Bush Lupine
Variable Checkerspot
Variable Checkerspot Pupa
 Variable Checkerspot Larvae
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By Jean Wheeler
Saturday, April 3
The volunteer work party known as the “Weed Warriors” will meet from 9 am 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.
Saturday, April 17
Third Saturday Walk, 9:30 a.m. - Butterflies: Join butterfly enthusiast Pat Brown on a tour of the Elfin Forest from a butterfly’s point of view. Pat has taken many photos of butterflies in all stages of development from eggs to mature butterflies, and will share them along with fascinating butterfly facts. She’ll point out some of the plants that are host to butterflies, and will lead you to hang-outs of Variable Checkerspot, Moro Blue, Swallowtail, Hairstreak and others that make the Elfin Forest their home. She will also share information about butterfly books, web sites and butterfly-related materials. She recommends that you bring a hand lens and a pair of close-focusing (5-10 ft.) binoculars.
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, 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.
Coming Up in the Elfin Forest
The wildly prolific blooming of buckbrush ceanothus this year is beginning to wind down and the Morro manzanitas are covered with the red “little apples” of their Spanish name. But their white flowers are already being replaced by early white sprays of chamise, and California sagebrush should begin to bloom by early April. The tall yellow stalks of suffrutescent wallflower pictured last month are much more abundant than in many years, and should continue into May. Deerweed shrubs are also opening their yellow blooms, and they should continue into August. Sticky monkey flowers (the leaves are sticky, not the flowers) are conspicuously orange and should also continue into August. Silver (leaved) dune bush lupines are starting to open their blue flowers, and will be glorious around Bush Lupine Point well into June or even July.
With so many flowers in bloom, this is the best time of the year to see butterflies and moths. Of 19 species listed in SWAP’s Pocket Guide, all but two fly in April or May. Pat Brown has already seen caterpillars of the variable checkerspot butterfly on sticky monkey-flower plants, their only host. She will lead SWAP’s annual butterfly walk this month (see Saturday, April 17 above). Silver dune bush lupines will attract Moro Blue Butterflies, whose larvae dine only on that species.
Most of our year-round resident birds will be actively building nests or raising young in April. Among arrivals we can expect this month from winter homes farther south are Warbling Vireos; Hooded Orioles; Black-headed Grosbeaks; and Yellow, Townsend's, and Wilson's Warblers. Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds and Western Tanagers should be among birds passing through on their way back north after wintering in Central or South America.
Treat yourself and friends to a springtime walk among the butterflies, birds, and flowers of our own little protected but wild garden.
Spotted Towhee image on banner by Jean Wheeler. |
