California Condor Named 2011 Bird of the Year
Beauty, schmeauty….this year voters put cast their ballots for one of the world’s rarest, most imperiled, and we think majestic birds to fly the skies of SoCal. The California condor has been named the 2011 Audubon California Bird of the Year in an annual online poll that invites readers and nature-lovers to choose a feathered […]
Uninvited Reptile Shows Up in SoCal
We all know that the holiday season often brings us together with hard-to-get-along guests – but a Southern California family recently discovered a very unwelcomed visitor creeping around the parameters of their Rancho Bernardo home. No it wasn’t a crazed alcoholic uncle scoping out the eggnog bowl, it was a poisonous Gila monster. Rare, […]
January Calendar of Events
This month, go on a cruise to see migrating gray whales, take a walk among wintering birds or go tidepooling to check out shoreline critters.
Burbank Cubs ‘Responding Well’
On the path to becoming educational ambassadors, the two staving mountain lion cubs found in Burbank earlier this month are “responding well and spending a lot of time with their new trainers,” says David Jackson, director of Zoo to You, a conservation education facility in Paso Robles where the pair were finally delivered earlier […]
A Barn Owl Angel
When life gives you lemons, we’re told to make lemonade. But when troubled times came to Glenn Pritchard earlier this year, he decided to go a different route and, instead of a frosty tart beverage, this Santa Clarita resident took up the task of creating and distributing nesting boxes so farmers can go organic and barn owls can find safe homes.
Tar Pits Unveils New Website
Fossil lovers who need their daily fix of All Things Pleistocene will shout a collective cry of joy on December 12, 2011 when the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits launches its new fangled, fancied-up website, www.tarpits.org. Promising to have more insight into the gooey world of Mid Whilsire Los Angeles (albeit 40,000 years […]
Wildlife Gets Relocation Package at Solar Plant
Transitions are tough. We know how hard it is to pack up belongings and move. Broken dishes, unruly movers, sorting through the junk, adjusting to a new environment. But imagine how it is for wildlife that – with no intention of moving in the first place – are uprooted and presented with a new home. […]
Kraken Science
What lurks out in the darkest seas? Monsters, mankind’s angels…or both?
It may be more philosophy then physiology when nature/science author and cephalopod enthusiast Wendy Williams discusses her latest book, Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific on Thursday, Dec. 1.
More black oystercatcher beaks in California
The problem with estimations is that, well, they are just guesses. Educated predications, sure, but still guesses. Pining for some hard empirical data, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently launched the first ever black oystercatcher survey for California. Apparently, scientists have a handle on the number of these birds with the hypnotic yellow […]
How Much Water For the Santa Ana Sucker?
File this under: “How One Little Fish Can Raise Such a Big Ruckus.” The Santa Ana sucker has for centuries minded its own business, eating algae, surviving floods and procreating in some of Southern California’s pristine streams. Course, after humans infiltrated the landscape and removed most of the habitat for the olive-colored big-lipped beauty, Santa […]
Urban Wingers
Natural History Museum Staffers Celebrate the Legacy of Dick Davenport on Annual Bird Walk