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Program Topic

California Condors - Back from the Brink: An introduction to this magnificent, critically-endangered species including a brief overview of the California Condor Recovery Program

This presentation will include natural history details about the critically-endangered California condor from their emergence during the Pleistocene through their decline and their eventual status as “extinct in the wild”.  The Condor Recovery Program, which has successfully reintroduced California Condors into the wild, will be discussed including captive breeding efforts, how the wild flock is managed, and ongoing threats.

About the presenter

Maria Montag is the Board President of Friends of California Condors Wild and Free, a non-profit that works in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), who manage the two National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) northwest of Los Angeles that protect the historic nesting sites of the critically-endangered California Condors; Bitter Creek NWR and Hopper Mountain NWR.

She is also a USFWS Maintenance Volunteer performing defensible space activities on refuge. 

While not a trained biologist, she is an avid student of these birds and welcomes the opportunity to share her love of these fascinating birds with you today.

Program Format

Hybrid meeting - It is your preference: Join in person or online.  

In person: NEW LOCATION! This year our meeting location has changed.

• Address: First Friends Church, 13205 Philadelphia St., Whittier.

• Entrance: The entrance is on Washington Ave.

• Parking: Parking is available in the parking area behind the church and along Washington Ave.

Online: please RSVP here and we will send you a link to the meeting.

The program is free and open to the public.

Join us for our beginner bird walk in Sycamore Canyon.

This bird walk will be a very slow walk into the Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We will stop frequently to listen and observe the birds around us. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Meet at the entrance gate to the Sycamore Canyon trail. The trail is located adjacent to Rose Hills Cemetery gate 17, but note that the trail is not in the cemetery! The entrance to Sycamore Canyon is a driveway just southwest of the entrance to the cemetery.

Leader: Steve Huber

Description:

Bolsa Chica is one of the great local birding spots. Ducks, shorebirds, and waders can be found in abundance. Gulls, terns, and pelicans are regular, as are raptors that nest on the bluffs.

Meet: We will convene in the parking lot of the Whittier Community Center and carpool/caravan, leaving at 7:00am. 

Bring: Bring your usual birdwatching stuff, water, lunch, chairs, sunblock, hat etc. Be sure to bring chairs, since our planned lunch place doesn’t have chairs.

Trip Leader:  Jim McNamara

Program Topic

Sandra von Arb, field biologist and co-author of the Dragonflies of California with Kathy Biggs will speak about Whittier’s Wonderful Dragonflies.

About the presenters

Kathy Biggs has been a nature lover all her life. When she built a wildlife pond in the backyard in 1996, dragonflies arrived and she found her true passion. Wanting to share her passion, she developed websites for her wildlife ponds, and California Dragonflies. As her interests grew, she developed a Southwest Dragonflies website and recently Dragonflies and Damselflies of Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit, Mexico.

The websites matured and grew into Kathy's becoming the author of California’s first Dragonfly Guide, Common Dragonflies of California, the Southwest’s first dragonfly guide, Common Dragonflies of the Southwest, also a Dragonfly Color and Learn Book with illustrations by Tim Manolis. She has developed a  completely interactive eGuide, Dragonflies of the Greater Southwest and her latest publication Dragonflies (Anisoptera) of California which she co-authored with Sandra von Arb. 

Kathy surveys for dragonflies in California and the greater southwest. She manages the eGroup CalOdes and is a member of several other Odonate groups. She tracks flight data and distribution for California and the greater southwest. Kathy is a member and Vetter for Odonata Central, iNaturalist and also for Sandra's Western Odonata Facebook page. She loves to teach about the Dragonflies.

Sandra von Arb has been a professional wildlife biologist focusing on sensitive and endangered species in northern California, southern Oregon, and northern Illinois for 30 years. She is a co-founder of Biodiversity Education and Research Foundation (BEAR Fdn) whose mission is to foster ecological stewardship through science and education. She discovered her passion for dragonflies surveying for the endangered Hine's Emerald Dragonfly in northern Illinois over 10 years ago. She brought that passion back to California and Kathy Biggs took her under her wing as a mentor which eventually led to co-authoring the guide book Dragonflies (Anisoptera) of California.

