Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 6, Jul-Aug 2018

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 6, Jul-Aug 2018

• Book Review: The Dragonflies and Damselflies of Santa Barbara County, California | Kimball L. Garrett

•Green Feather Award Winner 2018: “Let Her Play” | Aisling Murray

• INTERPRETING NATURE: Baldwin Hills Greenhouse Program Research | Stacey Vigallon

• YOUNG BIRDERS: A New Discovery - Our Rufous Hummingbirds Molt in the Mexican Monsoonal Region | Dessi Sieburth

• Birds of the Season: June 2018 | Jon Fisher

Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 5, May-Jun 2018

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 5, May-June 2018

• Snowy Plover Conservation Program Faces An Uncertain Future

• YOUNG BIRDERS: A Striking African Bird in Los Angeles County: The Pin‐tailed Whydah (Vidua macroura), By Dessi Sieburth

• INTERPRETING NATURE: Using science fiction to envision the future, By Stacey Vigallon, Director of Environmental Education

• Birds of The Season—April 2018, By Jon Fisher

• INTERVIEW: Allow Me the Honor To Introduce To You: Irwin Woldman, By Louis Tucker

• Least Tern Monitoring At Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge, By Carolyn Vance, USFWS Volunteer, Seal Beach NWR

Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 4, Mar-Apr 2018

Owens Valley, April 2017 | Photo by Mary Freeman

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 4, March-April 2018

• The California Condor, By Dessi Sieburth

• Birding in Belize: A Guide Shares His Top Five Sites, By Lisa Freeman

• Birds of the Season—February 2018, By Jon Fisher

• Beautiful Ballona: What’s The Latest?, By Cindy Hardin

• In Memory of Howard King, By Nick Freeman

Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 2, Nov-Dec 2017

INSIDE THIS ISSUE, November-December 2017 Western Tanager

• What’s to Become of the Ballona Wetlands? By David DeLange, PhD, Vice President – Los Angeles Audubon

• YOUNG BIRDERS: The Western Bluebird Conservation Project, By Dessi Sieburth

• Ballona Chronicles: A Bicycle Built for Three, By Bev-Sue Powers, www.ballonaphotography.com

• Baldwin Hills program gives young people hands-on training in science and restoration. By Natasha Khann

• INTERPRETING NATURE: 2016–2017 Greenhouse Intern Project Abstracts, By Stacey Vigallon, Director of Intrpretation, and the Baldwin Hills Greenhouse Interns

• CONSERVATION GRANT: "Ballona to the Beach", By Carol Babeli, Director of Communications and Development

• Birds of the Season—October 2017, by Jon Fisher

Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 1, Sep-Oct 2017

ON THE COVER: Shoreline, Crystal Cove, Photo by Leslie Davidson

Crystal Cove is located in Orange County off the busy Pacific Coast Highway. Crystal

Cove State Park offers hiking in the deeply wooded canyons and water activities at the tide pools and sandy beaches.

My name is Leslie Davidson and I have been a docent at the Ballona Wetlands for the past 17 years. I enjoy photographing nature and love sharing my hobby with others.

Camera: Nikon Coolpix P510

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Western Tanager, Vol. 84 No. 1, September-October 2017

• PHOTO ESSAY: Audubon Docents: The Things We Saw, By Photo Essay | By Cindy Hardin, Director of Outdoor Education and Photos by Leslie Davidson

• YOUNG BIRDERS: Project Puffin — Audubon’s Seabird Restoration Project in Maine | By Dessi Sieburth

• Coots Make Me Smile, By Contributing Author, Bev‐Sue Powers, (www.BallonaPhotography.com)

• INTERPRETING NATURE: Aspiring Botanist Goes Plant‐hunting from Baldwin Hills to Yosemite, By Arely Mendia Perez, Environment for the Americas Intern, and Stacey Vigallon, Director of Environmental Education

