Work to create an Audubon Nature Center at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park is progressing. The Center Committee has adopted a three-pronged approach toward its immediate objectives--to make the full community aware of the park and what a nature center there offers. The main components of the campaign for 1999 are a summer education program at the park, a speakers bureau, and a nature center design competition.

Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park (KMHRP) is named for the Izaak Walton League activist and Audubon chapter vice-president, to whom we all will remain forever indebted for the park's creation. The park is the third largest in the City of Los Angeles and offers an unparalleled array of habitats and wildlife diversity for a park of its size. It also offers an unparalleled opportunity to create a nature education program of great value to the surrounding region. Martin Byhower's second Sunday nature walks at the park constitute the first element of our education outreach program. The second is a summer education program to be offered local residents in 1999.

Drafted by Fran Spivy-Weber, the program outline will go to the Harbor Park Advisory Board for approval in December. The summer program has four goals:

¨       1)  Build a constituency to support environmental education at KMHRP.

¨       2)  Create summer job opportunities for youth in the region.

¨       3)  Teach understanding and appreciation of the environment to children, young adults and families, particularly from communities near KMHRP.

¨       4)  Test a variety of environmental education practices, methods, or techniques in cooperation with other nature centers in the South Bay.

To do this, Audubon will offer scheduled programs at KMHRP next summer. These will be advertised in the communities near KMHRP, using print, radio, cable television, and personal presentations to local groups. We aim to open several summer job opportunities for young people by raising funds through the Conservation Awards Banquet and Birdathon to cover the costs of a full summer program, including a supervising adult, at least one paid student, all necessary education materials and associated costs. Lesson plans will take into account several important factors--relevance to the mission of the PV/South Bay Audubon KMHRP Summer Education program and to Audubon's mission, and include evaluation components for content, cultural diversity, and community- building. Fortunately, several fine nature education programs exist in the Los Angeles area which we can draw on for many basic materials.

While work proceeds on the summer program, the speakers bureau will begin a campaign to make all civic groups in the area familiar with the aims of the Audubon Center project and to garner their support. The bureau will also work with local media outlets and political leaders. To further this effort, a slide show is being assembled to be used on the speaking circuit.

The third part of our current strategy is to gather possible designs for the nature center. Rather than hire the design out to people unfamiliar with the park and surrounding communities, we plan to approach each college in our area. We will ask their Architecture/Design classes to tackle KMHRP as a nature center design project. Not only will this bring fresh ideas to bear on our Center, but it will broaden awareness and support for it at the same time. Among the elements we will ask each college group to consider are historical, current and future human uses of the area, local community education needs, site-specific advantages and how best to combine the resources of Audubon and Los Angeles.

There are many ways in which you can take part in this exciting project. We need people to prepare news items on the project, to speak to local groups, to help with the summer education program and/or to serve on KMHRP subcommittees. We have some historical maps and photographs, but can use more. And, of course, we will need funding, especially for next summer's education program. If you can help in any way, please call Jess Morton at 832-5601.

Quite a lot is known about rare birds: where they are, how many of them exist, and what can be done to protect them. And a lot is known about common birds: what they eat, where they live and how they tend their young. However, not nearly enough is known about how many of them there are, nor if their populations are increasing or decreasing. Although Christmas Bird Counts and Breeding Bird Surveys provide valuable information about this, they are not universal enough to tell us if a common bird is undergoing a steady, but drastic, population change.

Thus it is that the National Audubon Society and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology have launched the Great Back Yard Bird Count. Last year, 14,000 individuals, classrooms and families all around the continent identified, counted and reported the birds they saw in their back yards, their school yards and in parks down the street. They submitted their numbers through BirdSource (http://birdsource.cornell.edu), a website on the Internet. The count was a huge success, and an important contribution to conservation and science. This year, the aim is to expand that effort to reach 1,000,000 contributors--and you can be one of them.

