On July 11, city and state officials as well as Chapter representatives converged on Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park to survey the damage from an apparent outbreak of avian botulism. Between early June and early July, several hundred ducks, other waterbirds, and fish died at Machado Lake.

The park, which is the focus of several Chapter programs, serves the communities of San Pedro, Carson, Wilmington, Lomita, and Harbor City. The 30-acre Lake Machado as well as marshes and willow forests in the park attract thousands of birds. More than 325 different species have been recorded at the park, making this area one of the richest in diversity of birds.

High temperatures, low rainfall, and pollution appear to have contributed to the die-off. By June, lake water temperatures had reached 80ºF. The current drought has slowed the flow of water from surrounding lands into the lake, creating stagnant conditions. Finally, the lake suffers from staggering amounts of nutrients that enter the lake from several sources.

Most of the water entering the lake washes off surrounding lands and carries chemicals, plant debris, and animal droppings. People add to the nutrient load by feeding bread to the hundreds of ducks that other people have released at the park. Whether the bread is completely eaten by the ducks or not, it eventually enters the lake's waters. And as if that weren't enough, local bakeries have been known to dump spoiled grain and bread at the lake shore. Finally, maintenance work in the channel just north of the park, known as the Wilmington Drain, may have released a slug of nutrients into the lake.

Long summer days, high water temperatures, and abundant nutrients fuel blooms of algae. As the algae die, their decomposition consumes oxygen,eventually exhausting the oxygen in the water, particularly on the lake bottom. Besides killing fish and other animals on the lake bottom, these anaerobic conditions are ideal for blooms of the bacteria that cause botulism.

Martin Byhower, who chairs the Chapter's Harbor Park Committee, has been leading efforts to remove bird carcasses from the lake and to address other problems there. Together with Chapter President Jess Morton and Mitch Heindel, who is the most knowledgeable observer of the park's wildlife and habitat, Martin briefed state and local officials on the die off and other problems at the park.

After the briefing, Councilwoman Janice Hahn called for the formation of a task force to address the park's needs. New Parks and Recreation Director Manuel Mollinedo committed his Department to working with the California Department of Fish and Game, the state Coastal Conservancy, and other agencies and organizations.

By Friday, the Department of Parks and Recreation had organized the systematic recovery of bird carcasses from around the lake and in the marsh areas. Removal of carcasses, which serve as hosts for the bacteria, is critical to ending the die-off. The County Department of Public Works also was planning to pump water into the lake in order to improve the water quality.

The Harbor Park task force will soon be able to draw upon a comprehensive management plan for the park that the park advisory board has prepared. Chapter leaders have been very active in the development of the plan.

On June 15, I graduated from high school. Although I consider this event extremely important, I had another important graduation the week before. I attended my last meeting of the Audubon YES! Council as Vice President. I look back at that last meeting with happiness because close to thirty new Audubon YES! Award recipients and YES! Council members attended. My heart filled with joy seeing the new blood which would continue the work I had helped start.

I was privileged to go to a school in the South Bay area which had both a strong ecology program run by Martin Byhower, and the support of an Audubon YES! group led by Jess Morton. Both of these men encouraged students to do ecological work. Without their help I would not be as aware and understanding of ecological issues as I am today. In seventh grade, Mr. Byhower encouraged me to join our school's Ecology Club, and I worked hard at acquiring my Audubon YES! Award. At the time, although I did love to work on our school's canyon project, the YES! Award was chief on my mind. However, once I won it in ninth grade, I realized that although I enjoyed the recognition, I loved the more intangible rewards much more. Once I could drive, no longer depending on my parents for transportation, I began working in the canyon for hours on end during the summer after waterpolo practice. I was completely hooked.

Then, in the summer of 2000, Jess asked me to join the recently created Audubon YES! Council. I signed up immediately, but once I was there I had not a clue about what to do. Unfortunately, the other Council members did not know either, and we ran around as if our heads had been cut off. Jess would try to assist; however, none of us really knew what we wanted to do with this new creation and members began dropping out because they did not see what the Council should and would do. Jess gave the remaining group some wonderful ideas and we tossed them around, then we lost Jess to his huge workload. In his place, Debbie Baker assumed control.

