Blog

Renowned ecologist and entomologist Doug Tallamy explains why native plants are critical to sustaining wildlife and how home gardeners can halt extinction and species loss when they choose native plants, particularly caterpillar host plants. Tallamy was the keynote…

Recently I was in Anaconda, Montana visiting friends. I love the mountains in Montana and birding there is a treat. An eBird list from Anaconda had shown an American Dipper close to where I was, and considering how difficult it is to see our local Dipper, I decided to…

Any baseball fan and movie lover knows that this is a “sorta” quote from “Field of Dreams” (the actual quote is, “If you build it, he will come.”). In this case the “they” are the mountain lions of the Santa Monica Mountains. In my email inbox the other morning was an…

I recently passed the local elementary school which was celebrating the return of the students to the campus. That’s a very exciting thing for these students who have had to learn under more than difficult circumstances these past 18 months. The campus was…

Every day we read about the state of this Planet, our Island Home, and what we are doing to bring Mother Nature to her knees. It’s not easy to stay positive when we learn that three billion birds have been lost since 1970, that climate change is threatening the polar…

One of the most iconic butterflies from my childhood is the Monarch Butterfly. It’s beautiful pattern of orange, white and black is recognizable to anyone who has spent time out of doors. There may come a time, however, when it will not be so easy to see. The numbers…

In December it looked like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) might actually survive the past administration intact. Such was not the case, unfortunately. To quote natlawreview.com: “On 7 January 2021, the Trump administration finalized a new rule that limits the…

I’m sitting at my computer on the last day of a year that defies description. I will be glad to see it end. Good things have happened this year, though; it just seems harder to remember them sometimes. In 2020 the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA passed in 1919) was in…

This is the time of year when Conejo Valley Audubon is putting the finishing touches to its Lawn to Habitat program; a program that has flourished for the last seven years thanks in large measure to people in the community who want to make a difference in the natural…