Tag archives: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
The SB Museum of Natural History announced this week that Matthew Adams has been appointed its new Board of Trustees Chair, along with new board of trustee members David Telleen-Lawton and Hank Mitchel. Adams served on the trustee board and works as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner at Mission Wealth. Telleen-Lawton has a […]
San Ysidro Ranch is setting the stage for romance throughout Valentine’s season 2026, inviting couples to celebrate love amid its iconic rose gardens and lavender-lined paths. Now through the end of February, the intimate Speakeasy at Plow & Angel glows with a dramaticinstallation of 12,000 illuminated hearts, plush velvet booths, and live music, paired with […]
MOVE Santa Barbara County will bring its E-Bike Safety Presentation Series to Montecito Union School on January 30, educating students on safe riding practices, traffic laws, and shared responsibility on local roads. The presentations, part of MOVE’s education and encouragement program, will reach fourth- and sixth-grade classes throughout the day. Designed to build awareness as […]
Flamingos famously feed with their heads upside-down, filtering algae, brine shrimp, and other food from shallow water. A closer look at the beak here reveals filtering structures composed of keratin, the same protein that makes up hair, hooves, horns, etc. This skull of a Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) is among over 44,000 specimens curated by […]
Montecito Journal’s Richard Mineards is recovering nicely and sends his pip pips and gratitude to everyone who has reached out. New Chancellor and Two Nobel Prize Wins for UCSB Chancellor Dennis Assanis begins his work as the sixth chancellor of UCSB starting January 2026. He is spending his first weeks around campus meeting with students […]
It’s the time of year when Wood Ducks pair up! Audubon painted this lively image in New Orleans in 1821. He dramatized the courtship and nesting habits of this species while showing the remarkable patterns and colors of their feathers. The Wood Ducks are from the Museum’s collection of prints from the American edition of […]
The Montecito Fire Protection District is taking applications for a Fire Chief. Responsibilities and job requirements are posted on the website, see 411. 411: www.montecitofire.com/fire-chief Carp-Summerland FPD Chief Retires The Carp-Summerland Fire Protection District announced the retirement of Fire Chief Robert Kovach, who has served 15 years with them for a total of 40 years […]
In December and January each year, certain beaches on the Channel Islands and other protected parts of California’s coast become sites of noisy and dramatic conflict. It’s the beginning of breeding season for the Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris). During the early part of the breeding season, the huge adult males – known as bulls […]
Considered critically endangered today, the Kākāpō is a nocturnal flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand. Captured in a hand-colored lithograph, this particular Kākāpō belongs to the 1873 book A History of the Birds of New Zealand by Walter Lawry Buller. Buller wrote from a desire to record a complete life history of his homeland’s interesting […]
This is not a craft project; it’s a natural defense! As they go through life, marine snails in the genus Xenophora adhere things to their shells, presumably making them harder to eat and maybe even harder to identify as a potential meal. The one at lower right includes the long, straight spine of a sea […]
The SB Museum of Natural History’s Science Pub returns on December 8 at Dargan’s Irish Pub SB. Presenting is National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) Research Associate Cat Fong, Ph.D., on the new Wildfire Resilience Index (WRI) which is said to be “a groundbreaking tool that turns complex data into insight about how […]
Most museum drawers don’t look anything like this. To help researchers find the specimens they need to consult, a typical drawer of specimens is organized based on how organisms are related to each other, and therefore contains specimens that look similar. This feast for the eyes represents a slice of the mollusk marine diversity preserved […]
This is Ficus eospila, a carnivorous snail from the fig shell group with a dazzling foot like the train of a black-and-white ball gown. Howard/Berry Curator of Malacology Henry W. Chaney, Ph.D. photographed this individual on a 1993 collecting trip in Western Australia with Barry Wilson PhD then at work on the two-volume compendium, Australian […]
Enlightenment intellectual Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, undertook to describe and classify the royal collections of France and to relate his findings to the broader laws of nature. His book Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux was a landmark in the science of ornithology and helped broaden contemporary interest in natural history. François-Nicolas Martinet engraved the plates […]
A splendid menagerie of natural history specimens filled four large volumes of Albertus Seba’s 18th century publication Thesaurus or Cabinet of Curiosities. A Dutch pharmacist and collector of curiosities, Seba amassed a vast collection of exotic natural objects by trading medicine and services to sailors at the port of Amsterdam as ships arrived from the […]
This specimen of a marlinspike shell (Terebra maculata) has sentimental and historic significance, which makes it a favorite of Associate Curator Vanessa Delnavaz, MA. The shell comes with a label handwritten by S. Stillman Berry: “This poor battered shell is kept for reasons of sentiment. It has been in our family at least 110 years… […]
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is about to turn its oak-dappled woodland into a living, breathing canvas of taste with the return of the Mission Creek Beer Festival. On Saturday, October 18, 2025, this unique celebration of hops, food, and curiosity will transform the grounds into a flavor expedition unlike anything else on […]
A few are missing, but this skull has places for 50 teeth: the most of any terrestrial mammal in North America! These abundant and diversely shaped teeth served an adaptable, opportunistic animal: the Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana). First introduced to California in 1910, they are now seen year-round in much of our region. Their abundance […]
If you live in Santa Barbara or the surrounding area, you’re likely no stranger to the thunderous boom that follows late-night rocket launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base. While the noise can be jarring, watching those rockets streak into the night sky is undeniably thrilling. If you’re like me, those launches have probably sparked your […]
The study of insects was growing in popularity during the 18th century when physician and entomologist George Panzer published this small-format reference work with his own brief scientific descriptions. Jacob Sturm engraved the more than 2,600 life-size insects, which, despite their size, were exquisitely detailed. It was issued as a serial publication over a number […]