The few of us left decided to work on only one thing, and for all of the summer of 2001 we hammered out our idea for encouraging others to continue their work in creating environmental awareness and improvements. We created the Audubon YES! Council Award, which the South Bay Audubon awards to members of the Council who perform an additional fifty hours of environmental service divided into five different areas. These areas include Leadership, Education, Conservation, Community Service, and Recruitment. We decided each Council member would be required to work in these different areas for a minimum of 10 hours each to receive the Award. We felt this was a way to encourage previously hard-working students to continue their work. It also provided a great way for students from different schools to interface and offer help and advice to each other in developing programs. (Eleven different schools were represented at our last meeting.) It may seem easy to understand, but I still do not quite get it all - and I helped write it!!!

Over the past year, the Council has advanced and retreated in numbers; however, more students and more schools are involved. People now have something more to work for and the advice available at Council meetings is invaluable. I love our meetings, for not only do I meet new friends, who have helped celebrate my birthday, and hear new ideas, but also I get to eat pizza!!! We assistwith each others ideas and dreams, such as the Environmental Priorities Network, and help spread information that invites a letter to our Senators, for instance.

Although I am sad to leave my friends in the the Council, I am gladdened by the fact others will come up over the years to continue the work I have helped start. Next year I go to Houston (Rice University), and I hope to bring the ideas of the YES! Program and the Council to my University and to the local Audubon Chapter. If all goes well, high schoolers in that area will get the same chance Audubon offered me in the South Bay.

Guyton Durnin Vice President - YES! Council - 2001-2002.

P.S. I won that Council Award this year - one of the first three ever given!!!

Sometimes it takes a series of crises to precipitate change for the better. Let us hope that is the case with Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, for now seems to be a time when crisis has become the watchword. Recently we have experienced four major crises: the disappearance of funding for park improvements; a complete lack of facilities for our in-park education programs; severe social problems leading to habitat destruction; and an outbreak of avian botulism that has caused a large die-off of park birds.

All that is bad news, both for the park, and for the many who have worked so hard to effect change there. Nevertheless, despite the withdrawal of State funding for the park, our efforts to complete the Master Plan for the park are nearing completion. Soon we will have a document to present to the City for official approval that lays out what needs to be done and in how those things can be achieved. To complement this effort, there are now several funding agencies showing great interest in the park and how they can help fund the projects we so desperately need. Even better, planning progress for the Dominguez Watershed promises to broaden the base of financial support for the park.

Linda Chilton receives the 2002 Conservation Education Awared from Chapter President Jess Morton.

On the downside, facilities at the park are such that our summer education program must operate in the park without them. Nevertheless, our teachers, Debbie Baker and Holly Gray, have improvised a superb education program. They have an overabundance of applicants for the Audubon Naturalist program—all of them neighborhood youngsters who want to learn about the park and qualify as docents for our school program. The Audubon Naturalists will help this summer as Debbie and Holly host hundreds of children from Normont and Harbor City Elementary Schools at "their" neighborhood park. When we finally build our Audubon Center at the park, those hundreds will suddenly be thousands!

On the social side of things, the park has been plagued for years by hundreds of people who use the park in inappropriate, illegal and/or damaging ways. Because both the police and rangers have been severely understaffed, conditions have been deteriorating for several years. But the critical factor in this has been a lack of political will to address the problem. During the last three months, that has changed. Thanks to the efforts of a vocal and aroused citizenry, state and local officials are pulling together a multi-agency effort to address a huge range of issues.

Both LA Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Mayor Jim Hahn have made KMHRP a high priority. Supervisor Knabe is supporting the effort, and agencies ranging from the California Dept. of Fish and Game to County Human Services to the City Attorney's Office are active at the park. And, as always, State Senator Bowen is dedicated to making things work. Everyone is clamoring for solutions, and the range of agencies involved suggests we may finally get them!

Perhaps the one thing that has brought the most attention to park issues is the birds. A number of factors has combined to produce and outbreak of avian botulism that has made headlines. It has been a grim few weeks, and elsewhere in this newsletter are details. But the die-off has made everyone aware of the precarious state of the wonderful resource that Harbor Park is. The end result may mean that we will be able to fund more needed projects sooner than anticipated.

It has been a long time in coming, but change for the better is in the air. That is great news for the park. And for the birds!

For most, the migration this spring will be remembered as the `best in memory' for many local birders. Us old-timers have seen similar before, but not recently. Jerry Johnson mentioned the spring of '61 when the L.A.Times did an article about all the yellow and black birds with red heads (Western Tanagers), in everyone's yards that year. That year was the driest ever on record, until this year, which again, brought amazing numbers of birds coastward. Coincidence?

