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1 Los Angeles Audubon Society | laaudubon.org January–February 2020 | Volume 86 Number 3 Western Tanager Feb. 12th Monthly Program— The Wonderful Life of a Dying Tree INSIDE THIS ISSUE PUBLIC LECTURES Monthly Program Presentations Wed., Jan. 8 — Studying L.A.'s Backyard Bats: A Community Birds of the Season ‐ December 2019 Effort | Presented by Miguel Los Angeles Audubon Society Ordeñana P.O. Box 411301 Esperanza Elementary School: Los Angeles, CA 90041-8301 www.losangelesaudubon.org Community & Habitat Building in the Wed., Feb. 12 — The Wonderful (323) 876-0202 Heart of Los Angeles Life of a Dying Tree | Presented LAAS@laaudubon.org by Gillian Martin BOARD OFFICERS & DIRECTORS Book Recommendation to Start Your President Margot Griswold mgriswold@landiq.com TIME Past President Travis Longcore travislongcore@laaudubon.org New Year ‐ Food From The Radical Treasurer Robert Jeffers jeffers@laaudubon.org 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Secretary Nicole Lannoy Lawson nicolelawson@laaudubon.org Directors at Large Catherine Rich Not Published Center LOCATION COMMITTEES Conservation Travis Longcore travislongcore@laaudubon.org Education Margot Griswold mgriswold@landiq.com Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook Membership Position Open membership@laaudubon.org SCHEDULES 6300 Hetzler Rd PROGRAMS & ACTIVITIES Field Trips Nick Freeman mnfreeman@earthlink.net Field Trips and Bird Walks Culver City, CA 90232 Bird Walks Eleanor Osgood gardenbird1@att.net Monthly Programs Travis Longcore travislongcore@laaudubon.org (310) 558-5547 Rare Bird Alert Jon Fisher JonF60@hotmail.com Schreiber Grant Program Ryan Harrigan ryanharrigan@laaudubon.org STAFF Director of Communications & Development Carol Babeli carolbabeli@laaudubon.org Director of Outdoor Education Cindy Hardin cindyhardin@laaudubon.org The birds of Los Angeles need you. Director of Environmental Education Stacey Vigallon tern@laaudubon.org Volunteer Coordinator Cindy Hardin cindyhardin@laaudubon.org Member Services Susan Castor membership@laaudubon.org Become a member of the Los Angeles Audubon Society to directly help the birds of our region. Website Liason Nicole Lawson nicolelawson@laaudubon.org Your membership supports the organization's efforts in the following areas: 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. Articles, letters drawings and photographs concerning conservation, birding, chapter activities, • RECREATION|• EDUCATION | • CONSERVATION| • RESTORATION and articles of interest to the membership are welcome for submission. Please send copy as Microsoft Word, RTF documents, or plain text files to westerntanager@laaudubon.org. 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 Individual membership only $25 per year. permission and are copyrighted material of the credited photographers. Editor Linda Oberholtzer westerntanager@laaudubon.org Design & Layout Susan Castor susancastor@laaudubon.org Scientific Advisor Kimball Garrett kgarrett@nhm.org Join today at: https://www.laaudubon.org/membership © 2019 Los Angeles Audubon Society Mailing Address: PO Box 411301, Los Angeles CA 90041‐8301 Phone: (323) 876‐0202 Western Tanager January–February 2020, Vol. 86 No. 3 2 Studying L.A.'s Backyard Bats: A Community Effort The Wonderful Life of a Dying Tree Miguel Ordeñana Gillian Martin DATE: Wednesday, December 11 DATE: Wednesday, February 12 TIME: 7:30 PM 8:30 PM TIME: 7:30 PM 8:30 PM WHERE: Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook Visitor Center, 6300 Hetzler Rd, WHERE: Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook Visitor Center Culver City 90232 6300 Hetzler Rd, Culver City 90232 The Backyard Bats Study at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles A dying tree has a commendable destiny. Gillian Martin, Director of County represents an important opportunity to broaden awareness and the Cavity Conservation Initiative, is passionate about this often over‐ interest in conserving species found in urban areas and to inspire more city looked fact. She will discuss its habitat value and reveal ways it can be dwellers to become stewards of the environments in which they live. Most safely left in place to benefit wildlife. bat species are intolerant of urbanization, though 19 known bat species are found to have persisted in Los Angeles County. Previous studies have focused only on large urban parks and little is currently known about bats in the urban core. The lack of urban biodiversity research is in large part due to the difficulties of accessing private property and conducting biological Meetings are held in visitor center theater room — drive all the way up surveys in developed landscapes. Miguel will be focusing his talk on a bat Hetzler Road to the top of hill. Parking — free parking in upper lot acoustic monitoring project