Now, participating in bird data collecting is right at our fingertips--and in our backyards--thanks to the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). Developed by Cornell University and the National Audubon Society, this program is a "partnership between citizens and scientists" which allows everyone to help monitor and protect birds. Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon hosts several bird counts every year, yet some of us forget to attend, or carry such  hectic business or academic schedules that we are unable to participate. However, now, with the GBBC, participating is as easy as looking outside your kitchen window.

The GBBC for 1999 takes place from February 19th until February 22nd and involves individuals counting birds while in their backyards or while taking a walk in their neighborhood or  local park (no farther than one mile from your home) and sending this data to Cornell via the Internet. Taking advantage of modern technology is amazingly gratifying when you use it to better our planet earth. Besides this, the GBBC is the most efficient and convenient way for students, business people, and the novice birder to make a difference.

All a participant has to do is count the number of birds in a particular species (i.e. scrub jays or house finches) and write down the number they see and where they saw them. Then at the end of the day, go to http://birdsource.cornell.edu or, if you don't have access to a computer, call your local Wild Birds Unlimited store at (310) 326-BIRD. Once you reach the Birdsource site, you will see several prompts. Click on the one that says "Great Backyard Bird Count," and then you'll be on your way.

Participants must remember not to add together counts from different days or add in single birds seen separately on the same day. Enter only the largest number of white-crowned sparrows or mockingbirds that you see at one time. Above all, remember to have fun and be aware that you can make a big difference by doing such a simple and enjoyable task as watching an Anna's hummingbird hover in your garden.

The Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society proposes to run a summer nature education program for children at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, beginning in 1999. The program would be run in cooper­ation with the City of Los Angeles and local community groups to intro­duce neighborhood children to their natural heritage at the Park. The principal purposes of the program are to initiate an on-going education pro­gram for the park and to build sup­port for a nature center at KMHRP in accordance with the 1994 Master Plan.

The education program proposed here would be offered weekday mornings from late June through Au­gust. One-week long classes, each with about fifteen (20 max) children, would emphasize one of three inter­related course topics: Water, Wildlife, or We The People. Students in any of the courses would learn about KMHRP and how humans interact with the environment of the South Bay region. A budget of about $12000 is proposed, which would cover salaries for a program director, a paid student teaching assistant and associated materials and other costs. Funding for the 1999 program will be provided through Audubon fundrais­ing and grants.

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 youth, 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.

5)  Begin tying all new initia­tives at KMHRP to Master Plan goals.

Objectives: Build a constituency:

a.  Offer scheduled natural history programs at KMHRP.

b.  Advertise programs thoroughly in the communities near KMHRP, using print, radio, cable television, and personal presentations to local groups.

c.  Follow-up with participants in the program, obtaining an evalua­tion of the program, and offering membership in Audubon and opportunities for working in this and other KMHRP and/or Audubon programs.

Summer jobs for youth:

a.  Hire two (or more) teaching assistants from local student pool at $1800 each for 1999. A successful program will result in several of the jobs being available in future years.

b.  Advertise the position(s) first within the YES! program teachers, coordinators, and students.  Encourage volunteer participation among parents and young adults in the community and from Audubon membership.

Teaching:

a.  Hire supervising adult in the Spring, preferably from local com­munity. Salary: about $5000.

b.  Allow two weeks for prepa­rations and training of paid student(s) and volunteers.

c.  Develop at least three one-week (five half-day sessions) cur­ricula to emphasize our natural heritage at KMHRP. A suggested set would contain one focused on Wildlife (birds, plants and ani­mals), Water (aquatic life, the local watershed, water flow into, through and out of KMHRP), and We The People (how we use the park now, its past uses and likely future). Each curriculum would contain elements of the others, but would stress a single facet of KMHRP.

d.  Review lesson plans for rele­vance to the KMHRP Master Plan and to usefulness as a basis for an eventual Audubon Center nature education program.

e. Create a committee to evalu­ate the program during and after the summer for content, cultural diversity, and community aware­ness of KMHRP resources.

Test teaching methods:

1. Allow three days for the supervising teacher and interested volunteers and members of the evaluation committee to meet with nature center leaders in the South Bay to discuss sharing materials and testing their applicability at KMHRP.

