Cuesta College Community Programs Natural History Series:
What are the characteristics that distinguish between seals and sea lions? Baleen and toothed whales? What ocean-dwelling marine mammal is a member of the weasel family? Discuss marine mammal adaptations for a life at sea, including diving physiology, thermoregulation, and echolocation. Learn about key identification features of local cetacean and pinniped species.
Learn about the biology, classification, migration, flight characteristics, and predatory adaptations of locally occurring birds-of-prey, both year-round resident and seasonally overwintering raptors. Learn to identify and recognize the diagnostic visual field marks useful in identification of species of Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, Ospreys, Kites, Harriers, Accipiters, Vultures, and Owls.
Identify many of the migratory, over-wintering, nesting, and year-long resident bird species that occupy the many diverse habitats here on the Central Coast. Practice bird watching skills that rely on observing characteristic field marks, bird behavior, and the acquired skill of ‘birding by ear’. Participants will observe and identify passerine (perching) birds, shorebirds such as sandpipers and plovers, waterbirds such as ducks, geese, loons, grebes, gulls, pelicans and cormorants, long-legged waders such as herons and egrets, and birds of prey, including the famous locally nesting peregrine falcons at Morro Rock and sightings of fish-hunting osprey over the bay. The annual Morro Bay Christmas Bird Count ranks among the highest counts in North America for the numbers of bird species found within a 15-mile diameter count circle, and the annual Big Sit birding survey overlooking Morro Bay from the Elfin Forest is also nationally renowned. Van field trip to Morro Bay estuary and its 48,000-acre watershed. Morro Bay's coastal salt marsh, mudflats, estuary, beach, dunes, and associated upland watershed are recognized as vital feeding and resting habitats for thousands of birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway, arriving and departing from as far away as the arctic tundra to the north and the Neotropical rainforests to the south. Make stops at several of the accessible and popular birding locations along the perimeter of the bay, including Morro Rock, the Heron Rookery, State Park Marina, the Elfin Forest boardwalk and Audubon Overlook in Baywood Park, and the Sweet Springs Nature Preserve in Los Osos.
Study fossil forming processes and geologic dating methods. Distinguish between different fossil types, examples including altered and unaltered fossil finds, petrified wood and bones, carbon imprints, casts and molds, and trace fossils. Observe paleontologists at work in the field and lab carefully excavating, identifying, and reconstructing their fossil finds.
Explore the expansive 200,000+ acres Carrizo Plain National Monument in southeast San Luis Obispo County, viewing spectacular wildflower displays among grasslands, vernal pools, and desert scrub habitats. Native American pictographs are renowned at Painted Rock, and the highest elevation in the county occurs in the bordering Caliente Range. Geographic features and scenic vistas include Overlook Hill, the salt playa of Soda Lake, and trace of the San Andreas Fault along the base of the Temblor Range. Visit the Goodwin Education Center. Likely sightings of raptors include eagles, hawks and falcons. Search for wildlife including tule elk, pronghorn antelope, antelope ground squirrels and giant kangaroo rats. The Carrizo is a remnant of the once vast Central Valley grasslands and home to many endemics, rare and endangered flora and fauna.
For more information please the Carrizo Plain website at: https://www.blm.gov/visit/carrizo-plain-national-monument
Bring a sack lunch and picnic dinner for longer field trips, snacks, water, binoculars, and field guide references. Dress warm in layers. Van transportation provided. A parking permit is required to leave your vehicle on campus during each field trip.WEATHER POLICY...If a class is canceled due to safety or weather issues, students will be notified by Cuesta Community Program....the class will be rescheduled or full refunds will be given. If the class or program is on the weekend, the instructor will make the decision and call all registered.
- $68, Marine Mammals Field trip: Jan 25, 8am-4pm - Register Online
- $68, Raptors Field trip: Feb 8, 8am-5pm - Register Online
- $68, Birding Field trip: Feb 22, 8am-4pm - Register Online
- $18, Fossils on Zoom: Mar 13, 7-8:30pm - Register Online
- $98, Carrizo Plain Field trip: Mar 22, 8am-6pm - Register Online
Meet the instructor | |
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Steve attended college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and received a Master’s degree in Field Biology and a Life Sciences Secondary Teaching Credential. He taught high school biology and earth sciences for several years, has taught natural history courses for Cuesta College Community Programs more than 25 years and works as a naturalist instructor at a local residential outdoor school program called Camp KEEP (Kern Environmental Education Program), attended by more than 3,000 6th grade students each school year. He served on the committee that published the book “Wildflowers of San Luis Obispo” and the eBook “Plants of the Carrizo Plain”. Steve authored the book entitled “The Peregrine Falcons of Morro Rock – A 50-year History”, available at Amazon.com. He is past-President of Morro Coast Audubon Society and is the Volunteer Coordinator of the Hi Mountain Lookout Project (www.facebook.com/condorlookout), a restored fire lookout in Los Padres National Forest where volunteers and college interns radiotrack the movements of California Condors and conduct biological field research projects. He has been a speaker and field trip leader for the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival each year since its inception more than 25 years ago. Steve enjoys kayaking, running, biking, hiking, playing basketball, and wildlife and landscape photography (photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12571965@N07 |