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Welcome to El Dorado Audubon!

A California Chapter of the National Audubon Society serving the communities of Artesia, Avalon, Bellflower, Carson, Cypress, Hawaiian Gardens, La Palma, Lakewood, Long Beach, Los Alamitos, Paramount, Rossmoor, San Pedro, Seal Beach, Signal Hill, Sunset Beach, and Wilmington.

Mission

Photo 2The mission of the El Dorado Audubon Society is the conservation of native birds and their habitats. The society provides leadership in conservation and educates its members and the community, so that they may appreciate birds and participate in the society's conservation efforts.

June Events at a Glance:

From Elias Zuniga, Webmaster

Field Trip Report: Insect Walk at De Forest Park

Record breaking heat didn't stop us from heading out on June 22 to De Forest Park for an Insect Field Trip. John Hlavac (our Chapter's Newsletter Editor), led the walk. John began the walk with a brief discussion on insects, and provided a handout on various insect orders. Then, at De Forest Park, he showed us a variety of insect field-collecting equipment, including different nets and aspirating kits to capture them, and chemical jars (to contain and disable them). As we walked John gathered specimens, demonstrating efficient insect collecting techniques (from how to swing your net to how best to collect wasps without getting stung to choosing ideal insect-gathering locations). Also really helpful was that by identifying them, John took out a lot of the frustration any beginning amateur entomologist would have in trying to identify the species. (Although there are only about 700 bird-species in North America, our continent has over 90,000 insect species, making identification in the field a frustrating task for any beginning amateur collector.) After gathering our collection, John demonstrated mounting techniques, then took out his microscope for a quick study of their anatomy.

 

It was amazing to see them up close; these photos don't come close to the beautiful views John's microscope provided.

Finally, John reminded us of the importance that insects play in our life, and these should be concerns not just to entomologists, but to conservationists, and even the general public itself. From pollinators to basic sources of food for birds and countless species, insects deserve more appreciation and study, rather than the disgust and fear that they are often ascribed to in our culture. All in all, it was a GREAT way to spend 3 hours on a Sunday. For more photos of our trip, be sure to visit our online photo album.

From John Hlavac, Newsletter Editor

Summer Vacation

Our summer vacation is coming!! El Dorado Audubon will be taking the summer off. This will be the last issue of the California Least Tern until the September issue lands in your mailbox. Many of the chapter's activities, such as the monthly meeting, will take a little hiatus until September. The monthly bird walks in the Nature Center
may or may not go, check the chapter's website for updates.
The Gum Grove bird walks will only be on July 12 and August 9.
For the intrepid birder, there's that fine Sierra birding outing
over the Fourth of July holiday led by Donna Bray. The bluebird
boxes will continue to be monitored. The monthly refuge tours of the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge will continue unabated on 26 JUL and 30 AUG. The Eyes on The Colony project will be working hard at preserving the bird colonies for which this publication is named at the Seal Beach NWR. As of this writing there is a crying need for more volunteers. If you have any extra time, consider investing some of it in the conservation of our local birds.

 

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