!

Saturday it rained for over six hours. The rain gauge measured an inch and a third of spring-awakening water. By the next day, the Douglas iris committed itself to bloom.

While we are still in need of five or more inches to bring us into the “normal” range of rainfall, this gentle winter shower has washed the dust from the leaves and prompted some of the plants to reach for spring.
The Douglas iris is a California native and like all of our other native plants responds rapidly to rainfall. The deep purple blooms typically open throughout April, this year they're a bit early. There are hybrids of this native that come in a variety of shades, from white to deep purple and burgundy. Interestingly, in our yard, it is always the original purple that blooms first and is the most robust. The blooms last for a month or so, depending on the rainfall. The slender green leaves are fibrous and deep in color, they survive both frost and drought. We’ve been most successful with them planted in partial shade.

Our biggest challenge comes on four-tiny legs; pocket gophers that like to lunch on the iris’s rhizomes. If I can keep the rodents at bay, the Douglas iris comes back in larger clumps each year. Even if you initially put them in the wrong spot, they transplant easily. The Douglas iris demonstrates the beauty and practicality of planting natives.

They say it may rain again tomorrow. The iris and I are hoping that is true.

First Hummingbird Nest of 2012

Allen's hummingbird nest from a previous year

Spring must be here, I found the first hummingbird nest of the year! Unfortunately, it is between 50 - 60 ft. high up in a Grevillea robusta (an Australian species commonly called a “silk oak,” despite the fact that it is not an oak at all). That means pictures of eggs and babies will be impossible.

The female Allen’s hummingbird is still actively building the nest. She is stitching together a masterpiece of plant fibers and moss wrapped in stretchy spider web. Typically, it is during this construction phase that I find it easiest to locate a hummingbird nest. The activity of the female in one vicinity offers the best opportunity to locate the walnut-sized structure with its ingenious camouflaging.

The Bewick’s wrens have also been busy testing out nest locations. There has been some activity at the lariat house, but no definite decision to nest there yet.

Even the Cooper’s hawks were gathering sticks yesterday.

Since nesting is in full swing it is time to put out some quality nesting material. Natural fibers can be difficult for birds to find in the city. I try to make some readily available with hopes the birds will use the raw cotton, wool fiber or dog hair rather than man-made fibers that can cause catastrophe. I watched two female hummingbirds fail in their nesting attempts in 2010 because of polyester fiber in their nests.Putting out natural fibers can be as easy as this, a handful of raw cotton fibers wired to a plate and attached to a tree. In this case the red attracts the hummingbirds. They quickly discover that there is no food, but there are wonderful building fibers that are naturally soft, water repellent, pliable, nontoxic and biodegradable. And this isn’t just for hummingbirds. I’ve seen bushtits and goldfinches pulling off fibers as well. You don’t have to go out and buy anything. Comb your dog or cat and stick the cast-off fur in a bush. You may not see the builders taking supplies, but I can tell you, the Bewick’s wrens always line their nest with the black hairs from our dog.

Nesting birds need quality resources. Make them available and the building will happen in your yard.

Facing Drought in California, 2012

What does the face of drought look like? Plants that typically should be robust and green in March displaying leaves curled from water stress.

non-native spider plant

native currant

Natives like the currant which should be blooming, this year are producing only leaves. There are ramifications for later in the year. A lack of blooms means no summer fruit. Birds and small mammals will find less to eat in August and September.

native bush anenome

Are we really looking into the eyes of a long dry summer? I keep track of the rainfall in my yard. There is a reason why the California slender salamanders aren’t out and about and why the bush anemone is looking stressed. We have had very little rain this season.


From October to April is our rainy season. In 2010, our first measurable rain arrived on October 6th and by the end of February we had received 12.58 inches of rain. This year our rainy season began on October 5th, but as of today, March 5, 2012, we have received only 5.375 inches.


The average annual rainfall in Los Angeles since 1878 is 14.98 inches. Typically, weather forecasters measure our rainfall against a rounded-up 15 inches. If you look at the graph of annual recorded rainfall, patterns are tricky to spot. There are years of less than 5 inches spiked with years of 20 or 30 inches.

seasonal rainfall numbers sourced from National Weather Service

But if you delve a bit deeper into the numbers you see that the mean amount of rainfall since 1878 is 13.19 inches (a few years of heavy rainfall actually push the average up). Over the last 50 years the mean amount of rainfall has dropped to 12.48 inches. The two lowest years are 2002 (4.42 inches) and 2007 (3.21 inches).


If rain doesn’t arrive soon, we will probably arrive in June with a total of less than 8 inches of rain, drought levels. This impacts every living thing in Southern California, from frogs and fish, to agriculture and humans. The hillsides and their wild residents can’t ask for more water from a river far away. They have to survive on what falls from the sky.

battered mourning cloak butterfly

The mourning cloak butterfly has awoken from its winter hibernation ready to find a mate and breed. But it is tattered by a long year of wandering and the flower blooms that it needs to survive are few and far between.

Great Backyard Bird Count 2012

Get your binoculars!

The Great Backyard Bird Count is Coming!

Friday, February 17 - Monday, February 20

This is an opportunity to go outside and reconnect with your avian neighbors. How many crows are flying by? Are those turkey vultures circling over the Freeway? Is that a Bewick's wren making a nest in the bird house? Not only will you have fun participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count you will be contributing to our scientific understanding of the status of bird populations and movement across the continent.

