Lil Apples
Russula (Russula is the genus name of a group of mushrooms, this red one occurs under the oaks in the Elfin Forest. )
Buckbrush ceanothus - Morro Rock in the Background
Suffrutescent Wallflower
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By Jean Wheeler
Saturday, March 6
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, March 20, 9:30 a.m.
Ecology Walk: Les Bowker will lead us on an exploration of the Elfin Forest to find out what strategies the plants use to survive in difficult environments. Although the Forest is mostly green all year, its residents have to adapt to hot, dry summers, attacks by "predators" such as herbivores and caterpillars, and air-borne plant diseases. Plants in the estuary must endure alternating salt water and fresh water environments every six hours. How do they do it? Join our walk with Les to find out.
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 Elfin Forest is in glorious full winter/spring bloom, the best display in a number of years, thanks to the copious rains this year following all those dry years. The floral explosion should continue for several more months. Buckbrush ceanothus is blazing white to pale lavender all over the Elfin Forest, beautiful whether you focus on a single branch, on one full shrub, or view the distant bay or mountains over the wonderful white-studded green foreground. Glowing brilliantly against the white of the ceanothus are bright red fuchsia-like flowers of the gooseberries, lined up in rows along each branch. Some Morro manzanitas still have sprays of little pinkish white flower bells, but much more common already are the fruits, looking like the "little apples" of their Spanish common name.
The rain and warm days have brought many species into flower earlier than in most years. Suffrutescent wallflowers normally bloom from March through May, but their yellow spikes were already common in mid February this year, as were the orange faces of sticky monkeyflowers, normally blooming from March through August. Purple nightshade, expected from May to August were also already in full flower. Wild cucumber vines with many tiny white flowers twine over shrubs throughout the Elfin Forest, much more common than in most recent years. The white glow of pearly everlastings were also opening in late February, though our field guide lists them as expected from June to August. All of these should continue through March and into the months beyond. The annual "fungus foray" led by Dennis Sheridan on February 20 for our Third Saturday Walk revealed many lovely mushrooms and other fungi in the Don Klopfer Grove, and if rains continue in March, the mushrooms should also continue to bloom and produce spores (what we see are the fruiting structures—most of the body of each fungus is spread widely below ground). Remember though, many mushrooms are poisonous, some deadly so.
March is the month that sees our bird population begin to drop sharply as the many species that winter over in our area head northward and up into mountains to their summer breeding grounds. Although large populations of waterbirds head north about this time of year and our bay begins to look deceptively empty, smaller numbers of many duck and wading bird species can be seen on the bay in any month. March is a good month to watch for migrating species passing through from winter havens in Central and South America. Look closely and you may see a rufous or an Allen’s hummingbird refueling on Elfin Forest flowers for a few days to a week or so before continuing northward. Also look for the return of species that nest here in our summer but winter in the tropics. For example, all five species of swallows normally leave us in winter but return around March. And, of course, our resident birds are building or repairing nests and beginning to breed this year’s crop of fledglings. Listen for the calls of male birds trying to attract mates, and soon to come will be the pleas of youngsters demanding food from their harried parents.
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