Stories about my time working with the San Diego Natural History Museum.
I’ll never forget when in 2003 I first heard the expression “Avostilt”. The San Diego County Bird Atlas needed images of Elegant Terns and author Phil Unitt introduced me to the biology team monitoring the tern colonies at the south end of San Diego Bay. Elegant Terns had recently colonized the narrow dams separating the … Read more
I received my copy of the San Diego County Mammal Atlas last Tuesday, December 19, 2017. Prior to this I’d seen only the individual species accounts that comprise the main body of the book. There was a gala at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, preceded by a meet-and-greet VIP session at … Read more
As a part of project to study the inland wetlands of San Diego County, the San Diego Natural History Museum’s science team spent the week at a property in the southeast county located east of La Posta Road, near to the Mexican border. The acreage has been heavily grazed. Recently acquired by an non-profit organization … Read more
The science team from the San Diego Natural History team have taken on a project to survey the biology at several inland wetland areas. I missed out on the previous trip to the San Felipe Valley due to personal projects at home. I’m preparing to get underway for a rather long excursion through the intermountain … Read more
These sparrow sized owls are listed as “endangered” in California. It is believed that the Lower Colorado River is the limit of their range in California. That makes their presence in the Mojave Desert exciting. There won’t be any descriptions of nesting locations given in this document. On the two evenings when I saw the … Read more
The process of getting the Mammal Atlas to print has been long and arduous, made longer by all the checks and balances required along the way. There are 122 mammal species described in the book and the work has been divided between 48 authors. Several of the authors contributed multiple species accounts. Artists contributed line … Read more
On my previous post I shared images of the players in the Rat Theater, but I also had some nice avian encounters during this expedition. Mockingbirds, Mourning Doves and House Finches were numerous at the water hole in the front yard of the house we’d been provided by the park services. We had Say’s Phoebes, … Read more
From June 12th to the 20th, the San Diego Natural History Museum science team focused their mission on Cottonwood Springs and the Pinto Basin at the southeastern corner of Joshua Tree National Park. I had my 50th High School reunion to attend, but joined the group on the 15th and stayed to the end. The … Read more
My trip to Joshua Tree National Park was not without its surprises. I promised to wait one month before speaking of one of them, but there is a good reason for the delay. I’m sure you’ll agree when I finally get permission to speak about it. My friend Sula found a seed pod in doing … Read more
The Bird and Mammal team from the San Diego Natural History Museum launched an expedition nearly 300 miles north to the north-east flanks of the Kingston Mountains, about 75 miles south of Death Valley and 12 miles from the Nevada border at a site called Horse Thief Springs. Our plan was to stay for eight … Read more