called the Backyard Bat Study. The Backyard Bat adjacent to the visitors center Study is a new community science project that aims to classify bat species richness, activity levels, and develop a larger community of bat advocates We hope to see you at this free event. through community outreach initiatives. Further, the project will attempt to identify relationships between bat habitat specialists and various habitat Learn more about Los Angeles Audubon programs and ways to support variables within L.A.'s urban landscape. Miguel will be discussing what local species conservation and environmental education at inspired this project, initial trends, challenges, opportunities, and next https://www.laaudubon.org/give steps. Western Tanager January–February 2020, Vol. 86 No. 3 3 BIRDS OF THE SEASON — December 2019 | By Jon Fisher ho claims we don’t have seasons in south- (Lynne Sands), continuing at the Ballona Freshwater ern California? Though admittedly they are A number of local Christmas Bird Counts have al- Marsh through November 3, at Sunnyside Cemetery Wnot as pronounced as they are elsewhere in ready been completed and all will have concluded by in Long Beach from December 5-14 (Tom Miko) and the country, they are nonetheless distinct and the January 5. Thus far these have turned up fewer new at Culver City Park on December 20 (Walter Lamb). changes in avifauna that accompany them are signifi- rare birds than is typical. One of the things birding cant. Aside from normal seasonal transformations, teaches us, is that while some things are pretty pre- Twenty-two Vaux’s Swifts were over Silver Lake on climate change is effecting and altering habitats and dictable, others are not. Each year is different. December 1 (Andrew Birch). This species was once ecosystems. more regular in winter more regular on the coastal Here’s a look at what was around over the last slope. The average mean temperature in Los Angeles two months… has risen about three degrees since the 1950s. This Quite rare in the county were four Sandhill Cranes at seems like a paltry amount, yet it’s more than enough A Tundra Swan was at Piute Ponds on Edwards the Piute Ponds on Edwards AFB on November 8 to impact birds. While observer bias and levels of AFB from December 7-14 with second one joining it (Jack Wickel) and two just southeast of there on No- coverage must be taken into account, the tempera- as of December 12 (Mickey Dyke, Sonia Conlin, vember 16. ture increase surely accounts for at least some of the Joseph Dunn). many neotropic migrants that winter on the coastal Single American Oystercatchers continued to be slope. It also may be one reason for the increasing A few White-winged Scoters and Black Scoters reported at Royal Palms Beach near San Pedro success of so many non-native species; various par- were off Dockweiler State Beach in El Segundo and through December 1 and at the Ballona Creek mouth rots and parakeets, bishops, whydahs and munias. nearby Playa del Rey Beach from October 30-De- off and on through December 12. cember 17 (Richard Barth). The period from late October through December A long-staying Pacific Golden-Plover- first re- is not as dynamic as late summer and early fall, yet it Also at Piute Ponds was a Long-tailed Duck on No- ported on August 30- remained along lower Bal- still offers plenty of activity. For all intents and pur- vember 12 (Mickey Dyke, Becky Kitto). lona Creek in Playa del Rey through December 8. poses passerine migration was over by the end of A single Mountain Plover was in the east Ante- October, though to be sure the usual few odds and A Red-necked Grebe at Cabrillo Beach from No- lope Valley at 110th Street East and Ave. I from ends continued to turn up; either late migrants or vember 18-December 11 (Elsa Toskey, Alejandro November 16-17 (Judy Matsuoka, Jim Moore). birds that will end up spending the winter locally. As Santillana) was the only one reported. This species has declined significantly as a win- earlier in the fall, there was minimal evidence of irrup- tering bird in the county due to the decreased tive species, although above average numbers of Rare but regular visitors, White-winged Doves were availability of water and resulting decline of agri- Red-breasted Nuthatches were present. in Redondo Beach from October 23-December 21 cultural activity in the valley. Add to that the Western Tanager January–February 2020, Vol. 86 No. 3 4 eighty percent decline in their population overall A late Swainson’s Hawk was at Bonelli Regional nando CBC on December 14 (Brian Bielfelt) and and it should be no surprise that numbers are Park in San Dimas on November 24 (Mickey Long) along the LA River in Atwater Village from November down. and a rare Broad-winged Hawk was at the South 5-December 21 (Andrew Birch). Coast Botanic Gardens on November 29 (Mike A Laughing Gull was at Cabrillo Beach in San Miller).