Program Format

Hybrid meeting - It is your preference: Join in person or online.  

In person: NEW LOCATION! This year our meeting location has changed.

• Address: First Friends Church, 13205 Philadelphia St., Whittier.

• Entrance: The entrance is on Washington Ave.

• Parking: Parking is available in the parking area behind the church and along Washington Ave.

Online: please RSVP here and we will send you a link to the meeting.

The program is free and open to the public.

Join us for our beginner bird walk in Sycamore Canyon.

This bird walk will be a very slow walk into the Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We will stop frequently to listen and observe the birds around us. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Meet at the entrance gate to the Sycamore Canyon trail. The trail is located adjacent to Rose Hills Cemetery gate 17, but note that the trail is not in the cemetery! The entrance to Sycamore Canyon is a driveway just southwest of the entrance to the cemetery.

Leader: Jim McNamara

Program Topic

Cristhian Mace, Natural Areas Biologist with the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, will be our speaker.

The 2025 Eaton Fire and subsequent winter storm surges dramatically reshaped Eaton Canyon Natural Area, altering more than 190 acres of habitat at the wild land urban interface. 

Mace will share how fire and flooding, long-standing ecological forces in the San Gabriel Mountains, are unfolding under modern pressures such as climate change, invasive species, and heavy recreational use. 

Drawing on post fire baseline studies using vegetation assessments, iNaturalist, and eBird, the presentation will highlight early signs of native plant and wildlife recovery alongside areas heavily impacted by sedimentation , channel migration, and erosion. These findings are guiding restoration priorities, invasive species management, and long term monitoring efforts that incorporate traditional ecological knowledge and community science, offering lessons for protecting bird habitat and biodiversity across Southern California fire adapted landscapes.

The presentation will be given in person.

Program Format

Hybrid meeting - It is your preference: Join in person or online.  

In person: NEW LOCATION! This year our meeting location has changed.

• Address: First Friends Church, 13205 Philadelphia St., Whittier.

• Entrance: The entrance is on Washington Ave.

• Parking: Parking is available in the parking area behind the church and along Washington Ave.

Online: please RSVP here and we will send you a link to the meeting.

The program is free and open to the public.

Join us for our beginner bird walk in Sycamore Canyon.

This bird walk will be a very slow walk into the Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We will stop frequently to listen and observe the birds around us. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Meet at the entrance gate to the Sycamore Canyon trail. The trail is located adjacent to Rose Hills Cemetery gate 17, but note that the trail is not in the cemetery! The entrance to Sycamore Canyon is a driveway just southwest of the entrance to the cemetery.

Leader: Larry Schmahl

Steve Huber will lead our annual Tim and Lloyd Bulmer Bird Walk beginning at Legg Lake in Whittier Narrows Recreation Area.

This tradition began with an invitation to a local journalist, the late Bill Bell, from his neighbor, the late Thelma Bulmer, a past chapter president, as a way to show our city that yes, indeed, Whittier has wild birds. Let’s see who is in town for the winter!

Meet: at the Santa Anita Legg Lake parking lot (Whittier Narrows Area D Parking Lot on Santa Anita Ave.)

Program Topic

This is your chance to show your favorite photos from this year. Bring a thumb drive with your photos and some holiday goodies to share. (Kindly limit your photos to 25.)

Program Format

In person only.

NEW LOCATION! This year our meeting location has changed.

• Address: First Friends Church, 13205 Philadelphia St., Whittier.

• Entrance: The entrance is on Washington Ave.

• Parking: Parking is available in the parking area behind the church and along Washington Ave.

The program is free and open to the public.

Join us for our beginner bird walk in Sycamore Canyon.