2.  Choose and test at least three practices, methods, or techniques that other centers are using to teach envi­ronmental education--particularly ones that introduce cultural diversity lessons.

3.  Supervising teacher will pre­pare a written evaluation of each practice, method, or technique to share with other nature center leaders and with the KMHRP/Audubon evaluation committee.

4.  Supervising teacher will adapt useful existing materials to create the three parts of the KMHRP summer curriculum.

KMHRP Master Plan:

1.  Evaluation Committee will review curriculum for relevance to Master Plan goals.

2.  The teacher, teaching assis­tants, evaluation committee members, parents and other interested parties will evaluate program for future summer program planning and for applicability to the eventual KMHRP Audubon Center.

Funding:

1. Raise $12,200 through the annual Audubon awards banquet, grants and April Birdathon to cover the costs of a summer program

       1)  $5000 for a supervising adult (4 hrs/day x 5day/wk x 12 weeks x $18/hr.)

       2)  $3600 for the equivalent of two youth aides @ $7.50/hour

       3)  $2500 for education materials

       4)  $1100 for associated costs (outreach, storage, sun shelter, meetings with community groups).

2. Tuition for each one-week course would be set to recover some of the overall costs. A $30 fee would recover about a third of the cost. However, scholarships would be made available for any child whose family cannot afford tuition.  Students might earn tuition through recycling. Tuition from this summer's program would be used to implement future programs.

3. Look for sources of future funding to support additional paid teaching assistant positions.

When you get discouraged at the unceasing battle to preserve our forests and trees, you can find some comfort in the policies of the country of Bhutan. Nestled in the Himalayan Mountains between China and India, this Switzerland-sized country is putting forth every effort to preserve its forests and its ancient way of life even at the cost of economic growth. In an area about one tenth the size of California, the country's varied ecosystems ranging from sea level to 25,000 foot elevations harbor 200 species of mammals, 700 species of birds, and 2000 species of plants.

Although Bhutan  is one of the poorest nations in the world, the King and most of his countryfolk agree on the need to allow only as much logging as the forest can naturally replace, so logging is permitted on less than 5% of the land. More than a quarter of the country has been set aside as national parkland, and the export of all unfinished timber has been banned. Bhutan's foreign minister was quoted in the Los Angeles Times [Jan 21, 1999, p. A10], "We could have been like the other countries and sold our forests and made a lot of money. But that would have been a short term solution. We would still be a poor country and our natural wealth would be gone."

While Bhutan does not allow a single tree--whether on private or on public land--to be cut without the approval of a local forest ranger, much of the rest of Asia has experienced environmental catastrophe. In nearby India forest cover has dwindled to 19 %, while most of  its one billion inhabitants live in extreme poverty.

But what about the United States, where so many conservationists have labored so long and so hard to protect our forests? We have the government agencies, the environmental laws, and the personnel to protect our natural resources. However, as Todd Wilkinson writes in his book, "Science Under Siege", reviewed in the Winter edition of the Amicus Journal [p 41], commercial exploitation is taking the place of conservation with the collusion of our federal agencies charged with protecting the public's natural heritage. Since the Reagan election of 1980 and the rise of the "wise use " movement, our national forests, parks, and other public lands are being invaded by timber, oil, and, mining  companies aided by politicians and bureaucrats who actively promote exploitation of the public realm by these private interests. Wilkinson charges that agencies like the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Fish and Wildlife Service have been weakened and biased by years of pressure and by political appointments of people whose agendas run counter to defending the public interest.

After thirteen years in the Forest Service, Jeff DeBonis founded "Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility [PEER], which  seeks to protect the people of principle who work in these agencies. He is quoted in the Amicus Journal [p 42], "It hurts to work for once-proud agencies that no longer serve the public trust--agencies that have lost sight of their original missions. These agencies have turned into instruments of mismanagement, instruments of political pork barrels, instruments of environmental destruction, and instruments of repression against ethical employees"

Besides joining PEER [call me if you want to join], and voting against anti-environment politicians, what more can we do to protect our vanishing forests?