The Back Yard Bird Count will be held on the weekend of February 19-22, 1999. Participation is as simple as looking around your back yard to count the birds there--Mockingbirds, White-crowned Sparrows, Mourning Doves, and all the other species that come to your feeders or visit your shrubbery. You do not need to be an expert birder to do this! You only need to identify the common birds that visit your yard. If you can't do this now, there are plenty of field guides and chapter experts who will help you.

Data is submitted directly over the Internet at the above address. There you will find data submission forms that you fill out while on line. Data are assembled and analyzed instantaneously. By looking at the bird distribution maps, you can see your own data appear as you add it. This is an exciting program for all. Children are always thrilled to take part in real science and young adults that anything they do is actually taken seriously by their elders. People who care about birds, but are not experts, will be delighted to add to the knowledge that will make future bird conservation possible. Even the experts can do their part by surveying parks and other points of greater bird diversity, as well as their own back yards.

This is a wonderful chance for all of us to act together! Check out BirdSource the next time you are on the Internet. Then mark your calendar for the third weekend in February. Wherever you are, you take part in the 1999 Back Yard Bird Count!

Make plans to attend Audubon-California's 1999 Conservation Leadership Conference, Jan. 29 - Feb. 1 at the Radisson Hotel in Sacramento. Exploring the Landscapes of California reflects an exciting new conservation strategy for Audubon in California. Audubon intends to become the premiere nature education organization in the state in order to build conservation awareness, membership and activism by focusing on three symbolic landscapes that promote Audubon's bird and wildlife conservation agenda; reflect California's diverse population; and provide opportunities for hands-on nature experiences.

Registration for the Conference is $35.00 per person. Housing costs start at $89.00 for a single or double per night. Alternative off-ground housing is also available nearby.

If you need a registration form or more information, please contact the Audubon-California office at (916) 481-5332 or by E-mail- jjacobs@audubon.org.

Intergenerational. That word conjures up a whole host of thoughts, both in a negative and a positive sense. Conflictive issues abound between the young, especially teenagers, and those of us who are older. We who are in education and/or are parents are fully aware of those edges of perpetual disagreement. Some barriers to meaningful resolutions are the lack of communication and understanding, and of goals that do not mesh well. Why can we adults not provide avenues of communication and understanding, as well as common goals, so that the generations can concentrate their energies to help solve problems, from within the family to our global concerns?

There are many examples of ways in which that can be done. One can be seen in the profusion of Model United Nations groups cropping up in schools and colleges throughout the nation and the world, exploring the simple concept of world peace. Another, close to home, is in Audubon, where more and more young people are finding it both easy and productive to work both together and with adults on conservation issues, both local and global. The Audubon YES! program is a key to that movement. As Adults, we must go out and encourage young people to join together, INTERGENERATIONALLY, to help in keeping this globe habitable for all future generations. YOU can help by urging your young relatives and friends to join those efforts. It will be a win-win situation for everyone.

The democratic victory in the November election was also a victory for conservationists. Pro-environment senators and house members  were elected who should be able to be more responsive to the will of the people. More good news: nationwide nearly 75% of all pro-environment ballot proposals were passed.

Montana voters banned the use of cyanide leaching at open pit gold mines, a technique that is lethal to rivers and streams. Colorado and South Dakota imposed tough new  restrictions on giant hog farms, which can generate as much pollution as a small city. New Jersey's approval of a one billion dollar plan to save vanishing farmland was the most prominent of a number of successful state and local initiatives aimed at protecting open space from commercial development. New York's Suffolk County voters approved a sixty-two million dollar bond issue to buy open space. The latter should encourage the administration to push for full financing of the Land and Water Conservation Fund which was intended to help communities preserve open space.

