Elfin Forest Activities

By Jean Wheeler

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

February 4: Weed Warriors

The volunteer work party will meet from 9 am to about noon.  Anyone is welcome to join in and work on projects to restore vegetation and reduce erosion. Wear comfortable shoes, long pants and sleeves, and park at the north end of 15th Street in Los Osos.

February 18:  9:30 a.m. – Fungus Foray

For our annual Fungus Foray in the Elfin Forest, intrepid leader and fungophile Dennis Sheridan will take us on an exploration of the Elfin Forest floor for wood bluetts, black elfin saddles, earthstars, golden caps, boletes, poisonous amanitas, and many other fascinating fungi. Bring a magnifying lens and, if you have a mystery mushroom in your yard, bring a sample for Dennis to identify. This is not a mushroom collecting walk, as all plants in the Elfin Forest are protected by law. Only a very heavy rain will cancel the walk, and if it hasn't rained, Dennis will give us an equally fascinating walk about the lichens that grow abundantly in the forest.

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

Looking out from Bush Lupine Point or Siena's View, Morro Bay National Estuary is covered with ducks, geese, and other birds, as it normally is in February.  They are flying over the water, swimming or sleeping on the water, or diving down under the water after food.  Virtually all of our winter visitors are still here, but some will begin leaving before the end of February. March will see a much larger exodus. 

So this is the best month remaining to enjoy our annual avian extravaganza.  White pelicans, Brant and Canada Geese, and all species of dabbling and diving ducks and grebes commonly seen in the bay should be present, most of them in large numbers. 

Larger sandpipers such as Marbled Godwits, Long-billed Curlews, and Willets probe the mudflats edging the bay, accompanied by large and busy flocks of the much tinier sandpipers known to birders as "peeps."  Our resident hawks and falcons may be seen soaring over the bay, taking advantage of all the smaller winged potential meals, often stirring flocks of those smaller birds into frantic flight away from their overhead predator.

While walking along the boardwalk to or from those wonderful lookouts, watch for the resident and wintering birds flitting over or scurrying through the dune and chapparal shrubs and groves of elfin-short Coast Live Oaks.  Among the flitterers to look for are Bushtits, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and multiple species each of finches, sparrows, warblers, and wrens.  Among the larger birds commonly seen are phoebes, thrashers, towhees, Scrub Jays, California Quail, blackbirds, and doves.  Colorful Anna's Hummingbirds are very actively collecting nectar from the equally colorful red flower tubes of fuchsia-flowered gooseberries.

As I write this in mid-January, buckbrush ceanothus shrubs (a species of California lilac) are covered with white to light lavender blooms all around the boardwalk.  They are also covered with buds still to open and should continue to bloom at least through February. Morro manzanitas still have their pinkish white bells now, but they began blooming with the rains early this season and there has been a long dry spell since, so they may not last through February and into March as they usually do. 

Wild cucumber, a native vine with big green leaves, already has small white flowers with yellow centers.  But don't confuse them with the nastily invasive Cape ivy, which has a shiny leaf with yellow flowers. I've seen several red buds that will open soon on bright green leafy California peony plants about a foot high both near Siena's View and along the 11th Street sand trail to Bush Lupine Point.

Take a walk on a pleasantly warm day among the wonderful flowering shubs along our boardwalk, enjoying all the birds here on happy winter holidays.  Give a pitying thought to folks to the north and east of us who can only shiver in winter snows longing for the return of  "their" birds, still a month or more away.

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Photo of Jean by Ron Ascher.
Unless otherwise attributed, all other photos, including the Spotted Towhee banner image, are taken by Jean.