Wonderfall, too, would accurately describe the passerine passage here. Last fall's movement was incredible for it's variety of vagrants. Both '91 and '93 were stand-out years, but '98 may have been the best of the decade. The peninsula, and adjacent mainland because of it, were as productive as any place in southern California this fall for the much sought after holy grail of autumn: eastern vagrants. Not Santa Barbara. Not San Diego. Not even Orange County could make us jealous, it was so consistently good here. A total of 26 species of warblers, and 18+ species of flycatchers speaks for itself! The confusing effects of a dead-end (the peninsula) have everything to do with migrant occurrences at Banning Park (BP) and Peck Park (PP), for instance. In the face of near total habitat loss around them, these parks have become significant migrant traps, supporting the refueling of literally thousands of neotropical migrants.

Before you think my wife Kathy (KH) and I (MH) found a lot of birds, consider the following. During the 60 prime-time days of Sept. and Oct., we checked at least two parks and green spots on three days of every four. Often we hit 3 to 4 or more parks--and still worked full-time. I tallied over 175 parkland/ greenspot hours, and perhaps 200. If there were about 5 clones of me, there would be a five-fold increase in coverage and sightings, a frightening thought! The biggest patch of habitat, 'the hill', however, goes essentially uncovered. The total numbers of normal and vagrant birds, must be astounding. We concentrate our efforts at localized patches of habitat where their detection is easiest. Overall, observer effort was good, as you'll see, especially at Madrona Marsh (MM), which enjoyed it's best coverage ever, and produced an astounding array of birds. They ranged from interesting to spectacular!

A Short-tailed Shearwater was among 6 Sootys in a feeding frenzy about 7 miles west of Hermosa Beach on the LA Audubon (LAAS) pelagic trip 11/14 (MH). Only a couple of Cattle Egrets were seen this fall, at Harbor Park (HP). A few migrant Canada Goose were seen in late Oct., over Torrance on 11/10. I saw the resident pair of Red-tails at HP chase off a Harlan's Hawk, insistent that it pass on through. This is about the third in the last five years locally, since we learned 'em and started lookin' for 'em. A juvenile Stilt Sandpiper was at the LA River (LAR) at Wardlow 9/12 (M & KH).

Dr. Stu Warter found an Oystercatcher on the breakwater at Queen's gate that appeared to be an American. He was unable to closely examine it to determine if it was a hybrid, only that it looked American. I suspect it is likely the bird seen at Royal Palms in two previous winters, which is not pure American. As I've suggested here before, the bird is likely breeding with a Black and producing those white thighed and undertail-coverted Black's we've started seeing for the first time recently. On the LAAS trip 11/14, during a quick look at Angel's gate on the outside of the middle section, just down from the opening, we saw in short order, Surfbird, Ruddy and Black Turnstone, Sanderling, Wandering Tattler, and 6 Black Oystercatcher. Also on the pelagic trip, a couple miles off Pt. Vicente, Kevin Larson (KL) spotted a bird that proved to be a Red Knot, the only one I've seen this fall.

Again, on the 11/14 LAAS pelagic trip, we saw two California Gulls that were humongus, and certainly of the newly described subspecies, albertaensis. They average 20% larger than 'regular' (lower 48 - Great Salt and Mono Lake) California Gulls. The differences are quite noticeable when the two are seen together. Little is known of their winter range, and this is probably the first LA Co. sighting. Two Arctic Terns checked out King Harbor, before going on, 9/21 (MH). The only alcids were two pairs of murrelets of the Endomychura type (Xantus'/Craveri's), seen far off on the 11/14 trip, heading south, about 5 miles off Pt. Vicente.

Steve Sosensky and Jim Abernathy (JA & SS) saw a White-winged Dove at Wilderness Park (WP) 9/10, then went to MM and saw a Common Ground-Dove. Both our rare doves in one day! I saw the latter at MM 11/12. Walt Wright saw a Burrowing Owl at MM 10/27, when migrants occur. The only Poorwill seen was one at Banning Park (BP) 10/19 by (JA & SS). KL found a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird at SCBG on 10/18, which was still present 10/30. Remember there was one for two days at PP in Sept., so we had two for the fall! There is a Costa's X Anna's hybrid at SCBG which sings the goofiest cross of the two parental songs I've ever heard, right where Shirley Wells found some in the old days (1970's). The hybrids resident at my house are still producing young. A Calliope was at Sand Dune Park (SDP) 9/21 (MH).

