Western Tanager
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
LosWestern Angeles Audubon Society | laaudubon.org Tanager On The COVER: Black Oystercatcher, Haematopus bachmani, hunting on the rocks at the Redondo Beach marina. Photo by Jamie Lowry CONTENTS ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER: 3 Tales of a Budding Naturalist Jamie F. Lowry was born and raised in a small town in southwestern 15 Conservation Conversation Michigan. After earning degrees from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan Law School, she relocated to Hermosa Los Angeles Audubon Society 16 Summer Camp 2016 Beach, California, and began practicing law with a large international P.O. Box 411301 law firm with offices in downtown Los Angeles. Some years later she started a new career as a full-time mother of two children, a Los Angeles, CA 90041-8301 18 Birds of the Season daughter and a son. She later combined motherhood with a part- www.losangelesaudubon.org time resumption of her legal career. She is now retired and (323) 876-0202 continues to live in Hermosa Beach. 20 Breeding Bird Atlas Goes to Print [email protected] She has always been fascinated with nature, wildlife and natural science, and she and her husband have been long-time supporters of 21 Interpreting Nature many environmental and conservation-related groups and causes. Board Officers & Directors She is currently active in volunteer work along those lines, and is a President Margot Griswold [email protected] certified California naturalist. She also enjoys travel, music, books Vice President David De Lange [email protected] 23 Young Birders, The Tricolored Blackbird and art. She frequently takes photographs while out in nature for her Treasurer Robert Jeffers [email protected] Past President Travis Longcore [email protected] own personal records and to share what she has observed with Directors at Large Nicole Lannoy Lawson 25 Monthly Program Presentations friends and family. Outside of some postings on iNaturalist.org, this Brad Rumble [email protected] is the first general publication of any of her photographs. All photos Committees in this article were taken with a Canon PowerShot camera (5.0- Conservation Travis Longcore [email protected] 27 Bird Walks 40.0mm 1:3.2-6.9, with an 8x15 zoom). Education Margot Griswold [email protected] Membership Brad Rumble [email protected] She can be reached at [email protected]. Programs & Activities 28 Field Trips Field Trips Nick Freeman [email protected] Bird Walks Eleanor Osgood [email protected] Monthly Programs Nicole Lannoy Lawson [email protected] The birds of Los Angeles need you. Rare Bird Alert Jon Fisher [email protected] Schreiber Grant Program Ryan Harrigan [email protected] Staff Become a member of the Los Angeles Audubon Society to directly help the birds of our region. Your membership Director of Communications and Development Carol [email protected] supports the organization's efforts in the following areas: Director of Outdoor Education Cindy Hardin [email protected] Director of Environmental Education Stacey Vigallon [email protected] Volunteer Coordinator Cindy Hardin [email protected] • RECREATION Join other members of the local birding community on field trips, bird walks and trips for the beginning to advanced Member Services & Website Liason Susan Castor [email protected] birder. Join us at the beach, the mountains and places in between. • EDUCATION Our outdoor education program has become a national model. Thousands of urban youth gain valuable insight into The Western Tanager is the chapter newsletter of the Los Angeles Audubon Society, published online bi-monthly in PDF format, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec, Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/June, July/Aug. local ecosystems, including the Ballona Wetlands, the Baldwin Hills and their own school yard habitats. Our research grants support Articles, letters drawings and photographs concerning conservation, birding, chapter activities, and university students in biology and environmental sciences. Our lectures, workshops and acclaimed Western Tanager newslelter serve articles of interest to the membership are welcome for submission. Please send copy as Microsoft nature lovers throughout Los Angeles. Word, RTF documents, or plain text files to [email protected]. Photos should be high resolution (300ppi) .jpg or .tif files. Submissions are due the 1st of the month to be included in the following issue. All rights reserved. All photographs are used by permission and are • CONSERVATION Los Angeles Audubon Society leads los Angeles County in citizen science to monitor and protect habitat for birds copyrighted material of the credited photographers. and other wildlife through federal, state and local policy, programs and partnerships. We help resolve conflicts between urban Editor Linda Oberholtzer, [email protected] populations