Elfin Forest Activities by Jean Wheeler

Saturday, May 3, 9:00 am—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.

Second Wednesday Walk, May 14, 10:00 am—Through a Magnifying Glass

View some of the wonders of the Elfin Forest that you normally don't see, by looking at lichens, leaf surfaces and flower petals with a magnifying glass.  Bring a magnifying glass if you have one, but docent Vicky Johnsen will have a few that can be shared.  Prepare to be surprised at some of the things that you see.

Third Saturday Walk, May 17, 9:30 am —Wildflowers with Dirk Walters

Whether or not there have been April showers, the Elfin Forest always has May flowers because the Forest's hardy native plants are used to doing without water.  Dirk Walters will take us on a delightful tour of every blooming plant that is visible from the boardwalk in the Elfin Forest.  There will be bright yellows of Fiddlenecks, Rush-roses, Deerweed , Golden Yarrow and of course California Poppies.  White Popcorn flowers, Pearly everlasting and Yarrow plants are in abundance too, as well as pink Cobwebby Thistles and blue Wild Hyacinths.  The Silver Dune Lupines at Bush Lupine Point should be covered with pale blue blossoms and alive with honeybees and Moro Blue butterflies.  Treat yourself to a springtime experience in Nature's own garden.

Walks begin on the boardwalk at the end of the 15th Street sand path.  Park at the north end of 15th Street (16th Street for wheelchairs) off Santa Ysabel in Los Osos. Please park carefully, avoiding driveways and mailboxes. Wear comfortable shoes, long sleeves and pants to avoid poison oak and mosquitoes. 

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, avoiding driveways and mailboxes.

Coming Up in the Elfin Forest

Normally there are more kinds of plants flowering in April and May than in any other pair of months in the Elfin Forest.  This season's total rainfall will probably end among the lowest on record. Although we won't get the spectacular abundance of wildflowers we're used to in late spring, our vegetation is so well-adapted to prolonged drought that many plants are already responding very well to the few good rains we did get recently.

The native California peonies that usually push up lots of leaves in December and blossoms in January or February had not appeared by late February, and I predicted in an earlier issue they would conserve liquid and energy in tubers by remaining dormant until rains begin next winter. They proved me wrong, sending up lots of leaves and even showing a very few flowers in April. In April they would usually be dying back to disappear completely for the rest of the year.

Ceanothus (aka California lilac) shrubs are opening white to lavender flowers from buds they'd been holding back before the rains came.

Also responding to the rains by opening its yellow-orange flowers a bit later this year is deerweed, which should continue to bloom through most of the summer. The vine called Wild Cucumber is twining over many shrubs with small white and yellow flowers. Some vines have already produced their interesting prickly green fruits.  This is a native species that dies down to its buried tuber in late spring, and does not seriously damage its host plants. Please do not pull off these vines as some visitors lately have, mistaking them for English Ivy, a damaging invasive vine.

Suffrutescent wallflowers  (pictured in my April column) have opened their yellow blossoms with four petals in a number of places and should show up well into May. California poppies are blooming around much of the boardwalk. Some orange sticky monkey-flowers have opened, and they usually continue blooming into July or August, though probably not as prolifically as usual. Coastal dudleya, being a succulent with stalks of reddish-yellow flowers, can be expected to respond well to the rains and come into bloom on schedule in late May. Tall blue flower spikes should festoon the silver dune lupines by early May. Pink flowers coming into bloom include California hedge nettle and cobwebby thistle.

Butterflies are often called "flying flowers" and tend to peak in abundance and variety in the Elfin Forest in May. A few Variable Checkerspot, Coastal Bramble Hairstreak, and anise swallowtail butterflies have already been seen in April and should be more numerous in May. Gabb's Checkerspot and silvery blues should also be around. The Moro Blue butterfly can be expected, depositing eggs on the leaves of the silver dune lupine near Bush Lupine Point in May and June.

While admiring butterflies from the boardwalk and sand trails, your eyes will no doubt also be attracted by the flight of avian visitors or residents, actively nesting or raising young.  Especially likely to be seen and heard are the bright blue Western Scrub Jays, orange and black Spotted Towhees, chattering flocks of tiny fuzzy gray Bushtits and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, and the large brown California Thrasher with its down-curved beak. Harder to spot as they usually hide in and under the bushes are brown California Towhees, Wrentits, and the summer-visiting Swainson's Thrush.  

Don't forget to look overhead for Turkey Vultures and Hawks such as Cooper's, Sharp-shinned, Red-shouldered, and Red-tailed.  A Peregrine Falcon may fly over from its nesting cave on Morro Rock. Also known to visit the Elfin Forest during the summer are five species of swallows.

There is always much to see in and from the Elfin Forest!

Red-tailed Hawk