Flycatcher Fall, would have been a good name for this article, too.... We saw most of the vagrants possible, besides finding excellent numbers of our regular migrants. Things like Western Pewee, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and Willow Flycatcher were as common as in any passage of the last decade. In addition, a mind-boggling array of the rarer eastern species were detected. I personally saw over 30 Olive-sideds this fall, probably a personal best season ever, with 3 at once in upper Friendship Park (FP). My favorite bird of the whole fall was the singing Eastern Pewee at PP, 9/26. It and a Western dueled it out physically and vocally, in the canyon for the best perch. Both were in full song, and call, putting on a spectacular 20-minute performance for my wife and me. Unfortunately, later in the day, it didn't give full song, uttering only notes that Jerry Johnson (JJ), and Bob Beckler (BB) felt were 'very suggestive' of Eastern. Over the years, I've seen half-a-dozen pewees locally that I thought were Easterns, but this is the first to clearly whistle 'pee-a-weeee', and give those single upscale clear whistled weeet, weeeet, weeeeet, and chip calls! Clearly an Eastern. There were 4 other Westerns in the Park that day, but only the one dueling with the Eastern sang. There is no LA County record yet, and won't be until we have taped vocal evidence. Over 100 Westerns were seen during the course of the fall passage.

Among at least 5 Willow Flycatchers (big dark ugly ones, little pale pretty ones, etc., etc.), at MM 9/20 and after, was a bird three of us believed to be an Alder Flycatcher. This is another species considered unacceptable without audio tape, and is undoubtedly the most overlooked species in the state!! A Least Flycatcher was at MM on 10/13 (MH). Hammond's came through, concentrated in the usual mid-to-late Oct. period, with four birds (an excellent total) seen between the 13th and 27th . Only a few Dusky were seen, and several (3+) Gray.

A Dusky-capped Flycatcher was at WP 10/27 (MH), whistling away and preening. Since it was at eye-level, and only 20' away, I easily saw it's yellowish wing linings. However, it was not present when the Park reopened two days later. Hence, the best documented and verified flycatcher of the fall was the Great-crested Flycatcher KL found at SDP 10/18. He got photos, and later in the afternoon Tom Wurster (TW) and Mike San Miguel (MSM) saw it. First positive one since the '91 BP bird, and the fourth positive one ever in our local area.

A few (3-4) Tropical Kingbirds were seen, as usual, with most at HP. Far more exciting, and rarer too, was the Eastern Kingbird JJ found at the dam at HP 9/12-13, which was seen by many, many people. The usual tardy Western and Cassin's were seen early Oct.

Interesting were three Tree Swallows going west about 10 miles off Hermosa Beach, 11/14. A flock of eight (!) Bank Swallows flew over Torrance 9/26, and a late Cliff was with 20 Vaux's Swifts at BP on 10/4. Some Red-breasted Nuthatches were down from the mountains by late Sept. Rock Wrens (3)--migrants, NOT our resident birds--were at the Forrestal Quarries (FQ) in Oct., where no birds could be found during the breeding season. A Winter Wren (M & LC, JI) was seen by M and Lori Conrad (LC) and John Ivanov (JI), at SDP 10/2-9, earlier than expected. A few migrant Marsh Wrens were found at migrant traps, like one at SDP 10/5, and at the Cal. State U. Dominguez Hills fields 10/10 (both MH)!  Golden-crowned Kinglets were here, with 4 early ones at WP 10/27 (MH). Hopefully they'll stick around for CBC time!

I saw and heard a Gray-cheeked Thrush at SDP 9/21, but it was not present the next day. I saw it from 15'-30' for 5 minutes, and watched it calling 'weee-ah'. The black fine lines were visible in the gray cheek, big bold black spots on snow white breast. No buff lores or eye ring, no rusty tail. WOW !!! As usual a few of the gray-backed Rocky Mtn.-type Hermit Thrushes were detected (JI, MH). Swainson's are far scarcer in fall than spring, but a few can be found the last week of Sept. and first week of Oct. A Varied Thrush, also on the early side, was at SDP 10/9 (JI).

