Photo by Yolanda Waddell: Ceanothus
Photo by Jean Wheeler: Gooseberry
Photo by Jean Wheeler: Hummingbird
Photo by Jean Wheeler: Peony
Photo by Jean Wheeler: Peony
Photo by Jean Wheeler: Spotted Towhee
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Elfin Forest Activities
By Jean Wheeler
Saturday, December 5
The volunteer work party known as the "Weed Warriors" will meet from 9am to about noon. Anyone is welcome to join in and help pull obnoxious, invading weeds and work on projects to reduce erosion. Wear comfortable sturdy shoes, long pants and sleeves, and park at the north end of 15th Street in Los Osos, avoiding driveways and mailboxes.
Third Saturday Walk - December 19, 9:30am
All About the Estuary: What is an estuary and what is being done to preserve and protect the Morro Bay Estuary and adjacent habitats? Shari Sullivan, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Morro Bay National Estuary Program will tell walk attendees about the work of the MBNEP and the healing of the Morro Bay Estuary. She will lead walkers to the Elfin Forest's overlooks to view the results of silt buildup in Morro Bay, talk about the effects of pollution on the bay, and explain the connection between the Forest and the Estuary. She'll also introduce walk participants to "denizens" of the Bay, and tell us how local residents can help to protect this important natural resource.
Park at the north end of 15th Street (16th Street for wheelchairs) off Santa Ysabel in Los Osos. Walks begin on the boardwalk at the end of the 15th Street sand path. Wear comfortable shoes and long sleeves and pants to avoid poison oak and mosquitoes. Please park carefully, avoiding driveways and mailboxes.
Besides docent-led events, visit the Elfin Forest any day. Experience the quiet natural beauty of this small wilderness area. Park at the north end of any street from 11th through 17th streets off Sta. Ysabel in Los Osos (please avoid blocking driveways or mailboxes) and take a sand path to the boardwalk or the wheel-chair accessible boardwalk entrance at 16th Street.
SWAP Calendars, Mural Prints, T-shirts, Sweatshirts, and Notecards Make Excellent Holiday Gifts
The El Moro Elfin Forest 2010 Calendar features quality photographic images accompanied by informative text. We also picture a flower of the month to look for when visiting the Elfin Forest. You can buy the calendar for $15 at Los Osos Rexall, Volumes of Pleasure Bookstore, Los Osos Flower Market, Miners Ace Hardware in Los Osos, Los Osos Chamber of Commerce, San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, The Photo Shop on Marsh Street in San Luis Obispo, or call 528-1911. For beautiful mural prints by Barbara Rosenthal, shirts with her print on the front and back, or notecards with lovely photographs by Bob Meyer, leave a message at 528-0392 and a SWAP member will return your call. Every item purchased helps to protect the Elfin Forest.
Coming Up in the Elfin Forest
Mild winter temperatures combine with the onset of winter rains to accelerate the pace of life in the Elfin Forest. Many of the earliest flowering species of each new winter season normally open in January, but they may jump start in December this year, fueled by the three inches of rain we received in that unusually generous early storm in October.
Among the very first to open each winter are our wild peonies, normally blooming from December through March. You have to look closely to find them growing barely a foot high under the edges of bushes in the dune scrub or maritime chaparral. These California natives are herbaceous plants with small reddish flowers hanging down, not the large mounds with big showy flowers of garden fame. The bright red, trumpet-shaped flowers of the fuchsia-flowered gooseberries cluster along branches with small green leaves and lots of sharp thorns, making this shrub easy to spot. Buckbrush ceanothus should also be coming into bloom. A shrub widespread in the Elfin Forest, its flowers are white to very pale lavender, not the vivid blue of ceanothus species known as California Lilacs growing wild elsewhere in the state or as garden cultivars.
Our area is well-known as one of the top birding locales in our nation, especially in these winter months when diversity of birds and populations of many (it's tempting to say most) species are at a peak for the year. That's why Morro Coast Audubon sponsors the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival in January each year. Virtually all of the water birds and wading birds seen in our area at any time of year are at peak populations here in December and January. So are all the raptors listed, and a great many of the passerines. The shrubs around the boardwalk can be alive with flitting finches, sparrows, warblers, wrens, bushtits, and many other little brown, grey or yellow birds. Watch for the colorful hummingbirds busily gathering nectar as they pollinate the red tubes of those fuchsia-flowered gooseberries. Among the not-so-little birds of the brush are phoebes, thrashers, towhees, Scrub Jays, Northern Mockingbirds, quail, blackbirds, and doves.
Take a walk on the wild side this holiday season in the El Moro Elfin Forest, which is protected all year every year by the hard-working volunteers of SWAP, Small Wilderness Area Preservation. For more information or to volunteer, leave a message on SWAP's answering machine, 528-0392.
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