So grab your birding book, your binoculars and a piece of paper. GBBC is designed for kids to participate, anyone can do it. Note the time you start watching, distance traveled, number of people watching and GO!

Click the button to enter you data at Cornell University's http://www.birdcount.org


I'll be counting at:

Saturday, Feb. 18 8 AM - 10 AM Member's Birdwalk at the LA Zoo
Monday, Feb. 20, 9 AM - 11 AM Malibu Lagoon

A Real Valentine's Day Love Letter

Think about the most romantic love letter you've ever read. Is it filled with images that depict the lover as "lovely as a bloom," more temperate than "a summer's day" or as constant as the sun? Does the soldier promise his love that he will return, even if that return is manifested as "a soft breeze upon your cheek"?


When we long to connect to pure beauty or timeless truth, humans are drawn not to ourselves but to nature, the best aspect of our being.


The tree budding on a gray day. A goldfinch splashing in a fountain. The bluest sky that reminds you of a loved one's eyes. This Valentine's Day avoid the glittery wrappings that scar the earth. Give a gift from your heart, from your history or from your pen - Send a Love Letter.


Need a little inspiration? Join Eclipse-1.com for:

Reaching Across the Distance 

Love Letters 2012

a Live Internet Broadcast 

Sunday, Feb. 12 at 3 PM Pacific Standard Time

CLICK HERE http://eclipse-1.blogspot.com/2012/02/reaching-across-distance-love-letters.html

There will be original music, real love letters and inspiration.

Gifts of the heart and for the planet:
Fair Trade Chocolate
Cherished items
From the Hearth and Yard

Fungus Among Us - Amphibians and the Global Chytrid Fungus Crisis

Why are frog, toad and salamander populations declining worldwide? What is the Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus and why is it a threat to local amphibian populations?

7:30 PM Thursday, February 2

I'll be presenting:

Fungus Among Us:

Amphibians and the Global Chytrid Fungus Crisis

Around the amphibians are facing unprecedented rates of extinction and one of the reasons is a fungus. Southern Californians move through a variety of wildlife habitats and areas. You can play an important role in protecting endangered amphibians by being aware of the chytrid fungus. I'll debunk the myths and misconceptions about chytrid fungus and provide specific suggestions on how we can all help save the frogs, toads and salamanders that are facing threats from this fungus throughout Southern California.


I'll be speaking at the monthly meeting of the Del Air Rockhounds at:
Northridge United Methodist Church 
9650 Reseda Blvd, Northridge, CA 91324 
Guests Are Always Welcome At Their Meetings & Events

Go Outside Today

I write about the natural world because it is the source of my sanity. We all have our frustrations, whether with work, family or just our interactions with other humans. Take 10 minutes outside today - walk, weed or just sit and watch. Let yourself be part of something bigger than your immediate life.


Lost and Found

among chirps and flashes of white tail feathers
among flashing black eyes and yellow beaks silhouetted in the sun

between faint gurgle of fountain and flutter of delicate bathers
between chatter of kinglets and purr of goldfinches

beneath red-tailed hawk and circling turkey vultures headed north
beneath dark raven duo frolicking on a playground of blue

beside a whirl of magenta-dipped male house finches and
beside the quiet reserve of a wren slipping in to pluck a worm

among quiet life, calmly focused on this moment of this day
I find patience and peace
and lose anger and frustration


Keri Dearborn, January 30, 2012

Look At the "Wonderful World"

At long last it is raining. But it does mean that going out into the world today is more difficult.


If rain or snow, work or obligations have you trapped indoors today, take a beautiful walk out into the wonderful world with David Attenborough and the photographers of BBC One.


Follow the link to the short video: http://www.wimp.com/wonderfulworld/

It will make you think again about what is beautiful and valuable.

Spielberg’s version of "War Horse" Fails

I found tears rolling down my cheek during this movie, not because of the sentimentality forced into its every minute by director Steven Spielberg, but because Spielberg misses the point of Michael Morpurgo’s book War Horse.

Yes, both stories thematically demonstrate how war victimizes innocents, human and animal. But the original book is Joey’s story–the horse’s point of view. Here, Spielberg uses the horse as a prop passed between owners like the musical instrument in The Red Violin.  He leans heavily on classic film images to the point of making them cliché–the goose that acts out the mother’s desires as in director William Wyler’s 1956 anti-war movie Friendly Persuasion and the picturesque angles of the family farm straight out of John Ford’s classic How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man.

Without the horses, Spielberg is saying nothing new. Ironically, the great director doesn’t seem to truly understand that.  In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Spielberg admits:

“The horses were amazing. Joey had a sense of what was happening in the scene. Joey added things, as the cameras were rolling, that none of us ever asked for, that brought a performance to [the audience] that we didn’t expect when we made the movie.”

Yet, he has specifically chosen not to credit the equine actors that provide the film with its greatest depth. Even the humans that worked with the horses are relegated to “Other Crew” at the end of the credits. Spielberg is mirroring the militaries of the Great War, he is using these animals for his benefit and not distinguishing them for their participation. Is he afraid that knowing these are equine performers will destroy the “movie magic”? Movie goers aren’t fools, we won’t be crushed to know that the part of Joey was filled by 14 different horses or that the big black horse Topthorn was portrayed by a company of four.