A distinct wave of Phainopeplas comes through early-to-mid-October, with 8 birds noted between 10/3 and 10/18, all generally moving NW. Vireos made up for it whenever flycatchers by being absent (from view at least). I had a brief look of what was likely a Philadelphia Vireo at BP, but it got away. Let it go Louie..... The regular Cassin's and Plumbeous returned for the winter in PP (Cassin's) and HP, and WP (Plumbeous), and a Hutton's was at SDP for three weeks (to 10/26 at least), remaining through the butchering of the Park. It has been massacred, if you haven't seen it. If this were to replant with natives, I'd understand. However, when the artificial habitat is all we've left the tired weary migrants, we should at least leave that alone. Hundreds and hundreds of migratory songbirds will have to find another place to refuel, as the habitat once there is no longer extant. You can see across the Park now! It's ugly, too! Tax dollars at work. There are too many tree cutters for too few trees in LA, not to mention that their picture of a tree seems to be akin to a lollypop.

Warblers were as spectacular as the flycatchers this fall, with 26 species being seen from Sept. to Nov.! As expected, many were 'one-day (or hour) wonders', but for the lucky birder who finds one, there is hardly a greater thrill. And, eventually, you learn to get over the anxiety of waiting for someone else to refind and verify it, knowing that many of "your birds" won't be reseen. Tennessee Warblers were very scarce, with only one (!) being seen, at BP (MH) 9/25-30. Conversely, Orange-crowneds were abundant, with many gray-headed orestera going through noticeable, if you looked through the abundant lutescent and sordida, in Oct. particularly. One Virginia's, at BP on 9/25, was all I managed to muster. A probable Lucy's was at HP (MH). Ron Melin (RM) found a Northern Parula at MM, which stayed 9 days, 9/12-20, illustrating the value of this refueling site for neotropical migrants. The bird was a beautiful imm. male. JI found the only Chestnut-sided of the fall, at PP 9/28. Dave Moody (DM) found a Black-throated Green at MM 11/12, which was still present 11/20. This species is typically a Nov. migrant here, and many vagrants have been documented for an 8-10 day refueling stay. This was only the second of the decade, the other being at WP in '91 (also DM!). An adult female Blackburnian Warbler was at MM 11/6 (MH), which was seen from as close as 10'! An adult male Grace's Warbler I studied for 5 minutes was briefly at WP 10/1. It disappeared, never to be seen again, even by me two hours later! I hate when that happens, especially as this is the first report of the species from the PV area ever. The couple of Palm Warblers reported at MM followed the first seen at WP by Dick Barth on 10/9.

My birthday bird this year was a Bay-breasted Warbler, at BP 10/25. It seemed to be an imm., but I could be wrong, as I said to Kathy, I saw a couple of bay feathers on one side. The one she and I found on 11/7 was clearly an adult, and probably a male, with much bay on it's sides! It was seen to 11/12. Blackpolls were common, with at least 6 being seen. The first was at MM, from 9/30 to 10/3 (MH), and a late one was at HP 10/24 (MH). Black and White, too, were common, with at least 7 being seen between 9/8-10, when an adult was at WP (MH), and 10/10-17 (by KL at SCBG). A possible winterer was in the Wilmington Drain 11/15 (KL). Incredibly, NO American Redstarts were reported!! An imm. male Prothonotary bathing on a rock with a Black-throated Gray, at WP 10/1 (MH), was a sight! It was still there 10/2. Two Ovenbirds were reported, both from SDP, the first on 9/23 (JI), the second 10/2 (LC). Stunning was an adult male Mourning Warbler in the hedge around the ball fields at PP on 10/15. It's gray hood, without ANY eye ring or crescents, and big black breast patch at the lower edge of its gray hood are subtly awesome! I glimpsed a Canada at BP in Oct. However, no Chat has been reported so far year as of late fall!!

Tanagers other than Western were like thrashers and vireos--none of note. Interesting though, is the mystery Tanager I found at BP 9/25-27. It was orangish below with 2 bold wing bars, the lower white, the upper cinnamon orange. It was remarkably similar to depictions of imm. male Flame-colored Tanagers, except that ir had a horn yellow lower mandible and diffusely streaked back. Perhaps it was a previously-undescribed hybrid (e.g. Western X Hepatic) despite the millions-to-one odds of that! Or it was an imm. Flame-colored, or hybrid thereof. It was present three days, yet less than 10 people came to see it.

