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Archive for the ‘California’ Category

Birding along the Los Angeles River

Posted in Birding, Birds, California, tagged , on October 8, 2009 | 6 Comments »

As a kid growing up in Southern California, the Los Angeles River was always considered a joke – a huge, barren, concrete arroyo with a trickle of water running down the middle. So I was surprised to learn in the past few years that it also has havens of avian habitat.
The river begins [...]

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Fall Birding on Southern California Coast

Posted in Birding, Birds, California, tagged , , , , , , on October 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

The morning was cool and clear and a slight breeze wafted across White’s Point off of Palos Verde Peninsula. Before scanning the off-shore rocks, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath of the ocean air and absorbed the sound of the waves lapping against the rocky shore. It was the sound of [...]

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Birding on Foot in Los Angeles

Posted in Birding, Birds, California, tagged , , on June 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

It could have been a long day. I had no car and June gloom hung like a shroud outside. I had counted on going birding while my grand-daughter was at preschool.
Well, I thought, I suppose I could walk over to the soccer fields in the Sepulveda Basin Recreational Area, just a [...]

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Top 10 Wildlife Highlights of 2008

Posted in Belen Marsh, Birding, Birds, California, New Mexico, UK, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

One of my favorite birding blogs, A DC Birding Blog, which links to mine, listed his top 8 nature moments of 2008. It was a great idea, so I am going to borrow it. There were so many wonderful moments that it was hard to choose my favorites. The following is my [...]

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Late Summer – Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve

Posted in Birding, Birds, California, tagged , , on September 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I stop and take a deep breath. The air, heavy with the smells of a foggy Southern California morning, is a pungent mixture of dew-dampened dry weeds and fresh leaves of willows and cottonwoods. There is stillness in the air, broken occasionally by the call note of one of the Song Sparrows foraging [...]

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Hiking and Birding the Santa Monica Mountains

Posted in California, tagged , on July 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

“Be careful,” BJ said quietly, yet with a sense of urgency. He pointed to the ground at the point where the trail headed from the parking lot into the chaparral. A long snake was slithering out of the shrubs along the trail. Our eyes quickly scanned its head and tail. The head [...]

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Avian Diversity at the Salton Sea

Posted in Birding, Birds, California, tagged on November 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

The inlet teams with waterfowl and shore birds. Both White and Brown Pelicans float contentedly, along with masses of Ring-billed and California Gulls. One struggles with a recently-caught fish.

Black-necked Stilts and Avocets tip-toe through the shallow water near the shore. Canada Geese, Northern Shovelers and Eared Grebes swim languidly. Two Snowy Egrets fly [...]

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Spring on the California Coast

Posted in California on April 20, 2007 | 1 Comment »

The waves rolled onto the beach at Crystal Cove State Park just south of Corona del Mar on the Southern California coast. Visiting communities along the Pacific Ocean always transports me mentally back to my Santa Monica childhood. As my long-time friend Penny and I sat on the outside dining area of the [...]

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