Now for the bad news. Those letters and phone calls that we and other conservationists directed to our legislators and the administration opposing the ugly barrage of riders attached to the 1998 budget bills did succeed in eliminating some of them. However, many provisions that remained attached to the Budget Bill will do serious harm to the environment. Some of the objectionable  provisions that were passed include:

1 Freezing the current  motor vehicle fuel economy  standards,

2 More than doubling the logging rate in a third of California's Sierra Nevada forests,

3 Delaying reforms to the rules that govern mining operations,

4 Delaying the revaluation of oil and gas  royalties that are owed to the government,

5 Waiving the requirement for environmental review on renewing a permit to graze privately owned cattle on public land,

6 Waiving the requirement for environmental review of three highway projects in Alabama, New York, and here in California.

7 Prevention of the consideration of less damaging alternatives to an unnecessary toll road in Orange County that will destroy habitat for at least six endangered species.

Not only must we be concerned about the negative consequences of these provisions, but we must also vigorously oppose passing bills through the rider process. As Greg Wetstone says in the Winter Amicus Journal [p 10], "Congress is increasingly shifting away from the democratic

process on environmental issues. Lost in that shift are fundamental elements of our democracy, like public debate and open voting."     

Many of us have written to Mitsubishi protesting  against its plan to build a huge salt works complex in San Ignacio Lagoon, Mexico, the gray whales' last pristine nursery. The United Nations World Heritage committee is deciding whether to confer additional protection on the sanctuary by designating it an "In-danger" World Heritage Site. Let us all urge them to take this positive step to preserve those gentle leviathans that travel our coast. Then contact the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and sign up for their wonderful trip down to the same lagoon where you

can see Gray Whale mothers and their babies eye to eye.

Write to: The World Heritage Committee

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

7 Place de Fontenoy

75352 Paris 07 SP

France

So far this year, presentations about our chapter's Audubon YES! Program have been made in nine of our local high schools, and several more will be made soon. Students from five additional schools, some of whom hear about activities via the e-mail YES!Net, have also been helping out on our regularly scheduled clean-ups, habitat restorations and other community environmental projects. By the end of the school year, we hope to have nearly 20 area high schools involved in the YES! Program.

Over the next two months, a special emphasis will be placed on Audubon's Back Yard Bird Count, scheduled for the weekend of February 19-22. Our goal is to have 100 students observe the birds in their own back yards, identify them and submit the data via the Internet to this nationwide survey of winter bird populations. Since about 1/3 of high school students now have their own Internet addresses, and virtually all have access through their schools, this goal seems eminently attainable.

Many thanks go to all those who help run the YES! Program and spread the word, especially Martin Byhower (Chadwick), Allen Franz (Marymount), Lillian Light (South), Basil Louros (Redondo), Jess Morton (Narbonne), Tom Politeo (Banning), Sherry Roberts (Torrance), Bob Shanman (Mira Costa), Benn Smith (Peninsula), Fran Spivy-Weber (West), Dan Sponaugle (North), Alison Suffet (Leuzinger) and Dennis Weyrauch (San Pedro). Thanks also go to Leann Ortmann (Marymount) and Rahil Patronas (Redondo), our student Board members who keep YES! going, and to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, the Friends of Madrona Marsh, PVP Land Conservancy and VOICE, whose volunteer projects provide a vital element in our YES! Program.

Now is the time for all birders to come to the aid of the 33rd annual Palos Verdes Peninsula Christmas Bird Count. Mark your calendars for Saturday, December 26, "PVP CBC"!

Here are some interesting historical data on our counts. The all-time average number of species found is 154. During the first 15 years, we averaged 148 species. During the last 15, we've averaged over 160, and in the last few, 170! In all, more than 280 species have been recorded. To that, you can add a few "count period" birds which we have never found on count day itself. Who knows? Maybe the Magpie Jay in San Pedro will hang around for us to count it this year!It is spiritually fulfilling to take part in such easy, but important, work. Ask Dave Bradley, who should know. He's the only person to have been on EVERY count!

To participate, call Dave Bradley at (562) 498-0370 or Ross Landry at (714) 524-7701 (landryre@sce.com). A fee of $5 is charged to help defray the cost of processing and publishing the nationwide results.

