The LA Times reported that California has allocated 6.5 million for planning a massive restoration of the degraded Ballona Wetlands.   However there is a conflict about what to do. The initial proposals called for the removal of concrete levees and  to truck out tons of sediment dumped on the property which would allow water from Ballona Creek and the sea to flow into the wetlands. However, there is opposition to this project, by conservationists who believe this  would disrupt rare birds and flowers that are already there. Read more in the LA Times State OKs $6.5 million to plan Ballona Wetlands restoration – latimes.com.

On Saturday February 25^th the festival will feature one full day of field trips, workshops and other activities at the Yolo Wildlife Area Headquarters facility in South Davis.

Admission: Three ticket pricing levels are available:

• Workshops and onsite activities only: $20
• Workshops/onsite plus 1 field trip: $23
• Workshops/onsite plus 2 field trips: $25

For a complete schedule of events, please click the following link: Duck Days Events
For more information: http://www.yolobasin.org/events.cfm

Wolf OR7 Federally Protected by the Endangered Species Act

While OR7 is the only documented wolf in California, any wild gray wolf that returns to California is protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The federal law generally prohibits the harassment, harm, pursuit, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capture or collection of wolves in California, or the attempt to engage in any such conduct. Penalties include fines up to $100,000 and one-year imprisonment.

Though many sightings have been reported, all other recent “wolf” sightings that have been investigated in California have been found to be something else, such as a coyote, a dog or a hybrid wolf-dog. Despite reports to the contrary, DFG is not aware of confirmed sightings of other wolves in California since 1924. A helpful graphic to help distinguish a wolf from a coyote is available at fwp.mt.gov/fishAndWildlife/management/wolf/wolfCoyote.html.

Concerns about human safety are largely based on folklore and are unsubstantiated. In recent years there was one human mortality in Canada caused either by wolves or bears and one confirmed human mortality in Alaska by wolves. Based on experience from states where substantial wolf populations now exist, wolves pose little risk to humans. However, DFG recommends that people never approach a wolf, or otherwise interact with or feed a wolf.  Farmers and ranchers can reduce the likelihood of attracting wolves and other predators by removing potential sources of food and other attractants from their land such as discarded animal carcasses, bone piles, etc. More about how to avoid human-wildlife interactions can be found on DFG’s website at www.dfg.ca.gov/keepmewild/ orwww.dfg.ca.gov/wolf/.

OR7 is a 2 ½ year old male formerly from a pack in northeast Oregon. He is being monitored through various means, including with a Global Positioning System (GPS) device that periodically transmits its location. It is not possible to predict his next movements, but he has remained in eastern Lassen County for approximately one week. DFG is notifying media, local officials and landowners of OR7’s general whereabouts.

DFG has been following the recovery and migration of gray wolves in western states with the expectation that at some point they will likely reach California. The last confirmed wild gray wolf in California was killed in Lassen County in 1924. The available historic information on wolves in California suggests that while they were widely distributed, they were not abundant. DFG has summarized information about wolves in California which can be found at www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/wolf/docs/Gray_Wolf_Report_2012.pdf.

Related articles

• After 87 Years A Gray Wolf Returns To California (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
• California Gray Wolf Gets Own Website (naturalhistorywanderings.com)

Here are the instructions on how to participate:

1. Plan to count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count. You can count for longer than that if you wish! Count birds in as many places and on as many days as you like—one day, two days, or all four days. Submit a separate checklist for each new day. You can also submit more than one checklist per day if you count in other locations on that day.

2. Count the greatest number of individuals of each species that you see together at any one time. You may find it helpful to print out your regional bird checklist to get an idea of the kinds of birds you’re likely to see in your area in February. You could take note of the highest number of each species you see on this checklist.

3. When you’re finished, enter your results through our web page. You’ll see a button marked “Enter Your Checklists!” on the website home page beginning on the first day of the count. It will remain active until the deadline for data submission. (We’ll let you know when that is for 2012.)

The Bird Count provides a significant contribution to science and conservation.  The Bird Count website reports that:

Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time.

We need your help. Make sure the birds from your community are well represented in the count. It doesn’t matter whether you report the 5 species coming to your backyard feeder or the 75 species you see during a day’s outing to a wildlife refuge.

Your counts can help us answer many questions:

1. How will this winter’s snow and cold temperatures influence bird populations?
2. Where are winter finches and other “irruptive” species that appear in large numbers during some years but not others?
3. How will the timing of birds’ migrations compare with past years?
4. How are bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions?
5. What kinds of differences in bird diversity are apparent in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?
6. Are any birds undergoing worrisome declines that point to the need for conservation attention?

“22 January 2012 – Tom Chester sends this report after a drive down S-2 to Fossil Canyon. The canyon is in the Coyote Mountains, and often is a good place to find wildflowers in bloom before they appear further north. It is reached by turning east at the stop sign at Shell Canyon Road on the north edge of Ocotillo.

