Ladybird beetles everywhere!

I took a walk through the Santa Margarita School Demonstration Forest ~ future Monarch Way Station yesterday (April 9,2015) and saw everything coming to life after this week's welcome rain. Every plant seemed to have at least one ladybird beetle. Can you find these in the photos below?

Welcome spring!

Hooded Orioles have arrived for the spring nesting season.  I took this photo out of our kitchen window this afternoon. The photo is a bit fuzzy because of the glass.  I remember one of our students asking about the bright yellow bird that they saw.  I think this is what they were talking about. M. Klatt/April 7,2015

More food on the fly

Mike shared these amazing raptor reports on December 8,2014:

Yesterday while walking of the walkway near the Bayside Cafe in Morro Bay, I saw an osprey way off in the distance on the ground in the estuary.  As the osprey flew off, I was able to get this photo. We were pretty far away, but you can see that there is a fish in its talons.

On my way back from Morro Bay this morning, I saw a hawk on the ground in a field near our house in Atascadero.  I had my camera, so I stopped to take a photo.  Unfortunately, I stopped my car too close and startled the bird.  I was only able to get one shot.  I believe this red-tailed hawk has a band-tailed pigeon in its talons.

Fast food on the fly!

A while back I happened upon a red-tailed hawk catching a ground squirrel in Cambria. (MK, December 2014)

Catalina Wildlife

Michael and Ruby Klatt shared these photos and notes from a recent (November 2014) trip to Catalina Island.

We saw this acorn woodpecker (above) at the Botanical Garden on Catalina.  The drought wasn’t bothering him at all.  The island fox (below) had one too many cactus pears.  Our tour guide said that they get kind of “drunk” and crash on the road.  These little guys have recently been saved from the brink of extinction. See Catalina Island Fox Information to learn more about this interesting mammal.

Ants in the field...what kind?

Wildlife camera team volunteers found these ant mounds when heading out to camera #2 at chalk hill last September (2013). Today (Oct.21,2014), volunteers Mike and Ruby Klatt, Bev Gingg and Cal Poly intern Trisha Huynh, found another active mound along the LATO trail. The bottom photos show a close up of the ants (not too close since I only had my cell phone camera). These are commonly known as field or mound ants. See the full story at Wild About Ants!

Amazing Condor Sightings

From Docents Mike and Ruby Klatt:

Here are a few of the photos that I took of the condors that we saw as we drove up Highway 1 on Monday (Sept. 22,2014).  We started seeing condors south of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.  We saw a few lone condors and two pairs flying together.  We also saw three condors sitting at the tops of some redwood trees.  We were told by a “nature guide” that the three were parents and their offspring.  One of the photos shows what I believe is the offspring sitting at the top of the tree.  I did see two other condors fly out of the tree but I had put my camera down and did not get a photo of them flying away.

These sightings came the week after we enjoyed Morro Coast Audubon Society's presentations about condor biology, ecology and recovery efforts. Cal Poly intern Elizabeth Saldo joined one of her colleagues in reporting on their experiences as summer interns at the Hi Mountain Condor Lookout.
Lead poisoning continues to be a major problem but conservationists are making progress in educating hunters and encouraging transition to non-lead bullets.