Jean

Elfin Forest Activities

by Jean Wheeler

Weed Warriors

December 6: The volunteer work party will meet from 9 am to about noon. Anyone is welcome to join in and work on projects to restore vegetation and reduce erosion. Wear comfortable shoes, long pants and sleeves, and park at the north end of 15th Street in Los Osos, avoiding driveways and mailboxes. Leader Ron Rasmussen rewards his warriors with his delicious homemade cookies!

Third Saturday Walk

December 20, 9:30 – Winter Solstice Walk

Follow Dr. Jean Wheeler through the Elfin Forest on the day before Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. Dr. Wheeler has taught thousands of geography students about the relative wanderings of the sun, moon and earth, and what they mean to us in terms of our climates, tides, and the vegetation and animal life around us. With charts and a globe that doubles as a beachball, she (oh, all right, I) will take us on an imaginary circuit around the sun as we circle the Elfin Forest on the boardwalk. I even have a theme song from the Sound of Music, as Oscar Hammerstein's “cockeyed circle ‘round the sun” is so appropriate for this walk!

Ducks

Coming Up in the Elfin Forest

December is one of the most exciting months in the Elfin Forest. Bird life is reaching peak diversity and populations. The desperately-needed inch of rain at Halloween, lesser sprinkles in mid November, hopefully to be followed soon by more good rains, should initiate our major flowering season from the holidays into the New Year.

Our area is known as one of the top birding regions in our nation, especially in these winter months. That's why the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival, held on Martin Luther King Weekend each year, attracts hundreds of visitors from all over the U.S. and Canada. See the schedule of events and field trips (which include the Elfin Forest) for this winter's festival from January 16-19, 2015, at Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival. Early registration for field trips is essential.

Ceothanus

Most migrating species of water birds and wading birds are already present and will be at peak local populations by mid-December, as are all our local and winter-visiting raptors, and a great many of the passerines. I've seen a number of Canada Geese swimming in the estuary in mid-November. Brant geese usually arrive by the hundreds or even a few thousand on northwest winds following storms out of Alaska in late November or early December. Groups of American White Pelicans can usually be seen well out on the bay, and at high tide some may swim close to the foot of the sandy cliffs below the two viewpoints.

The shrubs around the boardwalk can be alive with resident and wintering finches, sparrows, warblers, wrens, phoebes, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, and many other little brown and little grey birds. Early arrivals from the north already seen here more than a month ago include Golden-crowned and Fox Sparrows and Say's Phoebe. Among the larger birds of the brush are thrashers, towhees, scrub jays, quail, blackbirds, and doves.

Pintail Duck

By late December, some of our larger shrubs will come into bloom. Buckbrush Ceanothus, among the many species of the California Lilac genus Ceanothus, is one of the dominant shrubs in our maritime chaparral, so its white to lavender flowers should nearly surround the boardwalk by the New Year.

The Elfin Forest is nearly in the center of the limited range of Morro Manzanita, a shrub found only along the coast between Montana de Oro and Morro Bay State Parks. Very severely devastated by our multi-year drought, its shrubs are covered by dried brown leaves or branches bare from fallen dead leaves.

Gooseberry

Already a “threatened” species because of its limited range, small populations, and high human development within that small range, the drought damage is very alarming. Since the Halloween rain, some of its shrubs are showing new leaves, but many shrubs still do not. Its tiny, bell-shaped, white-pink flowers are normally a highpoint of our winter floral wonderland. Let's hope continued rains will restore most of these outstandingly beautiful shrubs.

Fuchsia-flowering Gooseberries are showing new green leaves around much of the boardwalk since the Halloween rain. Hopefully they will have enough strength to produce something approaching their usual abundance of red tubular flowers, as Hummingbirds depend on them for much of the energy it takes for their early spring clutches of youngsters.

Take a break from shopping and gift wrapping or relax after the happy holiday turmoil. Walk in the Elfin Forest that we protect through our generous donations and active volunteer efforts. Applaud the tenacity and beauty of our drought-surviving plants and animals!