The chapter's Audubon YES! (Youth Environmental Service) Program has an active e-mail network component. More than 175 high school students, chapter volunteers, teachers and others are now receiving Audubon YES! monthly Activities Calendars and other notices via e-mail. To become a part of the network, send a request to jmorton@econet.org

I mid-September, my neighbor Judith Webb reported a large dark grey or blue bird with a crest in our neighborhood. I suggested female Phainopepla but she had seen them before and felt that was not it. I said that was about it for native birds, and if it was an exotic it was not within the expertise of a strictly Southern California birder like me. A couple of weeks later Marie Bower, another neighbor who is a recent member of Eric and Ann Brook's bird class, called and described a crested bird with blue on it. Definitely not a Phainopepla!

A couple of days later I heard a loud squawk in the bushes in my back yard in the morning, and a large dark bird flew over my head and away. I thought I saw some facial marks. That was all I got in the brief look at it.

When Marie called to say it was back and invited me to come over, I finally succeeded in getting a good look at it. It was in deep shade back lit by bright sky. I located the bird by unfamiliar soft "Kreek!" calls in a large pine. I could see an exceptionally long streamer like tail on a roughly jay sized bird, and at least two white facial marks. I turned to get my camera out of my backpack. I turned back - gone! I sat and watched the area for about 20 minutes. No luck. I then walked to Palos Verdes Drive East to where the canyon crosses it and you can get a good view down the canyon to the east. I stood there for a few moments until I heard a loud unfamiliar bird sound, "Shraah!", behind me.

I walked up Diamonte along the canyon. As I approached a large tree where the sound appeared to be coming from, the sound stopped. I walked along the canyon edge trying to get a good view around shrubs and into the tree. Suddenly a bright blue bird with a long tail flew below eye level up the canyon. Wow! This was the first I had gotten to see the blue color! As I approached I heard the soft "Kreek!" calls again. Then the bird flew overhead up the hill and out of sight into an inaccessible area.

When Eric and Ann brought Peterson's field guide for Mexican birds to the meeting of the bird class, Marie and I grabbed it. Ahah! There it was! Confirmed! A Magpie Jay! The color and crest, the white face marks, the long streamer like tail.

How did it get here? It is not listed in my 5 Western and North American bird books as an accidental from Mexico. Someone's cage bird? Trapped in a truck load of mangoes? An escapee from a zoo display of Mexican birds? ¿Quien sabe? But what a bird!

The Western Tiger and Anise Swallowtails are our common large black and yellow butterflies. Three other Swallowtails have been recorded here, as well: the Pipevine, a semi-regular, but rare summer/fall vagrant, and Pale and Giant Swallowtails, previously known from one record each, both by Fred Heath, and both found ON the butterfly count (different years)!

The first record of the Giant Swallwtail was from the South Coast Botanic Garden in 1995. However, this is of a species that has been increasing in numbers throughout southern California. This year saw reports of Giants all along the coast, from San Diego to downtown LA, and inland to Riverside. Its stronghold in the state has been the Imperial Valley. Now we are seeing an unprecedented movement or expansion of the species toward the coast.

On Sept. 23rd, I found 3 Giants in Peck Park, in San Pedro! By October 10th, there were

6 there! On October 24th, one was still present--and finally photographed for documentation by Kevin Larson! Lastly, on Nov. 4th, one was at Madrona Marsh in Torrance. These, cumulatively, are quite a leap from our one-record past!

At Peck Park, the butterflies nectared regularly on plumbago, but were also seen on toyon and lemonadeberry. Their large size and wing area give them a very jerky manner of flight, but their progression is incredibly rapid. When sitting in good light, a brownish tint was sometimes visible on some (sexual dimorphism?).   

Now we need to keep an eye on Peck Park to see if they perhaps bred there and started a new colony. Or was it a one-time invasion? Next year we should know.

These are spectacular butterflies and, so far, most unusual in our area. It will be interesting to see what the invasion of 1998 meant. As it should be with most observations of wildlife, more questions are posed than answers given.

