Walking through Descanso Gardens on a late December morning we saw nearly 2 dozen different species of birds. It's a beautiful walk through classic gardens and native plants. Here are a few of birds we got on camera!
The Earth Minute is all about taking a moment to connect with the world around you. Linger in one place for a few minutes and be amazed at the life around you.
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Looking for just a few minutes at one spot at Sepulveda Wildlife Basin we spotted:
American coots
song sparrow
double-crested cormorant
mosquito fish
a true bug
You can find an Earth Minute anywhere, just stop and focus outside of yourself.
As the Los Angeles River heads to the ocean, this is the first section that has a “soft” or natural bottom. Most of the concrete disappears and the River is allowed to strive for wildness.
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You can easily walk this section along a dirt road/path from Lake Balboa to the Sepulveda Dam. The flow of the river slows and vegetation provides habitat. We were surprised to find wetlands between one of the golf courses and the River.
American wigeons and mallards
Birds abound here; we saw 42 species including the Canada geese, red-tailed hawk, American coots, American wigeons, mallards, snowy egrets, and a great blue heron highlighted in the video.
The fish in the river with flashy silver sides were counted by agency biologists on December 1, 2015 and found to be introduced tilapia. While the tilapia provide food for native birds, they are not a native species. Biologists are hoping the potential El Niño will wash these rapidly increasing non-native fishes out of the river. See the article in the L.A. Times.
Native fish species were decimated when the River was cemented in the 1930s. Restoring the River means helping native fish reestablish populations. Wouldn’t it be a major success to have steelhead and salmon return to spawn in the Los Angeles River?
My favorite stretch of the River, just above the Sepulveda Dam
