Jennifer Wilcox sends us regular updates from the bird-banding program at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary in Orange County. Here’s her latest (photo of Band-tailed Pigeon by Tom Sheffield): It felt like summer this week at Starr Ranch and the with the warm winds came a few surprises.  Our third MoSI banding pulse began on [...]

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Like the rest of the California community, we were stunned to read of the passing of broadcaster Huell Howser. His contribution to documenting the glories of California — mostly through his public television shows — was a treasure that will likely never be replaced. Because he managed to turn just about every inch of the Golden [...]

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Our Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary in Orange County has had a camera on a Black-chinned Hummingbird nest for several years now. It’s not active at the moment, but a few years back we put together a compilation from the camera showing just how fast the birds grow. It’s pretty awesome: Share on Facebook

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If you’ve been a fan of the Starr Ranch Barn Owl webcam — or even if this is the first you’ve heard of it — now’s a great time to start paying attention to it again. After months of what appears to be increasing interaction, a new, banded male and a new, unbanded female Barn Owl [...]

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We were stoked to see two of our Pasadena Audubon chapter leaders covered in today’s LA Times. The article, “At night in the San Gabriels, venturing into the world of the owls”  covers the reporter Gale Holland’s night owling with Lance Benner and Kathi Ellsworth: One of the marvels of living in Los Angeles is how easy [...]

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Our colleagues at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary in Orange County always find interesting stuff when they do bird banding. But last week, they outdid themselves. Not only did they find some cool birds, but they also encountered a serious reptile. We’ll let Jennifer Wilcox, the sanctuary’s ornithologist tell the story from here: Share on [...]

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Our colleagues down at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary have been conducting bird banding sessions all spring, and this week they briefly caught a rarity, a White-eyed Vireo. A quick look at the records by Sanctuary Ornithologist Jennifer Wilcox indicated that this might have been just the second or third sighting of White-eyed Vireo in [...]

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As we predicted a few weeks ago, the arrival of the Western Tanager in California has been sudden and spectacular. We’re seeing reports of sightings on the birding listservs from all over the state. And as spring migrants go, this one is hard to miss. It’s yellow and black coloring stands out marvelously. The Western [...]

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While the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary is better known to the outside world for its awesome Barn Owl webcam, we also do a lot of habitat conservation and education there. And, as always, we’re cognizant of what birds are using the property. We got this update from Staff Ornithologist Jennifer Wilcox yesterday, and it’s a [...]

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0 While this post provides us yet another opportunity to share one of our all-time favorite bird photos (courtesy Dave Menke of the USFWS), it is also a chance to let you know that one of our California favorites is set to take wing for spring migration. While the Dark-eyed Junco — in all its [...]

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This should interest anyone who has been following the Audubon Starr Ranch Barn Owl webcam. The Orange County Register was out at the ranch this weekend covering a bird-banding event for the owls and they shot some cool video: Share on Facebook

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If you’ve been watching the Starr Ranch Barn Owl webcam lately, you know that a lot has been going on. The good news is that the chicks are doing well and are amazing to watch. The bad news is that the male owl perished just a few days after the last chick was born a [...]

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Santa Claus lends a hand to our conservation field crews at the Starr Ranch Sanctuary:   Share on Facebook

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Those of you who enjoyed watching the Audubon Starr Ranch Barn Owls via live webcam last year will be glad to know that the owls are back. So far, they’ve laid five eggs, which means that we’ll have owlets before too long. You can watch it all live here. Enjoy. Share on Facebook

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The Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary – home of the famous Barn Owl Webcam – will hold a Birdathon on May 12. Birdathons are exciting fundraising events. On that day, participants will set out to see or hear as many different bird species as possible — mainly on Starr Ranch, but we’ll also venture to the [...]

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