Fortunately for all of the flora and fauna in and around the Salton Sea, the Board of Reclamations and the Salton Sea Authority has proposed some possible approaches to ameliorate the ecological conditions at the sea. In October, workshops in San Diego and the Imperial and Coachella Valleys were held to present alternatives. These organizations formulated 38 alternatives, each of which supports the five goals of the Salton Sea Improvement Plan:

¨       that the sea remain a repository for agricultural drainage,

¨       that it provide a safe environment for birds and other biota,

¨       that it be restored for recreational uses,

¨       that it continue to be a viable recreational fishing location, and

¨       that it create opportunities for economic development.

The plans of action for these alternatives are broken into eight categories, all of which require either pumping out of hyper-saline water, the pumping in of less saline water, desalination plants, solar ponds, dikes or a combination of any of the above. The least expensive of all is the pump-out method, which is expected to take 90 years to achieve a salinity of 43 parts per thousand (ppt). The most expensive of the alternatives depend on dikes. Most of the variants would take 30 years to achieve a salinity of 40 ppt. Ten of the variants would allow for a 15 year salinity target of 40 ppt, however these approaches are the second most expensive.

As you may know, the salinity of the Salton Sea is only half the problem. Of particular interest to Audubon are current high mortality rates among wildlife and solutions to prevent these deaths. Other issues include assuring that areas which receive salt or brine during the pump-out process remain stable, and improving the New and Alamo rivers and the Colorado River delta.

Audubon-California and its Salton Sea task force, led by Phil Pryde of San Diego Audubon, has taken an active, leading role on the Salton Sea. It will take several months before legislation is introduced on a proposed solution. To make sure that this legislation reflects the needs of all parts of the equation--from farmers to cities to the Sea and its wildlife--Audubon has hired a consultant to work with the task force on this issue. In 1999, they will develop a unified strategy by which Audubon chapters and members can support the best solution to the problem.

More info can be obtained by writing to: Mr. William Steele, Salton Sea Program Manager, at the Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Box 61470, Boulder City, Nevada 89006. For those with Internet access the Web site for the BoR is http://www.lc.usbr.gov.

Please put the Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society on your holiday list. If you can make a contribution, please fill in the form on page 11 and mail to P.O. Box 2582, Palos Verdes, CA 90274. Thank you and best wishes for the holiday and new year.

Audubon YES! is Audubon's Youth Environmental Service program, which brings the energy and idealism of students to bear on environmental needs of the South Bay. Gift memberships for students who help with Audubon programs are $15/student membership.

Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park is host to more than 300 species of birds, and it is now our chapter's candidate for an Audubon Center. We will use the Park to introduce hundreds of families and youth in and around Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park to Audubon and nature. Introductory gift memberships will help this campaign and cost just $20/person.

Sharing Nature With Children is a monthly program at Wilderness Park in Redondo Beach in which high school students and others introduce children to their natural world. Activity boxes for a Saturday program can be sponsored for $50.

The fish family, Clupeidae, contains fish, such as herrings and shad, which have bodies streamlined for easy movement, plus one dorsal fin, and a forked tail fin. Most gather in large schools and feed on plankton. Many are preyed upon by echolocating cetaceans which use ultrasonic clicks to discern them. Ultrasonic, above the frequency range of human hearing, exceeds 20 kHz (20 kilohertz = 20000 vibrations per second), but the American shad, Alosa sapidissima, has been tested and found to detect sounds up to 180 kHz. In fact, the many tests showed that the American shad's best hearing is not just in the aforementioned very high frequency, but also in the low frequency range of 0.2-0.8 kHz. Between those high and low frequencies, the shad has frequencies which it cannot hear, as well as frequencies at which the sound must be very loud, about 145 decibels, in order for the shad to hear it. Tests of other fish, including goldfish and cod, for example, have shown that detection of ultrasound is probably not a common fish characteristic, although most fish can detect low frequency sounds relatively well. Shad easily sense the echolocating pulses of dolphins, and react by escape actions. Fossil clupeids have been dated as far back as 130 million years, which is the Lower Cretaceous. That's much earlier than the odontocete (toothed) cetacean earliest fossils that have been found so far, and those have been dated as 25-38 million years ago, in the Oligocene epoch of the Cenozoic era (and we live in the Holocene epoch of that era).