These horses aren’t just four-legged extensions of the humans in the story and they didn’t just happen to be brought in as farm-stock extras. Each horse was specifically cast and trained, and one of the equine actors did portray Joey more often than others. According to the movie’s horse master Bobby Lovgren, a horse named Finder was instrumental in many of those scenes that made movie-goers turn misty eyed. Lovgren worked with this horse and purchased it after its participation in the film Seabiscuit. (for more on the horses in the movie )

So what’s happened here that the caterers are credited and the horses aren’t? Roy Rogers’ credited Trigger? How many of the horses that participated in the film were sold off like used props as the war horses were at the end of WWI?

And here is my biggest problem with Spielberg’s attempt at this story. Morpurgo’s tale is about the unrecognized innocents that were forced to participate in human conflict. Spielberg uses the horses as symbols of human innocents, not as actual representatives of the other living creatures that are drawn into human-created catastrophe.  Scholars estimate that 8.5 million soldiers died on all sides during World War I. When Morpurgo researched his book, the Imperial War Museum supplied the number of an estimated 8 million horses that died in the war as well.

Why didn’t that appear on the screen at the end of this movie?

In London’s Hyde Park a memorial for Animals in War was dedicated in 2004. Bronze statues of a horse, a dog and two mules make their way through a wall depicting animals of all species from elephants to glow worms that were drawn into human wars in the 20th century. And here are the words that speak so much and were left out of this film...

“...They had no choice.”

One of the first such memorials appeared in France following WWI near the location of the Battle of the Somme. Here a memorial was placed on a wall in the town of Couin for the horses and mules, dogs, carrier pigeons and canaries that gave their lives.

“To the innumerable God’s humble who suffered and perished in the last wars. With love, faith, and loyalty, they endured much and died for us. May all remember them with gratitude and in the future commemorate their suffering and death by showing kindness to living animals.”

This is the take away mime that is desperately needed from this film. Not for people to cry and say how sad it was then, but to honor the sacrifice of these creatures with compassionate actions now. More animals are misused in this country today than ever before, from illicit fighting to throw away pets. But that is not where Spielberg went. He chose instead to focus back to the people. But if you can not show compassion and sympathy for the horse, then eventually there will be some human who is “less human” than you are, someone “more animal” than you and therefore who’s life is worth less than yours.

Memorials for animals in war and compassion for their sacrifice are appearing in many other countries around the world.  Spielberg’s film War Horse could have moved people toward that thought in the U.S. as well, instead he chose to turn his movie toward a father and son both damaged by war and able to come to a silent understanding. Enough of the silent understanding! It’s time for loud voices speaking out for the value of all living creatures and the necessity of a healthy planet for us all to live on.

Do Birds Mourn?

Do birds mourn? Do other species have complex family relationships that we don't recognize because we don't take time to observe? Yesterday at dusk, a band-tailed pigeon sat at the feeder trying to eat. It struggled to move the food from it's crop (a kind of holding pouch in the throat) down into its stomach. It's feathers were slightly fluffed up, a definite sign in warm weather that a bird is not feeling its best.


I had seen this bird the day before. Band-tailed pigeons are the largest birds that come to my feeder. They stand about 10 inches tall and are heavy bodied like the imported rock pigeons you might see in a parking lot. But the band-tailed pigeon is a native Californian and historically flocks of them thrived on acorns in our oak woodlands. Diminished numbers of old-growth oaks have meant fewer of these beautiful gray birds with iridescent green at the back of their neck and a whitish band across the tail. For the past seven years these birds have been regulars at my feeder. They first appeared in 2004, but by 2005 we were seeing them year-round.


On Saturday, I noticed that this band-tail came to the yard alone, (unusual because they typically are in family groups), and it seemed punch-drunk, unstable, like it had just survived a predator attack - most likely from a Cooper's hawk. A few of its feathers were askew. It sat quietly perched in a tree trying to compose itself. Later it was gone.


The Cooper's hawks have been hunting our neighborhood intensely for about a month and the band-tailed pigeons have actually become weekly visitors rather than daily. When they come they eat, drink and move on. They don't dally.


Last night when I watched the injured band-tail trying to swallow, my hope that it had survived the massive impact that a hawk attack can deliver began to dwindle. I've seen this before, a bird that escapes a predator attack may suffer internal injuries that are fatal. Cooper's hawk attacks band-tailed pigeon.


As night fell the injured band-tailed pigeon bedded down about five feet off the ground in a small lavatera shrub, unusual for a bird that typically roosts overnight in a large tree 40 feet or higher.


Sometime in the early morning the band-tailed pigeon died. I found its quiet body at the base of the bush. As I gently picked it up and grabbed a shovel to bury it on the hillside, I realized I was being watched. Four adult band-tailed pigeon perched in the large pine tree next door. Were they waiting for their injured family member to emerge from its evening roost? Had they spent the night here, watching over their injured companion?


I held the silent gray form up for them to see before I buried it in the earth. Eight eyes followed my movements. They remained silently perched. I refilled the feeders, but they did not come down to eat.  They do not appear to be here for food. Do they understand that this bird has died? Do they mourn the loss of a family member? I have seen one band-tail risk its life to alert another of a predator. What really goes on in their family relationships?


