Bobcat by Cleve Nash

Bobcat by Cleve Nash

Snowy Egrets by Alan Schmierer

Best Breakfast in Town!

A Bird's Eye View by Mike Stiles

I've talked in this space about green birding, and birding close to home to save fossil fuels.  I readily admit though, that it is very exciting to bird in unfamiliar territory. Whether it is a business trip, family vacation, or simply travelling somewhere to watch birds, the chance of life birds and new scenery is fun.  Read More

Coastland Contemplations by Michele Oksen

Travel along our SLO coast and you might notice patches of prickly pear cactus along some of the roadsides and hillsides. Not only does prickly pear cactus, Opuntia ficus-indica, produce sweet fruit—also called figs or tunas—it provides a vegetable crop called nopales as well. Perhaps harder to harvest than most produce, this particular variety of prickly pear can be a tasty treat or painful lesson. Read More

Elfin Forest by Jean Wheeler

August is one of the driest months of the year, yet white and yellow flowers dominate the shrubs in the Elfin Forest.  Coyote brush has both, the yellow flowers being male and the white ones female.  This is the middle of a very long blooming season for them and for the white flowers of the California Sagebrush.  California Croton has pale green leaves with small white flowers.  Dune Buckwheat flowers start out white, but age to pink and ultimately darken to a rust color.  Read More

Marine Sanctuaries by Carol Georgi

Before the Spanish conquest, the Chumash were martilocal fishers, hunters and gatherers living along the coast and 40 miles inland between Malibu (a Chumash word) to Ragged Point in villages sometimes numbering a thousand or more inhabitants. Between 3000 to 1000 years ago they lived as far north as Kirk Creek, if not further to the Esselen. Today, the Chumash are found throughout their former lands as well as up and down the West Coast. Read More

Sweet Springs Reflections by Holly Sletteland

I'm happy to report that we had an incredibly productive work party in July.  We had a good mix of seasoned volunteers and first timers, and everyone gave it their all.  We had three main goals: collecting seed for planting this fall, clearing the area to be planted, and collecting firewood to give away.   I was on the seed collecting detail, and we came away with a good sized haul of nightshade, sage, lupine and poppies. 

When I went down to check on how the weed crew was doing, I was astonished.   I had left the area earlier that morning, carpeted it in a thick blanket of veldt grass, ice plant, African Daisy and other assorted weeds.  Now there wasn't a blade of grass or a daisy petal to be seen.  The crew had completely cleared about a quarter of an acre of weeds in just a few hours.  The only thing left were piles of bulging trash bags.  The firewood crew had managed to haul out two days worth of cutting by the California Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC had cut up a number of fallen branches and trees near the waters edge on the new addition, and volunteers brought it all up to the preserve entrance.  Read More

 

Female Elephant Seals in
Dispute Over Space by Kevin Cole

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Peregrine Falcon image on banner by Cleve Nash