Tag archives: wildlife

Put Our Children First Our family moved into the Cold Spring School District on the eve of the Thomas Fire. We chose the district because we had first-hand experience with Dr. Amy Alzina’s leadership at Adams Elementary School in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Her student-centered focus and educational vision is the perfect recipe […]

I had to admit it. I was lost and feeling a little meager, the grandeur of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the largest refuge in North America, was swallowing me whole. Located in northeastern Alaska, the braiding Canning River was a maze of channels that separated me from the rest of my group. I […]

The Heat Wave On Labor Day we awoke from a restless night with hopes that temperatures would drop from record triple digits. A blood red sun cast an eerie glow over the Montecito hills. California and the west was on fire. The sweltering heat wave in Santa Barbara County was an ominous backdrop. That Sunday […]

The barks and bellows from raucous California sea lions wafted skyward from their seaside rookery just beyond wave-battered Potato Harbor. Ascending the newly named Montanon Ridge Loop Trail, I loped across a craggy, rolling marine terrace, that cacophonous marine mammal serenade gradually drifting away, aided by wispy northwest winds above Coche Point on Santa Cruz […]

The nameless dirt road turned out to be a nighttime buffet for a squadron of opportunistic burrowing owls. It was all about the crickets and grasshoppers, a menagerie of entomology living in the tall grasses and the cunning eight-inch-tall owls gobbling down as many as they could before taking a break. As I inched forward […]

Owls have long lived in my most favorite category. Their stoic demeanor. Their wisdom. The intensity of the screech owl’s screech, the trills and lonely melodic resonance of the great horned owl’s “hoot hoots,” and the barn owl’s hissing rasp. Twice this week the California Highway Patrol rescued owls hit by a car along Highway […]

I was a “Secret Garden” … “Green Mansions” kind of child. Deep forests, bright brooks, wide fields, and ocean waves beckoned my young exuberance. On the seldom occasions that an adult might be missing me, I would be found deep in the forest, grabbing minnows and crayfish from a tiny creek under the redwoods, or […]

On a personal note, I remember dashing Yale-graduate Peter Beard, the legendary wildlife photographer, who has died at the age of 82 after going missing from his Montauk, Long Island, home. Peter, heir to two great fortunes in tobacco and railroads, was a fixture on the New York social scene, where I first met him […]

Although for humans it might seem like life has come to a complete stop, the cycle of life and rebirth in the natural world around us continues. This pattern is never more striking than during spring, however, which to wildlife rescue experts has another name: “Baby Season,” which is when mammals produce the bulk of […]

Santa Barbara’s 32-year-old Wildlife Care Network, which is building a two-story, 5,000 sq. ft. animal hospital on its 1.8 acre Goleta property, has raised more than $3 million of its $6 million budget, including a hefty donation of $3 million from News-Press owner Wendy McCaw and $250,000 in a grant from the Oiled Wildlife Care […]

The party animals were out in costumed force when the popular charity Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network threw its 31st annual benefit at the Carriage and Western Art Museum with nearly 300 guests raising around $150,000 for the Goleta-based facility and rescuing more than 3,500 animals annually. The fun fete, co-chaired by Gretchen Lieff and […]

It was a night on the tiles when the Santa Barbara’s Wildlife Care Network hosted a Rose on the Roof sunset soiree at the Union Bank on Anacapa Street for 60 guests. As well as quaffing the wine, donated by co-chair Gretchen Lieff, the animal lovers noshed on a variety of treats from Santa Barbara […]

I love surprises when Mother Earth serves them up. A few years ago when I kayaked from Santa Cruz Island to tiny Santa Barbara Island, at the end I just wanted the 42-mile slog to be finished. In 2015, at 8 pm on a crisp, cool October evening, all I wanted was to see the […]

To La Cocina, formerly Somerset, with my snapperazzi Priscilla, to check out the made-over East Anapamu Street eatery, which now features Mexican-Californian cuisine. The charming back courtyard, filled with lavender bushes and gnarled ancient fig trees brought in by flatbed trucks from Northern California and craned in over the rooftops when it first opened after […]

Santa Barbara’s 31-year-old Wildlife Care Network hosted a sunset soirée to launch a capital campaign to raise $5 million to build the Central Coast’s only wildlife hospital between Morro Bay and Los Angeles. Already $500,000 has been donated to the organization, which has a $600,000 annual budget, and has so far rescued 2,920 animals this […]

For an hour straight I’d been up to my knees in wind-groomed sand dunes, but finally my barefoot trek had reached an apex. To the north was the breathtakingly artistic Guadalupe – Nipomo Sand Dunes National Wildlife Refuge and to the south were the wave-battered cliffs at Point Sal, where currents never rest, swirling and […]

by Claire Garvais and Emily Komessar It’s Baby Season! Hundreds of owlets, squirrels, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds are nice and cozy in nests of all shapes and sizes throughout Santa Barbara County. Some of these babies will fall prey to forces of nature; they may fall out of their nests early or be harassed by natural […]

I think after midnight I gave up on those stiff, piercing, westerly winds lying down. It was blowing 50 mph and the temps were in the mid-20s on Wildrose Peak, but the views were easily worth every frigid gust the Mojave Desert had to offer. I decided not to bring a tent to Death Valley […]

Santa Barbara’s 31-year-old Wildlife Care Network, which rescued 3,297 animals of 170 different species last year, hosted a supporters party at its seven-year-old Goleta headquarters. Just the same day the organization had rescued two six-week-old skunk babies and a fox cub of the same age. Among the animal lovers turning out for the bijou bash […]

Montecito animal activist Gretchen Lieff and Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner‘s luxury beachside club, the Coral Casino, hosted a boffo bash for the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network, which last year helped 3,297 animals in distress. The event, Love Our Wildlife, was a “friend raiser” to also help garner funds for the 31-year-old organization’s busiest […]