Too often we paint ourselves as emotionally superior to other species and point out that humans have complex communications and relationships. But I have seen crows solicit help from ravens to drive off an owl - Mobbing an Owl. I've seen an Allen's hummingbird mother become distraught over a destroyed nest - Rescuing Hummingbird. I've watched a female Allen's hummingbird fend off another female trying to steal her nest and documented the soap opera interrelationships of a group of nesting females - Allen's Hummingbirds.


I don't know if the band-tailed pigeons are mourning the loss of one of their own this morning, but they are here for a reason. And the more I watch the creatures around me the more I am amazed and humbled by them.

A Watershed Gives Birth To Rivers

Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve

We think of streams and rivers as flowing bodies of water, but we tend to give little thought to where the the water comes from. For the Los Angeles River the water collects in rolling mountains high above the valley floor. But because our climate fluctuates between drought and flood, the water coming into the Los Angeles River is historically intermittent.

valley oak

I recently had the opportunity to explore the mountains and valleys of the Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve at the western end of the San Fernando Valley. These rolling hills with ancient oaks have been ranch land and also the testing grounds for all of the major rocket engines that have taken Americans into space.


Up until a few years ago this area was closed to the public and the land was in dispute between developers, conservation groups and activists concerned about toxins (nuclear and chemical) that had been left on the land. Unfortunately, technology often comes with a price and in this case toxins in and on the land are being cleaned up, but some of the waste is best left undisturbed. The positive side to that uncomfortable notion is that development plans were shelved and the land was purchased by the state to become parkland and a wildlife corridor. 

white-crowned sparrow

The Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve offers beautiful vistas and an opportunity to stroll a more wild side of California. In December, small flocks of migratory meadowlarks forage in the tall grass while a harrier hawk flies ominously just over their heads. A coyote watched us from the rim of a hillside. While acorn woodpeckers were so busy stashing acorns in every nook of a twisted valley oak, that they didn't even notice they were being observed. 


When the rains come and drops gather on this open area, tiny streamlets will flow in three different directions. Some will flow slightly north and down into the Simi Valley wash, some will head directly west toward Malibu Creek and the ocean, and some will flow down Bell Creek in Bell Canyon to become part of the Los Angeles River.


To reach the Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve drive west on Victory Blvd. until it dead ends. There is a nice gravel parking lot and a $3 fee helps to maintain this slice of open land. Walk the watershed are get a feeling for how important open land is for gather wildlife and water.

Is That A Bat or A Bird Flying Over the LA River?

A lot of people are interested in the bats that we have in the Los Angeles area. Bats in LA. That's a good thing, because bats need friends. Bats provide a great service by eating tons of insects. But not everything you see with pointy wings flying at dawn or dusk is a bat.

I recently had a comment from a reader asking about groups of 20-30 bats flying over the Los Angeles River in the Burbank area early in the morning. An observant eye can frequently see nature attracted to the Los Angeles River as you make your slow commute on the Ventura Freeway. I've seen these wheeling silhouettes as well, but probably what this traveler saw were birds and not bats. 

Bats typically return to their roosts before dawn. Seldom do you see our local bat species in a group unless it is right as they are emerging from their roosting location in the evening. 

At specific times of the year when there are insect blooms along the river, you can see swallows or swifts in groups flying quickly over the river catching insects. These small birds can look similar to bats. Both have narrow wings that help them maneuver quickly so they can catch insects on the wing. Both are dark in silhouette and some swallows and swifts have minimal tails that may make them appear batlike. 

But if you look closely you will see a difference. Bats typically have a faster wing beat and seldom glide. Swallows and swifts on the other hand will glide in between wing beats. These birds frequently are seen in flocks ranging from 10 to 1,000s of individuals. One evening along the banks of Utah Lake just south of Provo, we watched hundreds of thousands of swallows feeding on swarming insects just before a storm. I've never seen so many birds in one place in my life. 

These two animals bats and swallows (or swifts) are filling a similar niche in the ecosystem; they are flying predators feeding on small flying insects. And they share the workload, bats at night and the birds during the day. Occasionally, when the insects are plentiful and the weather is just right the two shifts will cross and you may see the furry and the feathered creatures sharing the sky. Both are doing their best to reduce the numbers of mosquitoes along our river and around our neighborhoods. All they ask in return is habitat to roost and nest in and insects that haven't been poisoned. Birds and bats need you to be their friends.


Swallows and swifts you are most likely to see in the Los Angeles area:
white-throated swift, chimney swift,Vaux's swift, barn swallow, cliff swallow, northern rough-winged swallow, violet-green swallow and tree swallow


For more about these bird species check out Cornell University's About Birds website: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/search

11/11/11 Calabasas Creek Park

Did you take a few minutes on 11/11/11 to go adventuring?

I’ve become fascinated by the Los Angeles River. I want to explore it from its trickle out of the mountains to its tumble into the sea. I think there is much to be discovered especially in relation to birdlife.

Yesterday morning we headed out to Calabasas Creek Park in old town Calabasas. It is a small bit of land tucked next to the Ventura Fwy just east of the Sagebrush Cantina. A hundred years or so ago, Calabasas Creek ran past Leonis Adobe and headed east to join with Bell Creek and Chatsworth Creek to form the headwaters of the Los Angeles River.

