For several years running, the Oak Titmice nested in a nest box on the front of our little house in a canyon near UCLA, fledging clutches of young each year. They had started building a new nest this year, which I knew because we clean out the box each year to reduce the potential build-up … Continue reading A Buzz for the Season
Reprinted from The Western Tanager 89(4):1-3. A fact that has stuck with me from the research for the Los Angeles County Breeding Bird Atlas in the 1990s is that there was not a single neighborhood in the county that did not have at least ten breeding bird species. Residents can enjoy birds wherever they live. … Continue reading An Urban Forest for the Birds
Conservation Conversation Reprinted from The Western Tanager, 89(3): 9–11 (January/February 2023). Farewell, P-22 P-22’s reign as the biggest cat in Griffith Park has come to an end. The news was front page, not just in Los Angeles but farther afield, to those who found inspiration in a mountain lion living in the midst of the … Continue reading Wildness in Our City
We cover the natural history of Toxoplasma gondii (it is a parasite that only reproduces in the gut of members of the cat family), then lay out the impacts on humans, domestic animals, and wild animals. The take-home message here is that the effects of toxoplasmosis are worse than you imagine and certainly worse than you would think if you listened to people who have a vested interest in downplaying its impacts. Continue reading New paper: taking toxoplasmosis seriously
Travis Longcore 