This bird walk will be a very slow walk into the Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We will stop frequently to listen and observe the birds around us. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Meet at the entrance gate to the Sycamore Canyon trail. The trail is located adjacent to Rose Hills Cemetery gate 17, but note that the trail is not in the cemetery! The entrance to Sycamore Canyon is a driveway just southwest of the entrance to the cemetery.

Leader: Linda LeRoy

Description:

November’s field trip will be to Ken Malloy Regional Park in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles. This park was recently famous for the long running Swallow-tailed Kite that took up residence there earlier this year. Alas, the kite is gone but other excellent birds can be found there. The park has the usual lawns, large trees, a large cattail lined pond and a more wild area on the east side and north sides.

Meet: We will depart from the Whittier Community Center parking lot at 7:00 AM.

Bring: Bring a lunch, water and whatever makes you comfortable. There are restrooms at the park. We will be walking on flat trails and walkways.

Trip Leader:  Larry Schmahl, larschmahl@aol.com

Program Topic

Robb Hamilton will speak about local “patch” birding in the Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach.

“Patch birding” develops a different mindset — focusing on one local spot, which may not be much of a well-known “hotspot,” rather than driving long distances looking for birds where all the other birders go. This allows birders to achieve good coverage throughout the year, and across multiple years, to capture inter-annual variability. 

Robb will share his work on the illustrated checklist in eBird for the Colorado Lagoon, and demonstrate the useful information it provides for birders who are not familiar with the location.

Robb has been working on establishing baseline conditions before the major change of completing the open channel between the lagoon and Alamitos Bay, so that he can evaluate the extent to which the new channel and associated landscaping/restoration affects the birdlife in the lagoon.

Program Format

Hybrid meeting - It is your preference: Join in person or online.  

In person: NEW LOCATION! This year our meeting location has changed.

• Address: First Friends Church, 13205 Philadelphia St., Whittier.

• Entrance: The entrance is on Washington Ave.

• Parking: Parking is available in the parking area behind the church and along Washington Ave.

Online: please RSVP here and we will send you a link to the meeting.

The program is free and open to the public.

Join us for our beginner bird walk in Sycamore Canyon.

This bird walk will be a very slow walk into the Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We will stop frequently to listen and observe the birds around us. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Meet at the entrance gate to the Sycamore Canyon trail. The trail is located adjacent to Rose Hills Cemetery gate 17, but note that the trail is not in the cemetery! The entrance to Sycamore Canyon is a driveway just southwest of the entrance to the cemetery.

Leader: Steve Huber

Description:

Join us for a trip to Santa Fe Dam Recreation area.  We will walk the nature center area looking for Cactus Wren, California Thrasher and Gnatcatcher and other alluvial fan scrub habitat residents.  We will make additional stops to look for wintering sparrows and warblers, Vermillion Flycatcher and Rock Wren.  We should be able to find ducks, geese and cormorants around the lake.  

Meet: We will leave the Whittier Community Center parking lot at 7:00 AM. Alternatively, meet us in parking area #1 (the first lot after the entrance) at 7:30 AM.  There is a $12 per car entrance fee ($5 for seniors).  

Bring: Lunch, birding equipment, sunblock and water. 

Trip Leader:  Steve Huber

RSVP: Let me know if you are coming (stevekhuber@hotmail.com).

Program Topic

Journey to California's Channel Islands, often called the "Galapagos of North America"will be presented by Tim Lopez, Interpretive Park Ranger and Environmental Educator at the Whittier Area Audubon's Meeting on Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at First Friends Church, Fellowship Hall, 13205 Philadelphia St., Whittier, CA. 90601.(562)698-9805 The speaker will present virtually but it will be a hybrid meeting where it can be watched live on a screen in the meeting room as well. The parking lot is in the alley off of Philadelphia St. behind the Church or there is street parking. 