Forty years ago, Calabasas was a dusty half-block of old clapboard buildings and the creek was seasonal and forced into a cement drainage system. Today there seems to be a steady flow of water down the canyon. As long as that flow is a well-mannered creek, it is allowed to flow under the road and through Calabasas Creek Park.

A cement dam creates a gentle pond under wide-spreading ancient oaks and on this day the pond was dappled with mallards. The male mallards are just starting to take on their breeding plumage and they were looking quite smart.  As we overlooked the pond we noticed two fascinating things.

• Whenever the fox tree squirrels in the coast live oaks dropped an acorn into the pond, some of the mallards, mostly males, dashed to snatch it up. They were grabbing the inch-and-a-half long acorns and swallowing them down. It was amazing. I’d never heard of ducks eating acorns. And they weren’t all doing it. Some swam to the dropped fruit only to be disappointed and confused as to why others were eating these big hard things.
•  
• The second thing we noticed was the pattern of the ducks in the water. The spacing was amazingly regular. As we watched it became apparent that the male mallards were maintaining a minimum of 1.5 feet between themselves. A male that compromised that “personal space” was either chased away or was purposefully forcing other males to move. Females were allowed to swim in between the males without comment. This wasn’t just ducks floating on a pond, this was a very organized social gathering.

While the mallards commanded the pond and the creek flowing out of the park, overhead bushtits, oak titmice, yellow-rumped warblers and an unusual sight, a summer tanager moved through the trees. A downy woodpecker feasted on insects in an oak gall. While in the well-manicured front garden a western tanager and house finches bathed in the fountain. In all there were 11 species of birds, a western fence lizard, a huge orb spider, one gardener and us in the park.

Calabasas Creek Park offers easy access, manageable size and a quiet escape. Discover one of the watery fingers that reaches down to become the Los Angeles River.

Calabasas Creek Park is open 1 PM - 4 PM Wed. - Friday & Sunday, and 10 AM - 4 PM Saturday. For more information visit www.leonisadobemuseum.org

The Big Year - Movie Review

A Big Yes for "The Big Year" with Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson. Finally a movie that offers intelligent humor with realistic characters and conflict. Three men with the goal to see the most bird species in North America during a calendar year. While it may seem crazy to some, it was a real contest of perseverance, character and skill. Yes, the facts have been aided to enhance the dramatic structure and this drama isn't giant transforming robots or explosive terrorist plots, its what most of us really can relate to: transforming moments in our lives and the plot twists in our personal relationships.


Personally I'm tired of outlandish comedies aimed at teens that are based on ridiculous hyperbole. It is a pleasure to travel along with these characters on an adventure that you can take with any member of your family and not be worried about the language or situations on the screen. Hopefully this film will stay on screens long enough for family holiday movie going.


I was out birding with some people this morning and everyone was eager to see this movie, but they couldn't find places where it was playing. This is a quiet movie that has the potential to build an audience, but only if the marketing people understand that not every film brings in its biggest box office in the first weeks.


There is more to "The Big Year" than birding. Everyone has a dream that is important to them that might be seem absurd to someone else. Maybe I'm biased because I am a birder and the notion of doing a Big Year seems like a holy grail, but even if you look beyond the birding quest, the characters in this movie are seeking personal fulfillment. They are trying to find something within themselves. Maybe we would all be better off if we stopped reaching for the bright and shiny things that got our economy into the mess it is in and started looking at our own internal goals. There is no big villain and no crazy slapstick in this film, instead there is wit, creative imagery, beautiful locations and wonderful characters played by a cast of experience actors that know what it is really like to be flawed humans all trying to find the best of themselves.


Plus it motivated me to go birding this morning. 54 species at Malibu Lagoon State Park!

Halloween and Haunting Stories

Looking for something spooky? Check out the free download of the "Ghosts of the Internet" live broadcast from last night. 


There are scary tales, original music and bits of haunting humor. I even wrote a new ghost story for this year.


The Trick is the Treat. Ghost of the Internet on itunes.

A Birding Jewel in Los Angeles

The wonderful thing about birding is that you can do it anywhere. I saw my first green woodpecker on the lawn of a hotel just under the wingtips of planes landing at London Heathrow Airport and a Eurasian jay in the ruins of Troy, in Turkey.


But I identified my first white-crowned sparrow in my backyard in the suburbs of Los Angeles. You can travel all over the world looking for exotic bird species, but sometimes the places close to home can offer even greater diversity.

great blue heron

One of my favorite birding locations is in the middle of the suburban bustle of the San Fernando Valley. The Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge is a flood basin along the Los Angeles River. Formerly a sod farm, the low-lying area has been set aside by the Army Corps of Engineers to collect water in the years when we have unusual amounts of rain and the basin floods. 

The sod farm is gone and now native scrub surrounds a pond and riparian habitat. The refuge has become an amazing location to see a wide variety of southern California's bird life and a major stopover for migrating birds. Recently on a Saturday morning in early October, I spotted 37 bird species during a short 2-hour walk.  There were the locals: California and spotted towhees, lesser goldfinch, Anna's hummingbird and black phoebe. The pond provides feeding areas for five species of herons and egrets, and now a belted kingfisher pair. There was even a lone white-faced ibis hanging out with some mallards.