When weather, cover, and food conditions are great we see few migrants, and the cry goes out that all the birds are gone. One good fallout, or as in this year's case, a drought, and lo and behold we're covered in birds! If they were gone, where did they come from? This is why it's so important to keep notes on dates, numbers, weather conditions, etc., and study everyone else's too, before you postulate about the many meanings of bird occurrences, or lack thereof.

Out of the area but incredible, was the first SoCal public pelagic trip to find a Murphy's Petrel, on 4/27, about 70 miles WSW of Pt. Conception (Todd McGrath, Mitch Heindel _ MH). Remarkable was the Brown Pelican David Moody (DM) saw at Alondra Pk. (AlP) a couple times in early June. A few pair of Gadwall remain at HP (Harbor Pk.) and the LAR (L.A.River), the HP birds had a few juveniles. June Blue-winged Teal at the LAR likely nest, but Kevin Larson's (KL) Pintail on 6/9 is one of few summer records. The Redhead at AlP continued to early July (DM)! A late Am.Wigeon was at HP on 4/28.

A juvenile White-tailed Kite at HP in late May (KL) had dispersed there from fledging elsewhere. Red-shouldered and Cooper's Hawks are nesting in most significant local patches of trees, including urban parks. A late Peregrine was over Carson 5/7 (MH).

KL was keeping tabs on shorebirds nesting in the LAR in Long Beach, from Willow to Del Amo, counting about 135 Black-necked Stilt, and around 10 Avocet nests, plus a few of Killdeer. He also opened up fall migration there early with 2 Wilson's Phalaropes and 2 Short-billed Dowitchers which were almost certainly southbound fall migrants on 6/9, and 3 Least Sandpipers on 6/15. I remember when you used to get a break between spring and fall so you could go to the local mountains! On 7/4 KL counted 973 Western Sandpipers (early for such a huge number _ likely failed breeders) and 3 Long-billed Dowitcher at the LAR, "fall migrants" too! MB had 4 Short-billed Dows (calling) at HP on 7/9. A Red-necked Phalarope was at HP 5/12 (MB) to 15 (MH); earlier, one was at LAR 4/28. 14 Pomarine and 4 Parasitic Jaegers went by Pt.Vicente on 4/27 (KL).

Amazing were 2 Pigeon Guillemots a mile off Malibu in mid-May,when accidental along the coast (Dr. Barney Schlinger). Are they feeding there from known island nest areas, or from unknown mainland nesting areas? He saw another (?) there in early June too! An LAAS pelagic trip I led from Ventura on 6/9 was equally blown away by a Tufted Puffin about 11 mi. S. of the east end of Sta.Cruz Island!

I saw 3 Black Swifts over my hovel in Torrance 5/9, and Martin Byhower and Bob Beckler (MB, BB) saw them over HP on 5/11. KL saw and heard a Chimney Swift at the LAR on 6/9. Nearly the local nesting news of the decade came when 5/8, one endangered Least Bell's Vireo was found singing at HP (Steve Sosensky - SS, and BB), later joined by a mate, with a pair present 5/27+ (KL)! I voice recorded this singing bird for posterity. The last prior park record, I photographed on 5/13/90. The species is amongst the formerly known historical breeders at the park that we hope restoration will bring back, like Yellow-breasted Chat and Black-necked Stilt. Whilst migrant Warbling Vireos, like many migrants, occur regularly into early June, one singing in the Wilmington Drain 6/17 might be a nester.

Incredible was our first July record of Bank Swallow, one, I found at HP 7/5, which was still present the next day (MB). MB's resident Red-breasted Nuthatches at Chadwick nested again, and probably the first photo documentaion evidence of PV nesting was obtained _ good job Martin! They nested on the hill in the early-to-mid _70's, after some tremendous invasion years. A tardy Ruby-crowned Kinglet was at WP on 5/9 (DM). Was the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at Forrestal Quarry (KL) on 5/12 just tardy too? The last Waxwings were the first week of June as usual.

Most people were amazed at the show of Warblers this spring, particularly it will be remembered as the spring of the Hermit Warbler. It was the best year in most's memories for that species locally. What we gained in regular western migrants though, we lost on eastern vagrants. Their numbers were very low. But it wasn't just us, there were few reported statewide this spring. The sordida Orange-crowned Warblers that nest at Banning Pk. (BP) abandoned their nest in the live oaks near PCH when the lerp-eaten Euc removal crew took a few trees adjacent to their nest trees. Too much noise and disturbance! A Northern Parula was at BP on 5/8 _9 (SS & BB). Over 100 Hermit Warblers were at BP on 5/7 (BB), and they were often present in the dozens from the first to third week of May. They were everywhere! Thousands must have passed through. I had `em in my yard. I only saw one hybrid Hermit x Townsend's amongst all of them, at BP 5/17.

