Bobcat by Cleve Nash

Bobcat by Cleve Nash

Snowy Egrets by Alan Schmierer

Goats and Dogs at Point Buchon
by Jeanie Greensfelder

Peregrine Falcon Image on Banner by Cleve Nash

A Bird's Eye View by Mike Stiles

In early July of this year, Matt Daw — who happens to have been an honorable mention in the 2008 American Birding Association's Young Birder of the Year — was working in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Reserve in New Mexico. The 19-year-old was doing Willow Flycatcher surveys and happened to be videotaping a Least Bittern.  Read More

California State Parks

The Morro Bay Museum of Natural History library has a number of VHS tapes, and we'd like to evaluate whether a few of them are worth converting to DVD, at an expense.  We also have a few VHS tapes at the Museum back desk, but no functioning VHS player. Does anyone have a VHS player that still works that they would be willing to put on loan or donate to the Museum? Read More

Elfin Forest by Jean Wheeler

Would you enjoy strolling around the Elfin Forest Boardwalk and hearing the words of famous natural history writers? Then this walk is meant for you. Cal Trans historian Robert Pavlik will share selections from the works of such authors as Robinson Jeffers, Wallace Stegner, Rachel Carson, Gary Snyder, and others from this and past centuries.  Read More

Marine Sanctuaries by Carol Georgi & Karl Kempton

The California State Lands Commission (CSLC) studied their 49 permitted offshore low energy seismic surveys (LESS) during the last five years and determined some surveys may have caused both Levels A and B take of marine mammals due to decibel (dB) levels in the range of 200 dB to 234 dB, length of surveys, and lack of adequate mitigations. Indeed, California sea otter strandings increased along the shores where some of the surveys occurred offshore the central coast south of Cayucos, and the public was not warned of possible negative impacts to themselves and to marine life.

Several surveys contracted by PG&E near Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (DCNPP) lasted from 20 to 54 days. PG&E denied mitigation to nearshore commercial fishermen for the weeks of their displacement from their fishing areas. Besides entering prime fishing areas, some surveys entered Marine Protected Areas and National Marine Sanctuary waters without individual permits or environmental reviews. The survey contractors used one-year blanket permits based on a 1984 Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND). Read More

 

Female Elephant Seals in
Dispute Over Space by Kevin Cole

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