The travelers have begun to pass through and the wildlife area provides important refuge, food and water for migrating species. A beautiful adult male yellow warbler came within a few feet; close enough that I could see the red streaking on his breast without my binoculars. The first of the white-crowned sparrows were in the underbrush, while double-crested cormorants were sizing up the island for nesting and three species of grebe were patrolling the water.


Birds of prey are numerous here as well. I can't think of too many locations where in two hours time you can see an osprey, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk and an American kestrel.


Sepulveda Basin never disappoints me. Whether it is the osprey diving for fish or a family of 22 bushtits making their way through the underbrush, there is always something to thrill and amaze. Take a Mini Birdwalk with video. This birding jewel in the middle of Los Angeles offers numerous bird species anytime of the year and provides easy access to some of California's unique species. Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge in Feb.

Oct. 8,  2011 Species List
mallard
domestic mallard
pied-billed grebe
eared grebe
western grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
great egret
snowy egret
green heron
black-crowned night heron
white-faced ibis
turkey vulture
osprey
red-shouldered hawk
red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
American coot
mourning dove
yellow-chevroned parakeet
Anna's hummingbird
belted kingfisher
Nuttall's woodpecker
black phoebe
Say's phoebe
bushtit
Bewick's wren
northern mockingbird
European starling
common yellowthroat
yellow warbler
yellow-rumped warbler
spotted towhee
California towhee
song sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
house finch
lesser goldfinch 

Other So. Cal birding areas: Bolsa Chica, Malibu Lagoon, Serrania Park

Be EcoPositive - Meeting Change Head-On with the Environment in Mind

Change is constant and sometimes overwhelming, but if you focus on little things, occasionally you can have a positive impact.

An international corporation has purchased two of our local shopping malls and for the past 5 years, or more, they have been working on a project to create a shopping "Village" with a network of walkways and mixed use areas that would connect the two remodeled malls. Many long-time residents of our suburb were up-in-arms. The increase of traffic and people was not welcome. 


I went to the planning meetings that were open to the public and I must give credit to the local city counsel office and the multi-national corporation for giving the local residents an opportunity to speak.


From the very first meeting I realized this change was coming. Whether I liked it or not, a shopping "Village" was going to be built. What could I do to make this change more ecopositive? I've seen similar projects by this owner in other areas of the city and the world. They usually are well laid out with beautiful landscaping. But one thing stood out to me, the landscaping was sterile; there were no native plants.


At that first meeting comment boards were put up around the auditorium with ideas pre-printed on them. We were all given stickers to express our priorities for the items that were important to us, green for positive, red for negative. We were encouraged to add ideas as well. I walked up to the comment board with the heading "Landscaping" and I wrote "Native plants that will be drought tolerant and provide habitat."


As I wrote, someone beside me said, "Yeah, why not?" If there was going to be new landscaping, why not restore habitat for birds and butterflies with native plants. I watched the green stickers of support multiply. This was an ecopositive suggestion with no downside.


I stayed on the mailing list and any time opinions were solicited I continued my mantra, "Native plants in landscaping."


The project has been through many transformations and slowed with the economic situation, but yesterday I saw a full page add in a local paper titled "Sustainability at the The Village, Coming Soon!" Change is moving forward. There were three bullet points on the page. The third one started "Native landscaping..."


There are little victories in making a positive difference. When it is an ecopositive difference all living things benefit.

Arctic Ice Cap Melting

photo from Polar Bears International, polarbearsinternational.org

Why is global climate change a controversial issue? Why are Americans unwilling to accept their share of the responsibility for increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and admit that burning carbon based-fuels contributes to the problem?


Are we petulant children who refuse to be held accountable for our actions? Is it easier to believe the voices of power/money that depend on our addiction to fossil fuels? The corporations that sell these resources pay huge sums to create siren songs telling us that we aren't responsible, that oil creates jobs, that other energy sources aren't worth investing in. 


This summer southern California was fairly mild and beautiful. It would be easy to believe that climate change was a fairy tale. But global climate change is global, it is a big picture change.


NASA is a science-based branch of the American government/military. Just watch the video of satellite images of the Arctic sea ice from March to September 2011. The images are fact. The northern sea ice is melting at a greater rate than before and a major change has come with the disappearance of old ice.


http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-ice-min.html


What can you do to change your carbon use? It has taken us 7 years to completely change over our vehicles, but now both of our cars are hybrids. For more ideas on how to reduce your impact on climate change visit Polar Bears International.

"Feathers; The Evolution of a Natural Miracle"

Book Review
Feathers; The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson Basic Books, Philadelphia PA. 2011

Discovery, questions and the search for possible explanations, such is the joyous nature of science. Thor Hanson immediately engages the reader as a friend and invites you to share his journey of discovery about feathers. His comfortable voice weaving scientific accuracy and engaging story reminded me of another of my favorite science writers Bernd Heinrich (The Geese of Beaver Bog). When Hanson began to mention a professor with a cabin in the Maine woods, I knew it was no coincidence. Thor Hanson studied under Heinrich and carries on with his professor’s insightful way of making science accessible to a broad audience.

