ENHS Nature Trails December 2003 Article 4

Baby Vultures and Other Notes
by Reida Kimmel

On the north side of Lower Fox Hollow Road there are several areas of extensive basalt cliffs. One such area, where there are numerous old growth trees as well as thirty year old second growth, has recently been included in a land trust, so that it cannot have a mansion built on its heights nor be clear cut or farmed. This cliff, "Lynn's Cliff" is a beautiful place. There are rock shelters and, in season, small water falls. The old big leaf maples are wonderfully golden in the fall, and when the big storms come in, the old trees sway and sing in the wind. Most nights in the winter and spring, a large flock of crows roosts in a few of the big trees. If it is very stormy, however, they fly over the road to seek less exposed forest further to the south. There are large northwest salamanders [Amblystoma gracile], red legged frogs in the wet spots and of course Hyla down near the road. There once was a rattlesnake winter denning hole, though that is long gone since the rattlesnake population here crashed after the 1970s. We have seen a dark color phase bobcat coming onto the road from the cliff, and very occasionally, there have been foxes with kits on the cliff, though that has not happened for some years, to our knowledge. As you might imagine, "Lynn's Cliff" is an inviting place to walk, if you don't mind poison oak and aren't afraid of heights. A neighbor of ours, Dylan Hicks, walks on the cliff regularly and this summer he literally stumbled on a wonderful sight. Two baby vultures, white and downy were right there at his feet. He snapped their picture and quickly withdrew, afraid of startling the parents into deserting the chicks. He meant to go back to take more pictures as the chicks matured, but never did. The chicks did live and fledge, we know, because they were seen by several people feasting on a road-kill deer just up the road from the cliff. Immature vultures have gray, not red heads and necks.

TREE SWALLOWS MAKE A COMEBACK IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

I was reminded of Dick Lamster's and Maeve Sowles' wonderful success with bluebirds (story next month) when I read this note in the recent Audubon Magazine [December,2003, "Bird Recovery" by Frank Graham jr.]. Tree swallows in Southern California have declined terribly since the early 1980s, probably due to loss of habitat to farming, land drainage and sprawl. With the change in land use patterns, there were far fewer nesting cavities in old trees and those that remained were often taken over by starlings. Jan Wasserman, a licensed bird bander from Camarillo, California obtained funds and volunteer labor from the Conejo Valley and Ventura Audubon societies They constructed and set out hundreds of birdhouses. What a success! In twelve years the group banded about seven thousand tree swallows and saw them fledge. The nest boxes attract the returning swallows year after year, but many swallows have expanded their range in to other counties. Nearly one hundred miles away, the Audubon group in Irvine has now started its own nesting project. In these times of such discouraging environmental news, it's wonderful to hear that if species are not utterly decimated and you can recreate or improve their habitat, they will thrive.

SEVEN GENERATIONS!

On the top of my laundry detergent, this quote from the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy appears. "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." I think that every elected official in this nation should have this quote, writ large, in a prominent position on his desk. In fact, maybe they should have a sample of the detergent too, to remind them to clean up their act.

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