Blair Valley – Good germination by the parking area next to S2, but it is essentially all non-native Filaree or Storksbill, accompanied by a smaller number of native Pectocarya and Popcorn Flower. The Filaree and Pectocarya were beginning to bloom.

Mason Valley. Good germination of a number of native annuals, as well as non-native Filaree or Storksbill and Sahara Mustard, both of which were blooming. Most of the Sahara Mustard was very small pathetic-looking plants with just a few flowers, which is all they will have total unless they get more rain, and maybe even if they do.The Popcorn Flower was beginning to bloom there as well.

Mason Valley to Carrizo Badlands Overlook. There seemed to be fairly uniform decent germination whenever we looked at the roadside and beyond, but we didn’t stop, so don’t know what it was composed of. At the Carrizo Badlands Overlook, no germination except under some shrubs, and in a little drainage. the germination there was pretty sparse, but way better the none, of mostly native plants: Phacelia distans, Erodium texanum, and even Desert Five-spot.

Fossil Canyon. EXCELLENT germination there, entirely of NATIVE annuals!!!! We saw no Sahara Mustard, Storksbill, or other non-native annuals. What a pristine area plant-wise!

Non-plant wise it is not quite so pristine, due to shotgun shells; shootingnoises; car and motorcycle tracks; broken glass; old cans; etc., in a smallnumber of areas.

If we get more rain, this canyon will look good. we saw:

• Zillions of baby Pygmy Gold Poppy and Parish’s Gold Poppy
• Hillsides colored green with zillions of baby White Pincusion (Chaenactis carphoclinia)
• Zillions of baby plants, probably Phacelia minutiflora
• Lots of Blazing Star (Mentzelia involucrata or Mentzelia hirsutissima), and Emory’s Rock-Daisy
• A good number of Desert Chicory
• A Desert Mistletoe in flower

There were plenty of other baby annual species as well. These annuals all looked like they had germinated fairly recently, perhaps from the December rain. Some had only just grown their first true leaves. Furthermore, the shrubs all looked pretty good. Brittlebush had lots of its big green rainfall leaves, and the Caesalpinia virgata was just leafing out.

If they don’t get any more rain, the annuals will all flower pathetically. But if we get rain in the next month, it will be a good year there.”

You can see all of their wildflower reports at: http://www.california-desert.org/pages/03flora/reports/current.htm

For reservations or information, call the Ukiah Field Office, 707 468-4000.

For more information to the Sacramento Bee Bald eagles are the stars of Cache Creek area hikes

For a Cache Creek Bird List go to: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/ukiah/ccbird.html

“The most important mortality factor for the combined free-ranging populations was lead toxicosis … The evidence that the principal source of exposure is lead ammunition is overwhelming and includes the recovery of lead shotgun pellets and bullet fragments from the upper GI tract where lead is readily absorbed and tissue lead isotope signatures that match lead ammunition and not other sources of lead.”

Other causes of death include

• power-line collisions or electrocution. 
• gunshot 
• arrow
• zinc poisoning from ingestion of zinc-core pennies

Read more at YubaNet  Scientific paper shows California condor still threatened by human activities.

Related articles

• California condors rebound, with some human help (cbsnews.com)
• Endangered California condors celebrate 15th anniversary since reintroduction into Arizona (yubanet.com)
• Three California Condors Chicks Hatch in Grand Canyon (naturalhistorywanderings.com)

“Due to a large rockfall that occurred at approximately 11:30 last evening, the Big Oak Flat Road the continuation of Highway 120 is closed in Yosemite National Park. The road is closed between the Foresta Junction on Highway 120 Big Oak Flat Rd. and the Highway 120/140 El Portal Road Junction.Yosemite Valley remains accessible via Highway 140 El Portal Road coming from Merced/Mariposa and via Highway 41Wawona Rd. coming from Fresno/Oakhurst. The Tioga Road remains closed. Foresta Road, between Foresta and El Portal, is not accessible.”

via Yosemite National Park – Highway 120 Big Oak Flat Road Closed in Yosemite National Park U.S. National Park Service.

Related articles

• Rockfall closes main road to Yosemite (sfgate.com)

Related articles

• Manzanita And Snowberry (naturalhistorywanderings.com)

The American Bird Conservancy reports:

“For the second time ever recorded, an endangered Short-tailed Albatross has nested in the United States and produced a chick. The recent discovery of the nest and chick on Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands follows the fledging of the first U.S.-born chick last year at the same site by the same parents.”

Read more at:  Endangered Bird Produces a Chick on U.S. Soil for Second Time in History.

Read more and see a photo of the bird at BBC Nature  All-white blackbird photographed

Related articles

• Ornithologists seek to answer riddle of white blackbirds and pink sparrows (telegraph.co.uk)

Related articles

• Snowy Owls Making Early Appearance (naturalhistorywanderings.com)

• Great Snowy Owls Photos (naturalhistorywanderings.com)