Elfin Forest Activities

by Jean Wheeler

Saturday June7: 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. Ron rewards his warriors with his delicious homemade cookies as the mornings labors conclude!

Second Wednesday Walk June 11, 10:00 a.m. – The Extraordinary Oak What makes an ordinary oak tree so extraordinary? Come learn why oaks succeed in the Elfin Forest and worldwide. At the same time, docent Vicky Johnsen will identify late-blooming wildflowers, newly-fledged birds and maybe some butterflies.

Third Saturday Walk June 21, 9:30-10:30 a.m. – All About the Estuary What is an estuary? Why is the Morro Bay estuary important to the Elfin Forest, and vice versa? Two very knowledgeable walk leaders from the Morro Bay National Estuary Program will explain the importance of this body of water as we walk around the Elfin Forest boardwalk. Adrienne Harris, the Estuary Program Executive Director, and Lexie Bell, Assistant Director, will talk about the 48,000-acre watershed that feeds the estuary, threats to estuary health, and Estuary Program’s conservation work. Plus, participants will learn how they can help to protect this vital natural resource in their everyday lives. Note: This walk lasts one hour.

Coming Up in the Elfin Forest

This is the best time of the year for fanciers of blue flowers to visit the Elfin Forest. Silver dune lupine inspired the name for Bush Lupine Point and is spreading in the nearby revegetation area along the south edge of the boardwalk. The silvery leaves below its blue flower spikes feed the caterpillars of the Moro Blue Butterfly. June remains a good month to look for butterflies. Under the Flora and Fauna button on our website (elfin-forest.org), 22 of the 26 species listed are shown as flying during June.

A particular favorite of many flower watchers is called wooly star. Look for this low-growing bush topped with many lovely blue blossoms along the 15th Street sand trail and where that trail meets the boardwalk.

Yellow and orange flowering plants tend to dominate the Elfin Forest in early summer, including sticky monkey-flower, deerweed, California poppies, and flowers rising on stalks from the succulent basal leaf rosettes of coastal dudleya. White to lavender blossoms show in clusters along the vertical stems of black sage. Dune buckwheat shrubs are shorter and also have white flowers but in globes at the tips of stems. At the inland end of the boardwalk, chamise has spikes of white flowers.

Pink flowers show in spikes of California hedge nettle as well as in cobwebby thistle. Red flowers in the undergrowth that look like they’ve been cut with pinking shears are called Indian pinks. Many birds of the oak woodlands, maritime chaparral, and coastal dune scrub which comprise the Elfin Forest are feeding young in these summer months.

Listen for a loud buzz to locate the Spotted Towhee calling from the top of a shrub. He’s very distinctive with his black head, rust-colored flanks and rump, and white-spotted wings. His drabber cousin, the grey-brown California Towhee, may be seen darting between shrubs or on the ground between them.

California Thrashers are all brown and have a distinctive long down-curved bill. They also call from the tops of shrubs in our “forest” of diminutive trees. But a birder friend of mine was astonished and delighted to see so many here on our coast and add the species to his “life list.” He’d been trying for over a year where they hide deep among shrubby branches under tall forests near his home and he’d often heard but had never seen one!

Other birds flitting over or among the shrubs or oak trees include flycatchers such as the Black Phoebe and the Western Kingbird; Bewick’s Wren and the noisy but elusive Wrentit; Chipping, Lark, Savannah, Song, and White-crowned Sparrows; Black-headed Grosbeaks; Orange-crowned, Yellow, and Wilson’s Warblers; Brewer’s Blackbird; House and Purple Finches; and the Lesser and American Goldfinches.

On the estuary, many individual ducks and shorebirds remain all year or even arrive to nest here after vacationing for the winter farther south. Among waders, willets and killdeer continue to be common.

Also resident all year are Great Blue and Black-crowned Night Herons, along with many Snowy and Greater Egrets. Most of our raptor species are here all year, and likely to be actively hunting with fledglings to feed in June and July.

Despite the severe drought of our nearly rainless winter this year, there will still be lots of flowers, birds, and other wildlife such as brush rabbits, reptiles, bees, and butterflies to enjoy on an early summer stroll around the boardwalk.