This presentation explores the natural and cultural history of these remarkable islands--where unique wildlife, ancient Chumash heritage, and dramatic landscapes come together. From towering sea cliffs to hidden kelp forests, discover why the Channel islands are one of the most biologically diverse and culturally rich places in the United States., and learn how their story continues to shape our understanding of wild places.

Tim Lopez is a park ranger and storyteller from Southern California. His work has taken him from the historic sites and old growth forests of New York City to the remote beauty of the Channel islands. With a background in education and storytelling, Tim specialized in connecting people to the natural world through history, and personal narrative. Whether guiding a hike, facilitating a workshop, or sharing stories on stage, stimulating brings a passion to landscapes, wildlife, and the human stories that shape our parks.

Program Format

Hybrid meeting - It is your preference: Join in person or online.  

In person: NEW LOCATION! This year our meeting location has changed.

• Address: First Friends Church, 13205 Philadelphia St., Whittier.

• Entrance: The entrance is on Washington Ave.

• Parking: Parking is available in the parking area behind the church and along Washington Ave.

Online: please RSVP here and we will send you a link to the meeting.

The program is free and open to the public.

Join us for our beginner bird walk in Sycamore Canyon.

This bird walk will be a very slow walk into the Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We will stop frequently to listen and observe the birds around us. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Meet at the entrance gate to the Sycamore Canyon trail. The trail is located adjacent to Rose Hills Cemetery gate 17, but note that the trail is not in the cemetery! The entrance to Sycamore Canyon is a driveway just southwest of the entrance to the cemetery.

Leader: Jim McNamara

Description:

We will visit the Lagoon, the breakwaters, Ballona Creek and the salt pans. High tide is at 9:00 am. Low tide at 2:00pm. Perhaps a visit to the nearby Ballona Freshwater Marsh will also be possible. Birds may include Yellow-crowned Night Heron, rocky shorebirds, Royal and Caspian Terns, and three species of cormorants plus others. Restrooms are at the Del Rey Lagoon Park.

Meet: We will depart from the Whittier Community Center at the SE corner of Mar Vista and Washington Ave. at 6:30am. We should arrive in the Playa del Rey area about 7:20. Parking will be at the Del Rey Lagoon parking lot provided the gates are open. The parking lot is on Pacific Ave. 

Bring: Bring binoculars, a scope if you have one, and lunch and water. 

RSVP: Please call or text Larry Schmahl at 562-714-1843 if you plan to attend. Limit 18 people. 

Trip Leader:  Larry Schmahl

Program Topic

Our own Linda Leroy will be sharing her Birds of Whittier Narrows. For all who have seen Linda’s photos at photo share events, her bird photography is excellent and she is a regular presence in the Narrows. 

Program Format

Hybrid meeting - It is your preference: Join in person or online.  

In person: NEW LOCATION! This year our meeting location has changed.

• Address: First Friends Church, 13205 Philadelphia St., Whittier.

• Entrance: The entrance is on Washington Ave.

• Parking: Parking is available in their parking area behind the church and along Washington Ave.

Online: please RSVP here and we will send you a link to the meeting.

The program is free and open to the public.

Join us for our beginner bird walk in Sycamore Canyon.

This bird walk will be a very slow walk into the Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We will stop frequently to listen and observe the birds around us. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Meet at the entrance gate to the Sycamore Canyon trail. The trail is located adjacent to Rose Hills Cemetery gate 17, but note that the trail is not in the cemetery! The entrance to Sycamore Canyon is a driveway just southwest of the entrance to the cemetery.

Leader: Larry Schmahl

Our calendar of activities for 2025-2026 will be live by September 1.

Please check back here to find out what we have in store.

Join our email list to be notified when the activities are posted.