I heard of no Redstart or Black & White, but, unprecedented in spring, TWO Waterthrushes were at BP 5/7 (many observers). All Waterthrushes in CA are Northern until proven otherwise with photos or feathers. Any with a yellowish wash is Northern. Throat spotting or lack thereof is not diagnostic. Hey gas-guzzlin listers in SUV's ! Ever consider throwing a 1 lb., less than $300 camera over your shoulder to document what you see? Slow ya down too much between ticks ??? Ah, but I digress.... I found a singing Yellow-breasted Chat at HP (audio taped) on 5/10 which was still territorially singing in early July, likely nesting! In the "latest of the late" department, was a Black-throated Gray Warbler at BP on 6/7 (MH & DM). A female Summer Tanager was at BP 5/29.

DM saw a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at MM on 5/28. Dave Roelen had one at his feeder 5/30-31! One of Bob Shanman's customers reported one in PVE in early June, for a total of 3 males. Confounding was the Grosbeak KL saw on 6/2 and I saw on 6/7, at BP, which had the head and wings of a female, but underparts coloration of a male, and so, possibly a gynandromorph (sexual hybrid).

A very tardy Fox Sparrow was at BP 5/12. A very rarely detected, black-lored, oriantha White-crowned Sparrow was at SCBG (Botanic Gdns.) on 5/19 (KL). Regular mid-April to early May were Yellow-headed Blackbirds; at HP (MB), 4/14 to early May+. Another was at Madrona Marsh (MM) 4/19, and 4 were at the LAR 4/28 (Jess Morton, Bob Shanman, DM). A couple Great- tailed Grackles are nesting at AlP per DM. He says they nested there a few years ago, too. The Tricolored Blackbirds apparently bring their young there (AlP) from other local nesting areas (HP?) as DM counted up to 68 there, mostly non-ad. males, in mid-June after local fledging takes place. I saw 40-some "Trikes" in June leaving Hollywood Park (my business supplier is across the street _ I wasn't playing the ponies!) heading SW, most were juveniles.

By early May there are many freshly fledged fledglings out already as usual. May, June and July see the peak of local nesting activity for most species. `Repeat offenders', or dedicated reproducers, will often nest into August and even early September, on a third or even fourth attempt. By early July the southbound fall migrant shorebirds are showing up in numbers at the LAR, and by late in the month, landbirds will start showing up at our local greenspots. Go look, see, document, and report. Think global, bird local.

A major opportunity for the world to move toward a sustainable future is in the offing: The World Summit on Sustainable Development will take place from August 26 to September 4, 2002, in Johannesburg, South Africa. On June 29, more than 300 people, including three from the South Bay, attended the Southern California Town Meeting for this U.N. World Summit to make recommendations. They endorsed calling upon the nations of the world to include the following in the Summit Document:

Definite implementation targets, timelines, and funding for eradicating poverty, expanding renewable energy, providing safe water, reducing pollution and waste, protecting the oceans and sea life, reducing consumption, and promoting sustainable, equitable, and just trade. They also recommended dramatic steps to reduce global warming, including endorsing the Kyoto treaty, and demanded that governments commit to funding U.N. environmental programs.

An Environmental Programme (sic) report was presented at the meeting. This report stated that "the planet is at a crossroad with the choices made today critical for the forests, oceans, rivers, mountains, wildlife, and other life support systems upon which current and future generations depend." The report estimated that the number of people in the world affected by disasters rose from an average of 147 million people a year in the 1980s to 211 million people a year in the 1990s. Many of these disasters were weather related with experts linking them to climate change due to human-made emissions.

Our delegates reported that the U.S. government had failed to advance most of the commitments that it formerly made. Since the beginning of the Summit's preparatory negotiations, the United States has tried to roll back and renegotiate major accomplishments of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and appears to be trying to turn the most important sustainable development initiatives into little more than an expansion of the World Trade Organization agenda. The U.S. delegation has insisted on blocking any references encouraging countries to ratify the Kyoto protocol as a way of addressing global warming. The U.S. Delegation also has objected to the use of words like climate change, clean fossil fuels, renewable energy, or corporate accountability. Our delegation has also tried to delete all references to indicators, targets, and timetables, transforming the "Plan of Action" into a weak wish list.

