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Coming Up in the Elfin Forest

Text and Photos By Jean Wheeler

      Our autumn lacks the “fall” of big, brightly colored leaves, but it is still a season of interest and beauty in our Elfin Forest. Some flowers change color while others become beautiful fruits. Some plants continue flowering from summer, while others only begin opening late in autumn. This year’s wildlife young are reaching maturity and must learn to feed themselves. Migrating birds are passing through or arriving to settle in for the winter in our Elfin Forest and on Morro Bay National Estuary.

      Yellow flowers of mock heather bloom from August into September. White flowers of dune buckwheat age to pink, and then to rust. Pompom blossoms of black sage transition from white through brown to black in time to look appropriate for Halloween. Tiny red berries festoon hollyleaf cherry bushes. Larger coffeeberries darken from yellow through red to black, often together on the same branches. California poppies continue to bloom in yellow to orange. California asters bloom throughout autumn with white to pale pink or lavender ray flowers around central yellow discs. Cardinal catchfly (photo; and Dirk Walter’s full account of this species is on page 5) still has bright saw-toothed red flowers under oak trees along the lower boardwalk.

cardinal catchfly

      Often beginning to open by November are white to lavender blossoms on buckbrush, also known as California lilac, one of our most widespread shrubs all around the boardwalk. Tiny white bells of morro manzanita, often blushing light pink, may also begin to open along the lower boardwalk in late November if we have an early rain. Bringing still more color to our small wilderness in autumn are our resident birds and many migratory birds passing through or wintering here. Fox, Lincoln’s, and golden-crowned sparrows join our year-round white-crowned sparrows from October to March or April. Ruby-crowned kinglets also settle in for the winter. Our summer Swainson’s thrushes have gone south but are replaced by incoming American robins and hermit thrushes. Yellow-rumped warblers also arrive in autumn. Resident black phoebes are joined by their relatives, Say’s phoebes, for a winter visit. Birds passing through in small flocks on their way to the tropics may include cedar waxwings, western tanagers, and pine siskins.

avocets

      Birders are especially attracted to Bush Lupine Point and Siena’s View in these months to view bird species floating on the estuary. Several species of ducks may arrive as early as August. By October dabbling ducks, dipping their heads to seek food with tails pointing up in the air, may include mallards, northern pintails, gadwalls, American wigeons, northern shovelers, and teal (blue-winged, cinnamon, and green-winged).

      Diving ducks plunge completely below the surface disappearing in search of their food. Among those to look for as they pop back up to the surface are scaup (lesser and greater), ring-necked, canvasback, surf scoter, bufflehead, common goldeneye, red-breasted merganser, and ruddy ducks.

      Horned, eared, pied-billed, western, and Clark’s grebes also arrive from September to November remaining until March or April. Shorebirds such as sandpipers, dowitchers, and the American avocet (pictured) reach peak populations by winter.

      Black brant geese have been famous for wintering on Morro Bay, several thousand at a time when I first moved here in 2000, but down to only a few hundred in recent years. Severe decline here in eel grass, their primary food source in our bay, and warmer winters in the subarctic bays of southern Alaska allowing greater numbers to winter there instead spending energy flying south may account for the decline.

      Local birders led by Jim Royer will be at Bush Lupine Point participating in an international event, the Big Sit, on Sunday, October 9th. They will be counting all bird species they can see from the point.

 
 

Please Report Elfin Forest Sightings

Have you observed any unusual birds in the Elfin Forest? Mammals? Reptiles? Amphibians? Insects? Interesting activities or footprints of wildlife in our Elfin Forest? Unusual plants? Taken a good photo?

Please report any interesting sightings to your Oakleaves editors at: oakleaf@elfin-forest.org for inclusion in this website and/or a future issue of Oakleaves. You can also leave a message on FEMEF’s answering machine, 805-528-0392.
If you took a picture of your unusual sighting attach it to your e-mail. Be sure and include your name so we can give you proper credit.