Description: We will start at the abandoned Mil Portero Campground (about a 30 minute drive from the Flying J Travel Center) and look for Western Wood-Pewee, Stellar's Jay, Mountain Chickadee, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Pygmy Nuthatch and others.  Next, another 20-minute drive will take us to the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge sign overlook where we have seen California Condor in the past.  Depending on the time, we will drive back and have lunch at the Valle Vista Campground.  After lunch, we will drive up to the top of Mount Pinos, where we hope to see some mountain species - Green-tailed Towhee, Fox Sparrow, White-headed and Hairy Woodpeckers, Violet-green Swallows and others. This will be the alternate lunch spot if the campground is not available. 

IMPORTANT: A Forest Service Adventure Pass is required at some sites and should be purchased ahead of time if you are driving (Big 5 Sporting Goods and REI are good places to get them)  An annual pass is $30 and a one-day pass is $5.

Meet: We will convene in the parking lot of the Whittier Community Center and carpool/caravan, leaving at 6:00 AM.  For those that wish to drive directly there, plan on meeting at the Flying J Travel Center at the Frazier Park exit at approximately 7:45 AM.

Bring: This is a full day with all of the driving, so bring everything you need to be comfortable. Bring your usual birdwatching stuff, water, lunch, chairs, sunblock, hat etc.

Trip Leader:  Steve Huber

RSVP: Please let me know if you are coming so I can let you know of any changes in plans.  email:  stevekhuber@hotmail.com text:  562-217-1886.

IMPORTANT: THIS MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18TH.

To cap off our Chapter year, join us at the Community Center to share food and photos.

Bring an appetizer, main dish, or dessert to share. Bring your own plate, utensils, and cup.

If you would like to share your favorite photos from this year, bring a thumb drive with up to 25 photos.

The program is in-person only and will take place at the Whittier Community Center, located at 7630 Washington Ave. Whittier.

The program is free and open to the public.

Join us for our beginner bird walk in Sycamore Canyon.

This bird walk will be a very slow walk into the Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We will stop frequently to listen and observe the birds around us. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Meet at the entrance gate to the Sycamore Canyon trail. The trail is located adjacent to Rose Hills Cemetery gate 17, but note that the trail is not in the cemetery! The entrance to Sycamore Canyon is a driveway just southwest of the entrance to the cemetery.

Leader: Linda LeRoy

Description: Advance Purchase is required for Garden Entry.

SCBG Ticket Page

GARDEN ADMISSION:

• Foundation Members: FREE

• Adults: $15

• Seniors (62 and over): $11

Meet: We will convene in the parking lot of the Whittier Community Center and carpool/caravan, leaving at 7:00 AM. 

Bring: Your usual birdwatching stuff, sack lunch, water, hat and a thirst for adventure. 

Trip Leader:  Jay Oberholtzer

Program Topic

"Modern Conservation: Exploration, Education, Action" will be the topic presented by Los Angeles Zoo and Botanic Gardens docent, John L. Peel at our meeting on Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.

Peel provides zoo tours for all ages. He provides lectures and multi-media presentations on reptiles, mammals, birds, and bugs. He has visited 38 zoos and wildlife rescue programs across the country. He is also a professional part-time animal keeper in the Enrichment Department at the Zoo, researching, designing and building custom apparatus that promotes health and well-being for every species. John is the board parliamentarian of the Association  of Zoo and Aquarium Docents and Volunteers, an international organization.

Peel started rescuing injured, captured, and mistreated wild animals more than 50 years ago and continues to assist in the homing and relocation of snakes.   

He has also been a docent for the Puente Hills Habitat Authority, guiding tours exploring the flora and fauna in California.

John is a graduate of UCLA and Cal State University Fullerton. He worked with families, adolescents, and children in direct service and administrative positions in various social service academic, faith-based, and health care organizations for nearly 40 years. John founded two adoption agencies during his 29 years as CEO.

Program Format

Hybrid meeting - It is your preference: Join in person or online.  

In person: the meeting will take place at the Whittier Community Center, located at 7630 Washington Ave. Whittier. Please wear a mask.

Online: please RSVP here and we will send you a link to the meeting.

The program is free and open to the public.