Elfin Forest Activities

By Jean Wheeler

When parking near the Elfin Forest while visiting, please avoid blocking driveways or mailboxes.

Saturdays March 26-April 16, 10 am to 1 pm:  Docent Training

SWAP needs Docents to lead students on field trips through the Elfin Forest in Los Osos. The students are from public and private schools—Grades 1- High School. For more information, please call Pat Akey at 528-4832.

March 5 - Weed Warriors

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 shoes, long pants and sleeves, and park at the north end of 15th Street in Los Osos.

March 19, 9:30 a.m.

Equinox Walk:  At the start of spring—the spring equinox—day and night are each12 hours long and daylight will outlast night every day for the next six months. This year, spring equinox will be on March 20.  Dr. Jean 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 to the vegetation and animal life around us. She'll show us how large our seasonal differences in sun angle are and how far south or north of due west to look for sunsets from Bush Lupine Point or Siena's View at various seasons of the year.   Join us to celebrate the beginning of Spring!

Besides docent-led events, visit the Elfin Forest any day to experience the quiet natural beauty of this small wilderness area. Park at the north end of any street from 11th through 17th streets off Santa Ysabel in Los Osos and take a sand path to the boardwalk or the wheel-chair accessible boardwalk entrance at 16th Street.

Coming Up in the Elfin Forest

March around the Boardwalk to enjoy lingering floral beauties of our mild-winter climate as the flowers of early spring open to join them.  Shrubs and herbs in the Elfin Forest are very healthy and blooming wonderfully, responding to rainy seasons with frequent and abundant storms two years in a row.

Lilac to white clusters of flowers continue to surround the boardwalk on the buckbrush ceanothus shrubs.  Lower to the ground are the white spikes of Pomona milk vetch.  Morro manzanita shrubs are covered with the miniature red apples of their Spanish name.  The prickly-thorned bushes of red fuchsia-flowered gooseberries are at the peak of their bloom providing a feast for Anna's hummingbirds. Yellow to orange flowers that can be seen include seaside fiddleneck, golden yarrow, seaside golden yarrow, and California poppies.  All of these winter blooms and fruits should continue at least into April, if not longer.

Sticky monkey-flowers began to show their yellow blossoms early this year and will be at the peak of their bloom by the end of March. The blue flowers of silver bush lupine, for which Bush Lupine Point is named, come into bloom in March.  Among other spring wildflowers to look for this month are the white spikes of wedgeleaf horkelia, low white blooms of California croton and popcorn flower, and the tall yellow spikes of suffrutescent wallflower.

Lesser Scaup

March is the main month for changing of the avian guard.  Brant and Canada Geese and many species of ducks will be leaving for their northern or high mountain breeding grounds in March or early April.  For many of these species, a few individuals may stay through the summer but the large flotillas will be gone.  Passerines departing include Say's Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, American Robins, the Hermit Thrush, American Pipits, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Fox, Lincoln, and Golden-crowned Sparrows.  Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds winter in the tropics and may spend a few weeks here between February and May resting on their migrations north.

Our summer residents will be arriving as those species leave.  All five of the swallow species known to occur in or near the Elfin Forest (Tree, Violet-green, Northern Rough-winged, Barn, and Cliff) are most likely to be seen from March until they leave again in August/October.  Among those also arriving in March or April for the summer we can expect Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Western Kingbirds, Warbling Vireos, House Wrens, Townsend's Warblers, Wilson's Warblers, and Black-headed Grosbeaks.

As you stroll around the Boardwalk this month, look for these departing or arriving birds as well as some of our year-round species—California Quail; four kinds of sparrows; California and Spotted  Towhees; six species of  titmice, nuthatches, and wrens; those noisy Western Scrub-jays; and four species of finches.  They will be scratching around under, flitting through, or perching atop those wonderfully blooming herbs, shrubs, and tiny trees that comprise the Elfin Forest.

Unless otherwise attributed, all photos, including the Spotted Towhee banner image, are taken by Jean.