Other countries are aware that humans consume more of the Earth's natural resources than the planet can replace, threatening the very survival of life on Earth.

What action can we take to prod our government to recognize this danger? More of us must get involved in fighting for the protection of our environment that is under attack throughout our nation. One way to do this is to call me at 310-545-1384 or E-mail me at lklight@ aol.com, and get on the Conservation Committee List for Action Updates. Joining our Audubon Conservation Committee is even more effective!

Before signing off, I want to suggest that you urge your Congressperson to support the legislation proposed by Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Jay Inslee (D- Wash) that will assure protection for the roadless areas in our national forests. Although more than two million public comments were submitted in support of the Roadless Rule that the Clinton administration implemented, the present administration has been trying to roll it back. The proposed legislation would put an end to road-building, logging, mining, and oil and gas drilling in the few remaining areas without roads. These are the last reservoirs of pristine wilderness and are vital habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife. Forest birds like the Hermit Warbler and the White-headed Woodpecker are becoming more dependent on these remaining stands of unbroken forest because much of their former habitat has been developed or logged. Let's encourage our legislators to do the right things to protect our planet and our future.

Four members of the House of Representatives represent citizens in the Chapter's territory. Below are the areas they represent together with their telephone numbers in Washington, DC.

• 35th District (Parts or all of Gardena, Hawthorne, Lawndale): Maxine Waters (202-225-2201)
• 36th District(Parts or all of Carson, Hermosa Beach, Lomita, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Torrance): Jane Harman(202-225-8220)
• 37th District (Parts or all of Carson, Compton, Lomita, Wilmington): Juanita Millender-McDonald (202-225-7924)
• 38th District (Parts of San Pedro): Stephen Horn (202-225-6676)

For the address and telephone of local offices, consult your telephone book.

The following description of avian botulism is excerpted from a fact sheet prepared by the National Wildlife Health Laboratory of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Avian botulism, or Western duck sickness, is one of the three most important disease problems of wild migratory birds...Two of the seven toxin types that have been identified commonly cause mortality in wild birds; one of these, type C, is most often associated with dieoffs of ducks, while type E primarily affects gulls and loons.

A wide variety of birds and some species of mammals are susceptible to type C botulism poisoning. Among wild birds, waterfowl (ducks, geese and swans) and shorebirds are most often affected. Waterfowl, pheasants and ranch mink are most often involved in c

Outbreaks causing losses of 50,000 or more birds are fairly common. In 1952, 4-5 million birds succumbed to avian botulism in the western United States.

A few cases have been reported in dogs; however, humans, dogs and cats are generally considered resistant to type C avian botulism.

Avian Botulism affects the nervous system, causing muscle paralysis. Depending on how far the disease has progressed, various levels of paralysis will be observed. An early sign in birds is the inability to fly. Once the ability to fly is lost and leg muscles become paralyzed, ducks suffering from botulism often propel themselves across the water and mud flats with their wings. This sequence of signs is in contrast to that of lead-poisoned birds, which have difficulty flying but remain able to walk and run.

Paralysis of the inner eyelid and neck muscles follows. These are the two most easily recognizable signs associated with avian botulism. The inability of the bird to hold its head erect is the reason this disease is called "limberneck." Frequently, birds will drown once they reach this stage in the disease. Those that do not drown will eventually die from respiratory failure as paralysis spreads.

Full diagnosis requires testing the blood of three fresh carcasess of the same species of bird.

The botulism bacteria are widely distributed in organic soils. They persist, in nature, in a spore form that is resistant to adverse environmental conditions such as drying and low air temperatures. Development of these spores requires complete absence of oxygen, temperatures ranging from 60 to 97 ° F, a source of animal protein and a pH ranging from 5.7 to 8.0.

Bacterial spores ingested during the life of an animal germinate after death. As the bacteria multiply and die, the toxin is released.

Outbreaks of avian botulism occur when the toxin is taken in by birds. The die-off may begin as birds feed directly on invertebrate carcasses that contain the toxin, or as a result of feeding on live maggots of flesh-flies and blowflies. Consumption of just two to five toxinbearing maggots is often enough to kill a duck!

Capturing sick birds and treating them with antitoxin is costly. This treatment is generally reserved for endangered species. Dealing with avian botulism requires controlling outbreaks and prevention, which require prompt removal of carcasses and management of water levels.