A few Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were seen as usual. Besides the first one reported 9/8-10 in my last column, four more were found, the last 10/20 at BP (MH & JI). An Indigo Bunting was at MM for a few days 9/17-21 (MB, RM, DM). An incredible find was a male Dickcissel at MM, 10/4 only (RM). It was only the fourth this decade, and about eighth overall. Six of those records fall between 10/2 and 10/9, so you know when to look! A Green-tailed Towhee was at SDP 9/20 (KL).

Six Clay-colored Sparrows were seen 9/12-10/18, the most interesting of which was the late one that I found at MM in mid-Oct. that remained through Nov. It is obviously attempting to winter. Since we have no CBC record yet, cross your fingers! One previous winterer was found att MM in Feb., much too late for the CBC. Two Chipping and a Lark Sparrow have also spent Sept. to Nov. at MM, clearly teasers for the CBC. It's a great opportunity to watch these birds molt from juvenile to first basic plumage, then to first alternate, as they stay. I often get reports of how there are two of something because this one's "really different" from the one two weeks ago. Yeah, and if you'd seen it every day, you'd have seen it happen.....

Besides the early Sept. Bobolink noted in my last column, a second was at MM 9/17 (DM). The only outstanding Oriole of the fall was the female Scott's my wife and I watched bathe in the creek at PP, 9/12. The species averages about 2 per decade here.

The first Purple Finch was found off PV Dr. East, about 11/1 (KL). In addition, there were Red-breasted Nuthatch and Golden-crowned Kinglet. I think my Pine Siskin at MM 10/9 was the first, and only a few have been seen so far since.

On the albino bird front, Neil Multack had an albino hummingbird (!!!!!!) in his RPV yard in Aug.! He said it looked like an Anna's...... WOW, huh? Some guys have all the luck! All I could muster was a leucicistic (mostly white, but with much pale yellow washed over it) House Sparrow. I thought it was a Canary at first.

So, now you know what must have been right around the corner from your house. Fall is THE TIME the full bounty of diversity here can be enjoyed 'to the max'! But winter runs a close second, so be sure and get out and enjoy some of it. With the numbers of vagrants this fall, surely some outstanding things have stayed and are attempting to winter. They just need finding!

So good luck and think global, bird local...

Within the coastal sage scrub ecosystem, something can always be found in bloom. At times, the colors are subdued, concentrated, as with the deep yellow socketed into the flowers of coast golden bush. Or they are flung wide, scattered over the surrounding vegetation, as when manroot sends out its white-flowered vines. But the color is there. Even in the hottest days of fall, when the creamy heads of buckwheat have burned brick red, the violet-veined blossoms of stephanomeria dot leafless stalks with persistent white.

It is in spring, though, that the full magic of coastal sage scrub becomes apparent. Yellow dominates wherever bush sunflower grows. Each "flower" is itself a multitude of flowers, with the deep brown disc flowers surrounded by a halo of lemony ray flowers. Yellow dominates, too, wherever mustard has invaded. It is as if the profusion of mustard flowers have created a yellow haze over the landscape.

Open areas show the low golden splendor of California poppies, mixed with the blues and purples of lupines in their many kinds. Look for red, too--Indian paintbrush splashing rocky hillsides, the more subdued pinks of owl's clover mixing with bunch grasses and other low vegetation. Bulbs send up shoots here and there; a frozen burst of golden stars, purple-blue fingers of wild hyacinth.

Most amazing of all is the violet-throated splendor of Calochortus, the mariposa lily. The scientific name means "beautiful grass," in Greek, and is apt. California has been blessed with several species, but many are uncommon, some near extinction. One is already thought to be extinct! The mariposa lilies native to coastal sage scrub are not common and, considering the pace of development around us, not assured of survival without a successful conclusion to our own land use planning efforts.

Nonetheless, spring is upon us, and the wildflowers are coming out to welcome us as we explore local hillsides and meadows. You can't miss some of the colors, mustard and sunflower. But a closer look will be repaid many times over. Who knows, you may even spot those rare little gems, the mariposa lilies.

Before discussing the animals, I'd like to quote the famous Suquamish Indian, Chief Seattle (about 1786-1866), after whom the Washington city was named. He once said, "Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to Earth." He was highly interested in ecology, and was highly friendly to the white settlers. He wanted people to realize their obligation to each other and to the preservation of nature, as Audubon Society members also want nowadays.

