Urban coyotes are in the news again lately with the pack-loving canines causing more –than-usual havoc in some SoCal residential areas. (Can we blame this activity on the drought? Less food options in our wild areas? Or are we making life too easy for them with our urban smorgasbord of backyard pets and overflowing trashcans?) […]
How wild animals move around the landscape and healthy environments that can sustain them will be some of the topics covered by Dr. Jodi Hilty, executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), as part of the Malibu Library Speaker Series. The talk takes place on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 7 pm at the Malibu […]
“I have always been fascinated by these flying dinosaurs, but this film is really about relationships we humans have with wild animals,” says filmmaker Judy Irving about her new film, Pelican Dreams that comes to the Southland next week in limited release beginning November 7, 2014 Irving, Emmy-Award winning filmmaker of The Wild Parrots of […]
Body of water…. a wet concrete sidewalk…..sure, there’s a difference, but many eared grebes aren’t seeing it these days. The International Bird Rescue (IBR) reports that its San Pedro facility is taking care of 50 grebes, twice the amount of these migratory coastal birds they usually see this year – and no one knows why. […]
The recent news that one type of dangerous poison has been discontinued in Los Angeles parks and open spaces was welcomed by Alison Simard of Citizens For Los Angeles Wildlife (CLAW), an environmental group that would like to see all toxic rodenticides (aka rat poison) eliminated completely from city boundaries. But, she conceded, this news […]
SoCal hawks, titmouses, thrushes, warblers, woodpeckers are the rock stars at the first ever Bird Fest held Oct. 18 at the Santa Monica Mountains Interagency Visitor’s Center at King Gillette Ranch, in Calabasas abourt 5 minutes off the 101 freeway. Bird-related workshops, live bird presentations (including a local rare albino raven), bird feeding crafts and […]
Every fall between the end of September and the beginning of October, the Vaux’s swifts embark on a Southern migration, and along the way, these slim cigar-shaped birds with crescent wings, roost en masse in urban chimneys. For many years, as many as 14,000 Vauxies have been occupying a chimney near Spring Street and Broadway in […]
Rosi Dagit was pleased. The environmental scientist was at the banks of the Los Angeles River near North Atwater Park in Atwater Village waiting for anglers to bring over their catches in large orange buckets. “This is the best citizen scientist program,” she said adding that often she’s the one wading in rivers and streams […]
Watch out SoCal…you may be hearing more about wildlife corridor in the coming weeks, months and maybe years ahead. To raise awareness of the plight of land-locked critters, the National Wildlife Federation California has partnered with the Santa Monica Mountains Fund to advocate for such corridors, especially one that has been eyeballed at across the […]
There’s a new chapter being written for two SoCal mountain lions that were found almost three years ago under a car in Burbank. Remember them? The two cubs (about three months old) were found under a parked car in early December 2011; residents were poking broomsticks to shoo them away before animal control rescued them. […]
You don’t have to be a biologist to assume that California’s epic drought is affecting water-loving critters. Frogs and amphibians lazing and splashing around mountain streams and pools are harder to find these days – especially for those endangered ones like the rare mountain yellow-legs frogs which are on both state and federal lists. A […]
Setting the record straight about the butterfly’s lesser respected cousin, National Moth Week (July 18-26) was created to raise awareness of the unique biodiversity of these winged wonders. Here in Los Angeles, moth-gawkers will be out this week to catch a glimpse of these ‘furry’ flyers. Here’s a short primer on five local lepidropteric luminaries: […]