Moths and some other insects are now known to be sensitive to auditory ultrasonic sounds of predators and of other sources, and to react with escape behavior. The organic reasons for clupeids and other creatures to have those particular sound-sensitive capabilities has not yet been sufficiently analyzed, but it is likely that such analysis will be done at some time.

More now about moths. Male moths detect and follow females of their species by sensing the females' pheromones. When certain additional bio-chemical components are in the pheromone mixture, though, the male moth stops tracking the trail of the pheromone. The fact is that the pheromone content change is often due to it being emitted by a moth of a similar (sympatric) species of the same area. So, the moth that senses it "decides" not to try to mate with the female of a different species. Yes, moths do have some important sensing factors, this one probably caused by specially tuned neurons in the antennae which allow the moths to sense the difference between different, although closely related, pheromones.

Transparency exists in some aquatic organisms, and it saves them from observation by normally visual predators. However, some predators, including squid, have an optical feature that allows them to sight numerous transparent and translucent critters which they then use as prey. The potential prey ones that are most easily detected are the ones that have polarization-active cells. Because the light is partially polarized, and sometimes somewhat more strongly polarized, such potential prey often become conspicuous to and thus actual prey of predators which have polarization vision, including squid.

Members of numerous squid species therefore feed on transparent zooplankton, and not all zooplankton are transparent. The same is true among members of some fish and some crustacean species.

On a small island in the lake at Alondra Park, a group of Audubon volunteers has embarked on a project to bring more nature to their home community. Under the leadership of El Camino College Professor Jeanne Bellemin, Sherry Roberts, Professor Leigh St. John and Lindsay Smith, volunteers from the chapter, College and high school Audubon YES! programs have begun to set out new vegetation to enhance the park's attractiveness to wildlife--and people. The project is being done in cooperation with the LA County Parks and Recreation Dept. in what we expect to be the first of several joint ventures in local County parks.

Alondra Park is located adjacent to El Camino College in a small County enclave between the cities of Gardena, Hawthorne, Lawndale and Torrance. Although the landscape is highly controlled by human decisions, and the plants and wildlife largely non-native, there is still an opportunity to use the island in the lake as a learning tool for nature. By enhancing the habitat values on the island, more wildlife can survive at the park. This will add to the ambiance of the park and it will help children realize that nature is part of their lives, not just something viewed on television.

A triangular section on the southeastern portion of the island is being used for the new plantings. This side was selected to maximize visibility from Redondo Beach Boulevard of what is expected to be a beautiful and colorful display of plants. At the moment, the island supports only typical weedy species and a few ornamental trees, such as myoporum, pines and silk floss trees. The native California plants being planted will have to tolerate the island's very clayey, possibly alkaline soil. The plantings done so far include Matilija Poppy, ceanothus, toyon, monkeyflower, California bush sunflower and delphinium. In the future, these may be followed with some native trees, such as red and arroyo willow, sycamore and cottonwood.

Although the initial project is small-scale and barely under way, it offers great possibilities. Alondra Park lies in the midst of a vast population base. Consequently, it offers Audubon a fine chance to create a significant nature program in an area that lacks one. Additionally, as the ties between Audubon and County Parks and Recreation strengthen, we will be able to expand the type of program offered at Alondra Park, and replicate them at other County parks, such as Friendship Park, in San Pedro.

You can help, too. Funding is needed for the plant stock, and a donation of $25 to the chapter for it would be greatly appreciated. You can also become a part of the working group, donating a morning or two a month to help with the plant propagation work. To take part, please call Jeanne Bellemin at 660-3354.