In central Mexico, on mountainsides, migratory Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) spend the winter in densities up to 10 million per 2.5 acres. Members of a particular mouse species, Peromyscus melanotis, go to reside in that region, in order to feed on those butterflies. The toxic compounds (cardenolides and alkaloids) contained in the butterflies' bodies make those butterflies foul-tasting and deadly to most vertebrates. However, mouse P. melanotis, particularly the females of that species, feed exclusively on those butterflies with no ill effects. The butterflies are relatively rich in fat, so that those female mice derive a lot of energy from that prey, and thus breed extensively and intensively during the winter, unlike the females of other mouse species of that region, making that species the most prominent of the region. It is not yet known how and why those predatory mice do not suffer from the toxins in the butterflies. However, initial observations show that the mice tended to eat only the soft tissues of the butterflies, avoiding the cuticles where most of the toxins are concentrated. Also, some analyses of stools of the mice that fed on the butterflies shows that the toxins which were ingested were not metabolized in the mouse's body, but were ejected unchanged.

When a person rides a horse, the horse uses much more metabolic energy than when it travels unloaded at the same speed. Tests of dogs and rats, and some other mammals, have shown that they, too, use more metabolic energy when carrying a load than when not. Higher metabolic energy usage also involves heavier breathing to provide more oxygen to the body. A female tammar wallaby carries her offspring in her pouch, even when the youngster has gotten fairly heavy, to a weight which would cause high metabolic energy expenditure by a non-wallaby of the identical weight as the wallaby, and the same can be said about other mammals when the parent-to-offspring ratio is that of the tammar wallaby to her offspring. The luck of the youngster, who likes to ride in his mother's pouch, comes from the fact that adding his bodily load causes no significant change in the mother's metabolic energy usage during hopping. Tests were done by training four wallabies to hop on a treadmill, which perhaps should then have been called a "hopmill". Lead shot loads of various weights, contained in protective holders, were successively put into the pouches of the four wallabies, and their oxygen intakes were measured, as well as other metabolic data. Not only were there no significant metabolic changes when loads went from zero to over 15% of the female's weight, but hopping speed also did not change. So it was observed in field studies that female wallabies weighing 8.8-11.0 lbs. could easily hop at good speeds while carrying youngsters of up to about 1 lb. each, data which were consistent with the lab data.

In closing this article of aspects of zoology, I'll tell you that with April not far away, a zoologist-taxonomist who's preparing his I.R.S. return might categorize his various types of earnings as "income taxa".

CalFed is the current federal and state effort to both restore fisheries in the Bay-Delta and improve water supply reliability and water quality for the farmers and southern California urban users who tap into the State Water Project. Since the present water delivery system was designed and built in the sixties, it has many, many problems. But finding solutions to one problem often creates another, or at least creates a fear of another. Federal and state governments--and some organizations--have been working on this for over three years, and though the first draft EIR/EIS came out last March, the rest of the public is only now coming up to speed. So some will say we should be wrapping this up, and others will say we have only just begun.

The current CalFed plan for the delta and its many water conduits is, unfortunately, based on data that overestimates the demand for water. With this as a starting point, and the perception that water quality rules will become increasingly rigorous, many water agencies, business groups, state and federal agencies, and a few environmental groups began to dust off the peripheral canal as the best alternative to address many of the problems. This proposal, however, ran into political opposition within the Delta. Delta farmers could see their own water quality going down. And it ran into opposition from the majority of environmental groups, who feared farmer and urban overdrafting of the Delta even more.

Now the 30-year plan has two parts--the first seven years will focus on trying to solve as many problems as possible without the peripheral canal, but continuing to "study" the canal option, as well as some surface storage (dams). Then, toward the end of the seven years, the state and federal governments will decide whether or not to go the canal route.

It has been frustrating to sit and listen to people start to discuss broad policy issues and then to be told these issues are too large. We can't deal with them now. The best explanation for this disconnect that I have heard is that only a few people working on CalFed are taking a macro perspective--What is the public subsidy policy of CalFed?  What assumptions must we be sure of before making expensive decisions about water supply and quality?

