**CANCELLED** May General Meeting & Program
More details to come, doors open at 7:00 and close at 9:00 pm. Parking is free. Light refreshments will be provided. El Dorado Nature Center, 7550 E. Spring St., Long Beach, Ca 90815
Posts
**CANCELLED** Apr. General Meeting & Program
**CANCELLED**
Due to Coronavirus precautions our April General Meeting & Program at El Dorado Nature Center, 7550 E. Spring St., Long Beach, Ca 90815, is cancelled.
**CANCELLED** Mar. General Meeting & Program–Bob Schallmann on Jamaica: Reggae, Jerk, and BIRDS!
**CANCELLED**
Due to Coronavirus precautions our March General Meeting at El Dorado Nature Center, 7550 E. Spring St., Long Beach, Ca 90815 is cancelled.
September Program & Beginning of our New Fiscal Year!
We have a lot of great events and walks scheduled for our new year beginning in September. You should be receiving our September newsletter in your mailbox soon. Our first program of the year begins with Tom Ryan on Least Terns, details below. At the refuge the September tour is a National Public Lands Day event, which you will find on our September calendar for your convenience along with all our regularly scheduled walks. Note Colorado Lagoon walks will resume in October. Also on September 15th we’ll be participating with El Dorado Nature Center for California Coastal Cleanup Day. In October we are pleased to present our first birding class — many thanks to Anne Maben and Charlie Collins for putting this great resource together for all of us! Finally, 2019 is our 50th Year Anniversary! We hope you enjoy all the activities this year and look forward to seeing you soon!
September Program:
Tom Ryan — Studies of the California Least Terns: migration, dispersal and predicting the population trends
Our first general meeting of our new year kicks off with a few short announcements followed by a presentation on Least Terns by biological consultant and researcher Tom Ryan.
Mr. Ryan has been trapping and marking adult California Least Terns throughout colonies in Southern California since 2012. He has conducted studies of their movements using light-level geolocators and more recently has been attaching field readable alphanumeric bands in order to better understand movements between their colonies and to look at the population structure. Colony monitors have noted lower productivity at colonies for the past 10 years and there is fear of a population decline in the coming years. He will show how biologists are trying to study this issue and present the latest information that informs us of where their population is heading. He is also teaming with researchers in Baja California to try to determine the southern extent of the “California” least tern.
Join us for this interesting event on Thurs., Sept. 20th, at 7:30 p.m., El Dorado Nature Center, 7550 E. Spring St., LB. Doors open at 7:00 p.m., program ends 8:30 p.m. followed by a brief Q&A, doors close at 9:00 p.m. Parking is free and light refreshments will be served. Please bring recyclable cans/plastic bottles with caps removed to help support chapter activities. Hope to see you there!
General Meeting & Program — Tracy Drake: The Wonder of Eggs
Our general meeting starts off with a few short announcements followed by a program by guest speaker Tracy Drake.
Tracy will present “The Wonder of Eggs”, providing an in depth look at the inside and the outside of a bird’s egg. Bird’s eggs are amazing in their form and ability to house growing birds. This program will be an introduction to the amazing aspects of bird eggs, the historical research of collecting and studying eggs and will include why it is important to know about and understand how eggs work to protect developing young.
Tracy currently serves as Park Services Manager, City of Torrance and holds a degree in Recreation from CSULB and a Master’s degree in Outdoor Resource Management from Indiana University. She is active in Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon.
Join us for this interesting event on Thurs., Nov. 15th, at 7:30 p.m., El Dorado Nature Center, 7550 E. Spring St., LB. Doors open at 7:00 p.m., program ends 8:30 p.m. followed by a brief Q&A, doors close at 9:00 p.m. Parking is free and light refreshments will be served. Please bring recyclable cans/plastic bottles with caps removed to help support chapter activities. Hope to see you there!
Birding Classes!
** Class is now full**
This workshop is now closed, with 7 people on the wait list. Please contact Anne Maben at afmaben@gmail.com close to the workshop to see if there will be any openings.
For those who registered please watch your email for communications from the instructors, if you can’t make it to class please call the instructor so those wait-listed may attend. Thanks!!!
El Dorado Audubon is pleased to present our fall series birding class, developed and taught by Dr. Charles T. Collins and Anne Maben. To register for this class please click here.
A FREE series of three (4 hours each) workshops during fall bird migration are available to both our friends and members. Each interactive workshop will scaffold new concepts and skills including:
- Bird evolution, adaptations and behavior
- Bird form and function
- Birding strategies for identification and appreciation
- Understanding local habitats and best local birding spots
- At least an hour of class time at El Dorado Nature Center/Regional park to practice new skills
- Additional resources/training such as birding apps, hyperlinked documents on buying binoculars, wildlife cameras; digital photography tips, favorite birding field guides and links/descriptions to local field trips for birding
Workshop dates are Saturdays 8am to 12 noon: Oct. 20th, Oct 27th and Nov. 17th (will be held near El Dorado Park).
In addition, three optional accompanying field trips for class participants to practice their skills will be also offered on Nov. 10th (wetlands habitat, 8am to 10am), Jan. 5th (coastal ocean ecosystems, 8am to 12 noon) and Feb. 2nd (spring migrants in oak woodlands habitat, 8am to 12 noon), which participants won’t want to miss!