The YES! Awards recognize the achievements of students who are working to create a healthier enviornment in their communities through the Audubon Youth Environment Service Program.

Recipients of the 2002 Youth Conservation Awards: Vijay Yanamadala (l) and Paunie Samreth (r).

This year marks the first year that the Audubon YES! Council has recognized extra effort by YES! students through special Council awards. This years recipients were:

• - Guyton Durnin
• - Marcia Wiest
• - Vijay Yanamadala

Congratulations to you all!

"To me, the most remarkable part of the young people's awards was the breadth of them. We had so many schools represented. I realize that there was, as always with Audubon, a concentration within the more well-to-do schools. However, this year that had a lot to do with the efforts of the students (especially Vijay, Stephanie Lee, Urchna Morar and others at Peninsula High) to make others in their school aware of our program. The YES! Council played a big, big part in this.

"Debbie's summer ed program was also a great contributor, especially for the diversity we are striving for. The results of Dennis Weyrauch's efforts at San Pedro High were very much in evidence, as were Bob Shanman's at Mira Costa. There is a very clear connection between individual contact and group results.

"The turnout for the adult awards was also good, considering that we really didn't get a lot of word out.

"But most of all, it was great fun. It seemed to me everyone had a terrific time, and even those in the center of chaos thought it ran exceptionally smoothly. I know the kids were excited, and some of them will remember the evening for the rest of their lives."

The Chapter's Membership Committee needs a working laptop computer or PC. It must have the standard Microsoft Office software, including Access, so that we can make it easy for committee members to track data. We want to build our activist and fundraising capacity, and this will helps us do it.

Please contact Jess at 832-5601.

Thank you!

The Chapter's Board of Directors is seeking nominations for new board members for the coming term, beginning January 1. The Board is seeking to broaden the Chapter's base into the northern parts of the Chapter's territory. We are especially interested in candidates who live in Gardena, Carson, Compton, Hawthorne, or Lawndale.

If you are interested in serving on the Board or know someone who is, please contact Jess at 832-5601.

Here are more of the questions compiled by Donalda Day in her reading of David Allen Sibley's guide to birds and bird behavior.

• 1. Swans and other large birds can have more than
• a) 25,000 feathers
• b) 40,000 feathers
• c) 100,000 feathers
• 2. The typical number of primary feathers on a bird is
• a) 5
• b)10
• c) 15
• 3. An owl can't turn its head in a complete circle, but can turn it side to side
• a) 180 degrees
• b) 270 degrees
• c) 359 degrees
• 4. Of the slightly more than 650 bird species in North America, approximately what percentage engage in some form of migratory behavior?
• a) 20%
• b) 55%
• c) 75%
• 5. The song repertoire of the male brown thrasher can number more than
• a) 100 variations
• b) 1,000 variations
• c) 10,000 variations

Long Beach City College will be offering a birding course for 9 weeks during fall semester 2002. The class will meet Tuesday evenings from 6pm to 9pm in room D215 of the Science Building at 4901 E. Carson St. in Long Beach. Class meetings will be Sept 17 through Nov 12, with morning fieldtrips on Oct 5 and 19, and Nov 13. The class will use the latest edition of the National Geographic field guide and will cover the identification of 91 local bird species. For more information, call Claudia Freitas at 562-938-4410.

Restoration of South Bay Habitats: We can use your energy and some more equipment! If you are prepared to dig and pull and plant, join PV/SB Audubon's restoration of PV Blue Habitat (every first or second Sunday, 9-noon, at the Defense fuel Support Point, 3171 N. Gaffey, San Pedro). See Calendar for details. We also need shovels, rakes, hand trowels, and clippers. For more information, call Debbie, 722-7777.

Sharing Nature with Children: Spend one Saturday a month, 8:30-12:30, as a docent at Wilderness Park, 1102 Camino Real (near Prospect) in Redondo Beach. Docents help an expert on nature introduce youngsters, ages 6-12, to the park's meadow, woodland, streamside, and marsh habitats and to wildlife and habitats throughout the region Docents help lead the children in games, walks, and crafts designed around each month's special theme. For more information, call Lillian Light at 545-1384.

Audubon YES!: If you are already active with a school or youth group in the area, consider becoming a chapter liaison with Audubon Yes! Audubon Yes! students are the backbone of local restoration projects, and assist with Sharing Nature with Children. They attend Audubon field trips and walks. Students with 50 hours of service receive an Audubon Yes! award. Volunteers encourage participation in Audubon's youth-oriented programs.

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