Special thanks are due to Lindsay, who founded the project, and to her co-directors. Thanks are also due to George Ichiyama and John Wicker of LA County Parks and Recreation, who have made the project possible, and to the many who have provided key support, including Walt Wright, Margo Steinman and several other members of the El Camino College faculty.

Monarch butterflies fly an amazingly large distance in their southward migration to Mexico from breeding areas in eastern parts of Canada and the U.S.A., for spending the winter in what they obviously consider better weather. Some of them travel as much as 2485 miles southward! How do they navigate? Well, some entomologists have tested that and come to an interesting conclusion. A large group of monarchs was captured in eastern Kansas and kept in a lab for a few days before migration began. On the day when free ones were seen at the start of migration a moderate distance away, about half of the in-lab ones were released at essentially the same time by having the viewers immediately call the lab. The released ones couldn't see the distant ones, but they nevertheless headed south-southwest, as the free ones had done. They were unobservably tracked for a while, to be sure of their direction. About six hours later, the remaining ones were released and tracked, and they headed almost north-northwest, about 75 compass degrees from the other migrants. The lab people checked the difference in the sun's position, and concluded that the monarchs had navigated by using what is known as an internal sun compass. The ones which were released later had been clock- shifted without really realizing it. Many migratory birds have been found to use that inner sun-sensitive mechanism as part of their navigation aid. On a cloudy day, an inner geo-magnetic compass is used by most of those birds, and observers have seen that on such days monarch butterflies continue in the normal migratory direction, so they, too, might have some magnetic sensitiveness for Earth's magnetic field.

In Malaysia, during one summer, a group of fruit bats, Dyacopterus spadiceus, was caught in nets in a lowland rainforest. Their bodies were studied, and the mature males were segregated from the other bats.  The mature males were further analyzed and found to have fully-ossified bones and other mature male features. However, each one was also found to have functional mammary glands from which small amounts of milk were expressed. Their mammary systems were not as fully milk-generating as those of lactating females, but some of the males showed evidence that suggested having had some milk suckled-out by baby bats. During the autumn, males and females that were captured were studied; and none of the males or females showed current lactation characteristics, so that the seasonality of those characteristics was evident. These studies have led to ideas that the males of this bat species help care for the young, and that bat family studies should be conducted to confirm that thought. Of course, if a D. spadiceus is brought to our country to watch the World Series, and if it enjoys those games, it would become a baseball bat, right?

Call Frances Spivy-Weber (310-316-0041 or frances@monolake.org) if you want to help with any or all of the following events:

Audubon Neighborhood Meetings will be held monthly during 1999 in homes in the following communities: Carson, Compton, Gardena, Harbor City, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Lawndale, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Torrance, and Wilmington. The purpose is to introduce the Audubon program and to listen to new ideas. We need hosts and helpers in each community to organize one of the neighborhood meetings. The dates will be set as we sign up volunteers.

Audubon YES! students and Audubon volunteers receive awards at our Spring banquet. We need a chair and helpers for this year's event. Usually 100 people contribute to Audubon and attend this event. If you have ideas for inexpensive locations where we can have fantastic food and good fun, you are perfect for this committee.

The Audubon Birdathon in May raises money for special projects. This year, we hope to raise  $3000 to hire students during the summer to help with Audubon's programs, particularly Ken Malloy Regional Harbor Park Audubon Center and Sharing Nature With Children. If you want to be a part of this committee--and you don't even have to know your birds--we would love to put you to work.

The Audubon Butterfly Count next July 24th will track butterfly populations throughout the South Bay. Last summer over 100 people walked and ran through meadows and marshes

and dunes to find 28 species of butterflies. In just one day you can become quite a butterfly expert, and with a bit more investment you can help make this event an even bigger success this year.

It is hard to say if folks come to the August Star party for the stars, the meteors or the veggie-burger cookout. This is an easy event to help organize and we welcome newcomers with new ideas.

This page is part of the Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society website.