Long, long ago before Los Angeles became a major city with a high population density, there was a wide range of habitats that maintained a rich biodiversity including wildlife like coyotes, mountain lions, and bears. Over the years, settlers came in and urbanization began through the Gold Rush, agricultural production, Read more…
Wow! I can’t believe my time is up. These five months went by really fast!! I can honestly say I have learned a lot and gained a lot of experience that others can take years to gain. I am so thankful to everyone that made this internship possible, not only Read more…
It has been a very exciting week regarding the Least Terns! We have spotted Least Tern chicks for the first time in over five years and we have set up a fence within the exclosure to keep the chicks from going out of the exclosure. That will protect them from Read more…
Being from Southern California we rarely get any rain…especially because we have been in a drought for quite some time. When preparing for my bird walk I prepared by thinking to myself about how many people might attend, what to talk about, and which trail to take them on…ect., but Read more…
This week I participated in a walk-through of the Least Tern site in Venice, and we counted 53 nests! Most of the nests have been around for about two weeks, and they usually hatch at about three weeks. Then, it takes the chicks another twenty or so days to become Read more…
Last week we had the chance to get a behind-the-scenes-experience with the Ornithology department at the Natural History Museum, which is one of my FAVORITE museums here in Los Angeles. Every time I go, I HAVE to check out the their bird room, and I have always wondered if that’s Read more…
This week I have worked on more habitat restoration and I have been monitoring the Least Terns at the Venice site. We have started to plant native grasses at Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in places where we have weeded. It looks great when all the weeds have been removed and Read more…
The past couple of weeks I have been monitoring the Least Tern site, later in the day for a couple of hours on most days. Early in the breeding season there were a lot of Least Terns using the Venice site that I monitor, but as time progressed the numbers Read more…