From dinosaur fossils haloed with imprints of their feathers to specially dyed and designed feather costumes worn onstage in Las Vegas, Hanson explores the origins, function, miraculous qualities, beauty and yet undiscovered abilities of fluff and quill. Did you know that the reason Dickens's Tiny Tim was anticipating a holiday goose dinner was because the number of geese needed to furnish the feathers for quill pens meant that there were a lot of geese available at the butcher shop? With the replacement of the quill pen, geese gradually moved off our menu.

Feathers have driven people to do amazing things. They encouraged us to take to the air ourselves and public outrage at the excessive consumption of birdlife to decorate women’s hats with feathers led to the first conservation movement in the United States. The Audubon Society and the Migratory Bird Act are all interconnected with feathers.

If you love birds, have ever worn a feather in your hat band or wonder how human use of resources can impact the world, pick up a copy of Feathers. Hanson will reveal truths about these downy delicacies that you have never dreamed of and will inspire you to ask more questions yourself. This is one of my favorite books of the year.

Other Book Reviews:
Alex and Me
The Geese of Beaver Bog
Survival of the Sickest

Remembering 9/11

I keep a journal. Not everyday, but on occasions when I feel the need to document. On the morning of September 11, 2001 I was not at home. I had spent the night at my sister's so that I could drive to San Diego and take care of my cousin's children while her husband had surgery. It wasn't until the next day that I wrote the following:


9/12/01
Thousands of people in New York and Washington D.C. are dead. Terrorists commandeered commercial aircraft and crashed them into the two towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. An attempt to crash one into Camp David failed and the innocent people on the plane crashed into a rural area in Pennsylvania. This is one of those moments, like Pearl Harbor, like the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that marks the ending of a generation.We have a President who is not up to the leadership necessary for the moment. While the country still reels from the events that unfolded yesterday, Muslim fundamentalists are being identified as the perpetrators. The balance in the world teeters and nothing will be quite the same again.

Vengeance toward fundamentalist zealots is like trying to discipline a chicken, it only feeds chaos. People who have nothing will follow a zealot, hoping to gain something. The anarchists early in our own country in the last century were foiled not by increased police, but by the growth of labor unions and living wages. People who have something are less likely to threaten their neighbors, because they do have something to lose.


Yesterday as the horror unfolded, as the World Trade Towers collapsed killing perhaps as many as 40,000 people, I was taking care of J's four-year-old Matthew, while the other kids were at school and E was recovering from surgery on his neck for a ruptured disc. Then, the whole events were unbelievable. But last night driving home, the skies were amazingly dark. There were no planes flying. John Wayne Airport was a parking lot of airplanes. They were side-by-side, wing tip to wing tip. Others were parked even on the runways. LAX was vacant, nothing. 


People are gathering at centers in New York to fill out forms with identifying information about their loved ones. The Pentagon is still burning. Five stories of rubble fill the streets of the financial district in N.Y. and the two towers that I can remember walking beneath and looking up at, are gone. 

Here on the west coast we are safe, but are we? In my 2-story house with more bedrooms than we need, can there be safety when other people have nothing? I don't think so.


I look back at the past 10 years and I am saddened that rather than become global citizens many Americans have become more insular. We deny that we are the greatest consumers of unreplenishable natural resources. The planet suffers at our hands and now that the years of waste and want have come to an end for 90% of the population, so many look back clinging to the past rather than looking forward to a future where we must behave differently for the planet. Americans are acting like the southern aristocracy after the Civil War, we want the luxury we had and are unwilling to accept that it was unsustainable. This year global climate change is impacting food and water resources. We thought that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 changed our lives, but the change ahead of us in the next ten years is unimaginable.

House Finches

Have you seen a bird slightly larger than a house sparrow fluttering under your eaves? Or maybe they are investigating under your patio roof. The male has purplish-red breeding coloration splashed brightly on his head and chest in the spring. The dowdy female is more mottled brown with white streaks on her chest.

I recently received a question about these delightful little birds and it was a good reminder that just because a species is common, it doesn’t mean that everyone knows about them. House finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) are frequent visitors and residents in Southern California backyards. 


Their nests are half-grapefruit-sized works of art woven of dried grasses and plant fiber. Protected locations under house eaves and on patios are a strong attraction for these builders of delicate nests. As seed-eating song birds, house finches have flourished in suburban landscapes and their numbers have increased as more and more of the American Southwest has been developed.
Today, house finches are found across the United States, but it wasn’t always that way. House finches are originally residents of the Southwest. The male’s coloration is striking and his song is beautiful. People arriving in the Los Angeles area in the 1920’s took to capturing these charismatic finches and sending them east to sell as “Hollywood finches.” Captive birds escaped and founded east coast populations. Today house finches are one of the most observed species at backyard feeders in 48 states. (See the trends for house finch populations for your area at Project Feederwatch)

House finches are not picky feeders. They will eat black sunflower, millet and especially the nyjer seed that also attracts goldfinches. They are also attracted to native plants that produce fruit, like hollyleaf cherry and Catalina cherry. (Creating a yard for wildlife)

Every birder starts with a species that catches their eye and makes them look at birds in a different way. For many people a singing male house finch may be that first bird. While they may be common, house finches are an important species in our local biodiversity.