Most of the staff assigned to work on CalFed have no control over the macro world; theirs is a micro world--making things work. The micro questions are: what is the water quality if shunted around the delta vs. through it?  What water regime does each of the delta fish need?  If we have an "environmental water account," how much water and money would we need to assure farmers they would be compensated for any losses?  Factual questions.

So, we come around to the Davis administration and the new state legislature. It is their job to establish the macro assumptions within which the agencies work. And it's our job do what we can to make sure the Davis administration does just that.

(Ed. note: Besides being a member of our Board of Directors,  Fran is also Executive Director for the Mono Lake Committee.)

Four field trips are scheduled for birders of all skill levels this spring. Beginners can always look to the more experienced for help with field identification. These trips are meant to be fun! Birds, of course. But we also want to bring together Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon chapter members so that they can meet each other and see the wildlife and habitat that we work to protect. Please call Field Trip Chairman Tom Miko at (626) 793-2133 to coordinate transportation for trips out of the South Bay.

Sunday, 7 February  Field trip to San Jacinto Wildlife Area in rural Riverside County. We will look for: Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, Short-eared Owl, Mountain Bluebird, Burrowing Owls, Roadrunners, Prairie Falcon, Sage-, Rufous-crowned-, and Vesper Sparrows, possible longspurs, Sprague's Pipits, and Sandhill Cranes. If there are no Bald Eagles at San Jacinto, and time permits, we will zip up to the top of Big Bear where they are abundant in winter. Plan to leave from Harbor Park's northernmost parking lot by the dam at 6:30.

Sunday 14 March  Coastal Birding Half Day. We will begin at the entrance to Royal Palms Beach in San Pedro, at 7:30 am. After looking for Black Oystercatcher and other rocky coastline shorebirds, we move over to Cabrillo Beach to work on the gulls and terns on the beach, and the loons, grebes, and ducks in the water. We will look for Rufous Hummingbird here, and at the next location. Weather and time permitting, we will then proceed to Banning Park (1 mile east of 110 Harbor Freeway on Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington. Park at the MacDonald's) to look for early spring migrant warblers, vireos, flycatchers, thrushes, and woodpeckers.

Saturday 24 April  Passerine Spring Migration Local Birding Half Day. We will start at Banning Park at 8 a.m., and spend approximately 1 hour before moving to Madrona Marsh in Torrance (corner of Sepulveda Blvd. and Madrona Avenue: parking lot is at the north end of the marsh.) We will look for grosbeaks, tanagers, sparrows, warblers, vireos, and flycatchers. Based on birds reported the preceding week, we may begin at Madrona Marsh, first.

Sunday 23 May  Annual Spring Vagrant Trip to Kern County Desert Oases. At the end of each spring and fall migration "eastern vagrants," birds that should have followed their traditional migration routes between the eastern U.S./Canada and eastern Mexico/Central America, wander off in tangential directions for a couple of weeks, before resuming their trek to their final destination. Cailfornia City's park and Gallileo Hill in the Kern County desert have consistently attracted exciting eastern birds such as Rose-breasted Grosbeak,American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, and even a Gray Catbird one time! After searching for vagrants, we may look for breeding desert birds. Bring food, plenty of water, and a wide-brimmed hat.

Cabrillo Beach, a collection of 17 nature poems by Jess Morton, is now available from Audubon as a fund raiser for the Audubon YES! Program. Bound in yellow leather-finish stock, and printed on marbleized paper, this 24-page book makes a handsome gift for those who enjoy poetry and/or the natural world. The cost is $6 each, ($7, including tax and mailing).

Many of these poems celebrating the natural wonders of our area have appeared in Hummin' over the last few years. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to support YES!, our youth environmental service program, which gives young people the opportunity to make a difference by improving environmental health here, where we all live.

Sharing Nature With Children:  A few people willing to spend a few hours one day a month working with high school students and children are wanted to help with our educational program at Wilderness Park in Redondo Beach. This monthly program introduces youngsters to a variety of aspects of the natural world around them in a setting which includes meadow, woodland, streamside and marsh habitats. Docents help lead the children in various games, walks and crafts designed to show off the park and the plants and animals in it.

If you like working with children, this is an excellent way to become involved with chapter activities. We want to expand this program to Torrance, San Pedro and other cities. High school and other students who volunteer receive Audubon YES! Award credits.

Join this exciting program by calling Lillian Light at 545-1384.

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