• Birds of the Season – August 2017, By Jon Fisher

Western Tanager, Vol. 83 No. 6, Jul–Aug 2017

ON THE COVER

‘I’iwi | Hakalau Forest Wildlife Refuge, Photo by Jack Jeffrey

Found nowhere else in the world, the spectacular scarlet‐feathered I’iwi (Drepanis coccinea) is the last of the sickle‐billed Hawaiian honeycreepers. Before the appearance of humans in Hawaii, more than fifty different honeycreeper species were known to have existed. Today, only 18 species remain, most of these are endangered or threatened. I’iwi feathers were once collected by early Hawaiian bird catchers or “kia manu”, and used for the feathered cloaks of Hawaiian Royalty. I’iwi are still fairly abundant in the remaining high elevation native koa‐ohia forests of Hawaii Island and Maui, but rare on the other major islands. The long down‐curved bill of the I’iwi is a perfect match for the shape of tubular flowers of many native plants, making I’iwi important pollinators of these and other native plants. To see an I’iwi, or to hear its loud “rusty hinge” call is an extraordinary experience and one that can only be had in a Hawaiian rainforest.

In this issue

• YOUNG BIRDERS: Birds of the Hakalau Forest on the Big Island of Hawai’i, By Dessi Sieburth

• INTERPRETING NATURE: Does nature have a place in the English Language Arts classroom?, By Robert Jeffers, L.A. Audubon Treasurer | Instructional Coach

• Princeton Phainopepla Project, Please send your sightings to Dr. Daniel Baldassarre, Princeton University

• Birds of the Season—June 2017, By Jon Fisher

• OPINION: Every Creature on Earth is Under Threat, By Louis Tucker, LAAS Member and Field Trip Leader

• A Tribute to Judy Raskin, By Brad Rumble, LAAS Director at Large

LAAS joins 150 organizations opposing Trump's nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Interior

President Trump has nominated a lobbyist for the oil, gas, and agribusiness industries as the deputy secretary of the Interior.  Suprising no one, he has profound conflicts of interest that are detailed in the letter.  

Western Tanager, Vol. 83 No. 5, May–June 2017

On The Cover: Brown-eyed Primrose | Photo by Read Howarth

About the Photographer: Read Howarth is a disability insurance broker who lives in Los Angeles County. He moved here in 2009 from New Jersey. His then moderate lifelong interest in birding was given a jolt with his observation of a Surf Scoter in Marina Del Rey, while sailing. His first Audubon Field Trip was three years ago, on a Kurt Leuschner led trip to Anza-Borrego. It was to become the first of many Audubon walks and field trips since. Birding, sailing and volunteering as a Docent in Topanga State Park keep him out in nature and provide springboards for more educational opportunities in the natural sciences.

In this issue

• L.A. Audubon's Anza-Borrego Field Trip March 2017, By Read Howarth, LAAS Member and Field Trip Participant, Photos by Read Howarth

• Birds and Other Wildlife seen on Anza-Borrego Field TripBy Kurt Leuschner, LAAS Member and Field Trip Leader | KLeuschner@collegeofthedesert.edu

• SCHREIBER GRANT UPDATE: The role of behavior in isolation: novelty and courtship across a hummingbird hybrid zone | By Brian Myers, Grant Recipient 2015

• INTERPRETING NATURE: From L.A. to Joshua Tree: Opportunities and Experiences in Nature, By Robert Jeffers, L.A. Audubon Board Member and Joshua Tree Adventure Chaperone, Spring Break 2017

• We Wish You a Merry Christmas: An Adventure, By Louis Tucker, Los Angeles Audubon Society Member and Field Trip Leader

• YOUNG BIRDERS: The Red-crowned Parrot, By Dessi Sieburth

• Birds of the Season — April 2017, By Jon Fisher

Comment on Draft EIS for Santa Susana Field Laboratory Remediation

The Department of Energy released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement covering Area IV and the Northern Buffer Zone of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in January of 2017.  Los Angeles Audubon Society has submitted comments calling for a full cleanup committed to by the Department of Energy in 2010. The different options considered in the DEIS would leave as much as 39%, 91%, or 99% of the contamination on the site.