Earth Day Gift

Happy Earth Day!


I've been too busy lately; busy at the computer, busy with projects. I haven't taken my own advice. I haven't been out in the yard. 

This morning the dog was barking at something and I went up the hill to see what had attracted her attention. It could have been a rabbit, a coyote, a raven. I didn't see anything but then, there on the ground was a butterfly clinging to the dirt. The mourning cloak butterfly, with its wings closed, looked like a dead leaf.

Was it dead or alive? I picked it up. It was motionless, but gripped my finger with surprising strength. I headed toward the house to take a picture. As I held the butterfly on my finger it started to vibrate, just slightly. It was like a shiver. It only lasted a moment, but before I reached the house the tiny creature shivered two more times. Each time the strength and length of the shivering increased. It was waking up.

Of course the batteries in the camera were dead and I couldn't find the extra set.


With a final quivering the mourning cloak awakened from its nighttime torpor, a mini hibernation. In the 50 degree evening temperature, the butterfly had gone into resource conservation mode. It's resting place, on an eastern-facing slope, had it positioned to warm up with the morning sun. But I had come along and disturbed it. 


Before I could get new batteries in the camera, the mourning cloak began to flutter its wings. I quickly scooped it up and released it outside. It flew up into the Chinese elm tree. Mourning cloak caterpillars.


The Bewick's wren chicks are begging for food from their haggard parents. The first lesser goldfinch chick of the season is learning to fly. And I held a wild butterfly on my finger and watched it wake up. Go outside and the wild creatures will show you what life is really about. Happy Earth Day!

I’m Liking Lichen on a Brick Wall

Zone 1 in our front yard is just a sliver of planter and concrete beneath the entrance stairs, but the biodiversity is amazing. One of my surprise discoveries is this clump of yellow-green lichen growing on an old brick planter.

Lichen are amazing living organisms. The Lichens of North America web page explains that lichen are fungi that do not make their own food so they have found a way to include algae or cyanobacteria in their systems to internally grow their own nutrition.


These joint efforts of life have the ability to live in harsh conditions - on rocks & sidewalks, in deserts or tundra, on cliff faces and human ruins. They survive under snow providing food for caribou and arctic rodents. Some thrive on wet tree bark and create food and nesting materials for forest creatures.

Lichens grow slowly and some may be among the oldest living things on the planet. The lichen on this brick never really caught my eye before. I don’t know how long it has been there. And that is the tricky thing about lichen: small and typically low to the ground, it is easy to miss. But because lichens protect themselves by producing chemical herbicides and even antibiotics, they could provide important pharmacological discoveries for humans. Small life must be mighty to survive. But if they are slow growing, how fast can they adapt to climate change?


Lichen are also beautiful. Check out the Lichens Home Page for some stunning photos. I think I even found my lichen, it may be Caloplaca feracissima.


Something ancient, lichen, and something new, the Internet, working together to help us see the biodiversity in our own backyards.


Lichens of North America http://www.lichen.com/index.html

Low Level Radiation Reaches California

Radiation from Japan has reached California in low levels. Can there be a more important time to watch the natural world around us and observe changes to our "canaries in the coalmine" – wild birds and amphibians?

Get to know you wild neighbors and they will help us all to really understand the environmental ramifications for ourselves.

This morning the Allen's hummingbirds are tending to spring. A Spot took a quick bath in the fountain. BIF is drinking at his feeder while his father FIK is moving in on his son's territory and dominating the courtship field with the females. (Hummingbird Territories and hummingbirds and climate change)

The Bewick's wrens are building a new nest in the lariat house. The House and Last Year's Nest.


The rain that has been forecast has yet to arrive. Will it be the life-giving resource that the blooming plants are hungry for or will it bring an unseen radiation taint?

Two weeks from now will the hummingbirds be nesting or will life be greatly altered?

Shark Fin Soup and CA (AB 376)

Can you image killing a leopard for its ear?  Of course not.  Cutting the fin off a shark and throwing the fish back into the sea to die is basically the same thing. You have a piece of cartilage and the shark forfeits its life.


Shark fin soup is a delicacy in Asia and Asian communities here in California.  Making soup from the fin probably goes back to people using all parts of an animal that was caught because the resource was valuable.  I had shark fin soup years ago at a wedding reception for a Chinese friend of the family.  Unfortunately, the growing number of people wanting to consume this unique dish has seriously impacted shark populations because the fins are cut off of the sharks and the rest of the animal is tossed back into the sea.


This conservation problem has an easy solution. People can make the choice not to eat shark fin soup.


The Monterey Bay Aquarium is supporting the California Bill (AB 376) to make it illegal to import shark fin. You can send a quick note to your state congressman to express your opinion on the matter through the Aquarium's Take Action page.


You also can make the choice to try an alternative recipe, Faux Shark Fin Soup created by chef Peter Pahk.

When we can't moderate our actions, we have to legislate them.  Let's give sharks break for a while.

Cooper's Hawk in the Garden

Water is a vital element to a habitat. The fountain that we added this winter has attracted a variety of birds including this adult Cooper's hawk. It stood in the bubbling water for 10 minutes. Later the same day, an immature Cooper's hawk took a turn standing in the exact same location.

Did it observe the older hawk or was there some communication between the two birds about the interesting new water source?