and wildlife via education, advocacy and action. Design & Layout, Susan Castor, [email protected] • RESTORATION Our revitalization projects are transforming urban wastelands, parklands and school yards into prime habitat for birds and wildlife. Our Audubon at Home program helps Angelenos create native plant gardens which attract and support birds. Scientific Advisor, Kimball Garrett, [email protected] © 2016 Los Angeles Audubon Society Individual membership only $25 per year. Join today at: laaudubon.org 2 Western Tanager September-October 2016 TALES OF A BUDDING NATURALIST, A Photo Essay by Jamie Lowry It ALL StARted wItH tHe “PINkIeS”. After some months of listening to me rhapsodizing times, all bird searches lead to Audubon.) In any event, about my walks and the birds I was enjoying getting to while at the website I noticed a heading relating to vol- It was about three years ago, in November. I hap- know, my daughter finally interrupted me one day and unteer opportunities, clicked on it -- and the rest, as pened to be at a stage in my life when I was in transi- said, “Mom, you really should figure out what the real they say, is history. tion. I had recently retired. My children were well on names of those birds are!” And she was right, of course. their way to adulthood. And I wanted to get back in (In fact, I had often thought, while at the beach, that I Now, a few years later, it is safe to say that I have shape, after a few years of having let things slide from a should find out more about these birds, including their launched myself into a new career (my third or fourth if physical fitness perspective. key among the latter at- names; but once I got home I usually got distracted by anyone’s counting) – that of a naturalist! My first volun- tempt was my resolve to go on frequent, long, brisk other things.) So I did some searching on the computer. teer endeavor was to be trained as a docent in Los An- walks. Since I lived in Hermosa Beach, what better place It turns out the “Chicklets” are in fact Sanderlings, and geles Audubon’s education program at the Ballona was there to go on these walks than the beach? are wintering shorebirds that migrate back and forth wetlands ecological Reserve (“Ballona wetlands”), lo- from the Arctic every year. the “Hook-Bills” are cated just a few miles to the north of me; the program is Having lived in Hermosa Beach for over thirty years, also supported by Santa Monica Audubon. this out- I already loved the beach, especially in the fall and win- whimbrels and the “Straight-Beaks” are willets. And the “Pinkies,” my favorites, are called Marbled Godwits. standing program provides field trips to elementary ter months when the summer crowds were gone. In the school children wherein they are led on a tour of the past, while going on walks or hanging out on the sand, I while researching these birds on my computer, I ar- wetlands, stopping at four educational stations, and ob- had always kept an eye out for wildlife -- whales, dol- rived at some point at the Los Angeles Audubon Society serving all manner of wildlife while hiking between phins, pelicans, sandpipers, gulls and the like -- and for website. (If, in classical times, it was true that “all roads them. the program is directed by the first naturalist I treasures waiting to be found along the shore, such as lead to Rome;” I think it is equally true that, in modern ever met, and the most inspiring in terms of her enthu- sand dollars, shells, sea glass, moonstone, quartz, siasm, breadth and depth of knowledge, and interpre- agates and other pretty pebbles. But when I began tive skills, Cindy Hardin. each training session and walking along the shore on an almost daily basis, I each tour day at the wetlands was and is an eye-open- started to notice more detail. For example, there was- ing experience, as there is always so much to see and n’t just one kind of sandpiper. they were different to learn about, from Cindy, from the guest speakers sizes and colors and shapes and had different behav- (at training sessions), from the other docents, from iors. I started to give them nicknames. the tiny ones the students, and from nature itself. that hung out in small flocks and ran in and out of the waves so fast their little legs were a blur I called I have also been trained and currently participate “Chicklets.” the taller ones that looked similar to each as a citizen scientist in Audubon’s Snowy Plover Beach other except for the shapes of their beaks I called Monitoring program; have been trained and com- “Hook-Bills” and “Straight-Beaks.” But the ones I most pleted the requirements to become a Sierra Club ICO enjoyed watching were the largest, with cinnamon- (“Inspiring Connections Outdoors”) Leader, participat- tinted feathers and elegant long legs and extremely ing in and leading local wilderness hikes for elemen- long bills that were mostly pink, with black tips.