CEQA Protects Birds, Regulate Pesticide Seeds, Rain Illustrates How Ballona Habitats Work
CONSERVATION CONVERSATION: Goose In The Lights
Sometimes nature outreach opportunities come when you least expect. For those watching the baseball playoffs — I wasn’t — the Dodgers-Padres game got a little nutty when a goose settled in on the field round about the 8th inning Wednesday night. It was no local, bread-fed, domesticated park dweller but a bona fide wild Greater White-fronted Goose on the ground in close right field. I picked up on it on the bird app, not eBird but the other one, and thought it might be an open door to reaching the world on an important topic.
CONSERVATION CONVERSATION—Legislative Priorities to Protect Birds During Migration
The migration each year of nearly 5 billion birds from breeding grounds in North America to wintering grounds in Central and South America and the Caribbean (the “Neotropics”) is both one of the wonders of nature and what marks the season for birders. Some of those birds even stay and overwinter here in Los Angeles and other southern reaches of North America. A Western Tanager stopped under our oak tree as this column was going to press but it will be another month before the Yellow-rumped Warblers arrive for the winter.
CONSERVATION CONVERSATION — Darkness as Refuge
The challenges faced by the Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) are many as it winters and breeds along the coast of southern California. Beach grooming by heavy equipment perpetually remove valuable habitat and flatten out once-undulating dunes. Beachgoers and their pets use the land where they once nested. Predators come from all directions, from raptors to roaming cats.