IN THIS ISSUE
Night Lights and Birds: A Perilous Journey
Imagine standing outside in the Central Valley of California on a brisk October evening. A setting crescent moon pricks the silhouetted coastal range to the west as you gaze up into the starry sky. Suddenly you sense an energy, a rush of
soft flurrying, in the speckled indigo overhead: birds on the wing, nocturnal migrants--Wilson's warblers, say, flying south from their breeding grounds in Alaska toward northern Mexico, where they will overwinter. Using a sophisticated assortment of biological tools--a sun compass (useful even at night), a star compass, and even a magnetic compass--they orient themselves and navigate southward along the Pacific flyway. Flying in darkness, they avoid predation. During the day, they rest and feed, preparing for the long, demanding night ahead.
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Chapparal and Wildfire
Like many Californians, I grew up ignorant of my natural surroundings. I took for granted the woolly evergreen shrubs blanketing coastal hillsides near my high school in Pacific Palisades, so it was something of a shock to learn last year that chaparral and coastal sage scrub are disappearing from southern California. More...
Blue Energy on the Horizon: The Rush toward Wave Power
People have dreamed for centuries of tapping the immense power of moving ocean water to generate electricity, and now it is beginning to happen. More...
The Marsh in My Old Back Yard
From 1975 to 2000, I was fortunate enough to grow up and live by Carpinteria Marsh in Sandyland Cove, in one of 40 homes built in a row between the ocean and the South Marsh. The marsh was literally 20 steps out the back door, the ocean about the same distance out the front door, with a great surf spot nearby. More... |