Additional information and updates will be posted here on El Dorado Audubon Society’s website. To register, please click here. There will be a limit of 30 class participants as space is limited. There will be a wait list should space become available due to any cancellations.
Please contact Mary Parsell at (562) 252-5825 or by email mfp2001@hotmail.com if you are interested or have any questions.
About the instructors:
Dr. Charles Collins is a retired CSULB Professor of Ornithology, a founding member of the El Dorado Audubon Society and continues to conduct research on swifts and local tern/skimmer species. Anne Maben has been an educator for 45 years, a wildlife biologist studying endangered species in Micronesia and currently serves teachers as a Professional Learning presenter for the UCLA Science Project.
Photo credit: Anne Maben
Cleanup at El Dorado East Regional Park Area II
Saturday June 23rd, 2018, from 8am to 12 noon join El Dorado Audubon & El Dorado Nature Center for a morning of trash cleanup in the park. Bags and supplies will be provided by the Nature Center. Along the way we’ll watch and ID the numerous birds common in this area. We’ll meet at the corner of Snake Road by Horseshoe Lake, look for our signs and check-in table. Park along the road. Return to our table at 11:30 am with your filled trash bags to automatically be entered in the prize drawing. Must be present to win. Click the graphic to download the flyer.
Sadly litter such as plastics, styrofoam, fishing line and ribbon not only detract from the park but pose deadly risks to birds and wildlife. Every year numerous birds are injured at the park becoming tangled in fishing line and hooks. Long ribbon in the park is often used by the birds in nest building, posing a hazard should the birds become tangled. Plastics and styrofoam are often mistaken for food and ingested by birds, fish and other wildlife.
The good news, there is something we can do to help – every piece of trash picked up can save a life!
Note: Parking fee on weekends is $7 cash or annual pass. Pedestrian and bicycle entry is free.
7550 E. Spring Street, Long Beach, CA 90815
Enter at the main entrance on the north side of Spring Street, just past the entrance fee booth turn right and follow the signs.
Keep Our Park Beautiful * Help Birds and Wildlife
Photo credits: Crow with an injured foot looking for food in litter by C. Crawford; Double-crested Cormorant hooked in fishing lure by George Hasley; El Dorado East Regional Park near Snake Rd. & Horseshoe Lake–the location of our cleanup event, by C. Crawford.
Cleanup at El Dorado East Regional Park Area II
Join El Dorado Audubon & El Dorado Nature Center for a morning of trash cleanup in the park. Bags and supplies will be provided by the Nature Center. Along the way we’ll watch and ID the numerous birds common in this area. We’ll meet at the corner of Snake Road by Horseshoe Lake, look for our signs and check-in table. Park along the road. Return to our table at 11:30 am with your filled trash bags to automatically be entered in the prize drawing. Must be present to win.
Sadly litter such as plastics, styrofoam, fishing line and ribbon not only detract from the park but pose deadly risks to birds and wildlife. Every year numerous birds are injured at the park becoming tangled in fishing line and hooks. Long ribbon in the park is often used by the birds in nest building, posing a hazard should the birds become tangled. Plastics and styrofoam are often mistaken for food and ingested by birds, fish and other wildlife.
The good news, there is something we can do to help – every piece of trash picked up can save a life!
Note: Parking fee on weekends is $7 cash or annual pass. Pedestrian and bicycle entry is free.
7550 E. Spring Street, Long Beach, CA 90815
Enter at the main entrance on the north side of Spring Street, just past the entrance fee booth turn right and follow the signs.
Click here to download the event flyer.
Photo credits: a Red-winged Blackbird looking for food among litter by C. Crawford, Black-crowned Night-heron with its foot hooked in fishing line by Jerry Millett.
April Bird Walk at Rancho Los Cerritos Recap
By Carolyn Vance
Our last walk of the season wasn’t as birdy as I expected it to be, but we still saw 20 species! We had up close looks at Bushtits and were able to distinguish male from female. I learned that, during breeding season, males have black eyes and females have pale yellow eyes. We also got a fairly good look at a Hermit thrush and a better look at a Pacific-slope flycatcher (shown in the header photo). A small flock (17) of Cedar waxwings were seen flying over the Rancho. Other flyovers included nine Mallards, some way-up-high gulls and a couple of Ravens. We heard several birds that we never could see, including Red-shouldered hawk, House and Lesser goldfinch, Orange-crowned Warbler and a Robin.
This is the last walk put on by El Dorado Audubon, but the Rancho has now started a family-and-beginner-friendly walk the fourth Saturday of every month. It also starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 9:30 a.m. If you couldn’t attend one of our walks, and still want to bird the Rancho, this is your chance. For more information on their walk, go to their website at: www.rancholoscerritos.org. Many thanks to Merryl Edelstein and Jerry Millett for helping me out again in April and to Marie Barnidge-McIntyre, the Horticulturist for the Rancho, for having us in and helping.
Post photos ©Jerry Millett
Male Bushtit
Female Bushtit
EDA in the News!
Check out this March article about El Dorado Audubon in The Grunion:
Events
Nothing Found
Sorry, no posts matched your criteria
