Natural Perspectives -- Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

Vic surprised me with a camping trip last weekend. The surprise was

that I wasn’t invited.

OK, I could have gone if I’d wanted to, but he was going with his

hard-core birding buddies. They planned to hit the sleeping bags early

and be on the prowl for birds before dawn. He knew that wasn’t my kind of

camping.

I’d rather stay up late philosophizing by the campfire with a bottle

of wine, then get up late, savor a hot breakfast, and drink in the sights

and sounds of nature from my comfy camp chair. He had something more like

the Bataan Death March planned, searching for as many birds as possible

in a daylong marathon. I happily stayed home.

I started the weekend at the Bolsa Chica Earth Day celebration. Lots

of dignitaries spoke of the need to protect the environment --

Assemblyman Tom Harman, Mayor Debbie Cook, Councilwoman Connie Boardman,

representatives of the Land Trust, Amigos de Bolsa Chica, Huntington

Beach Tomorrow, Sierra Club and others. The Land Trust reported good

progress in its quest for funds to purchase the mesa. As a reminder that

the mesas are part of the ecosystem that needs to be preserved, the great

blue herons that are nesting near the tide gates prowled the uplands for

lizards and rodents to feed their babies.

I spent the rest of Earth Day weekend working in the yard to improve

our own little part of Planet Earth. We have deliberately created natural

habitat in our yard with plenty of cover and places for wildlife to hide.

We never mow because we have ground cover, not lawn. We rarely use

pesticides, so there are butterflies and other insects for us to watch

and for the birds to safely eat. We have so many birds that we’re not

plagued with insect pests. In fact, we’re quite pleased with the

diversity of wildlife that visits. For example, when we cleaned our pond

two weeks ago, we surprised a southern alligator lizard hunting insects

at the pond’s edge.

When I built the pond two years ago, I made a shallow side stream and

waterfall for small birds to bathe in, a slightly deeper stream for

larger birds and a pond for fish and plants. Hey, don’t be looking at

that picture that runs with our column and think it was Vic who dug that

pond. His beloved spousal unit -- that would be me, the one on the right

-- did all the planning, engineering, and manual labor on that little

project.

Although Vic thought I was nuts to create a pond, he does his fair

share of pond maintenance, an ongoing necessity. That said, please note

that we both agree that the pond has been a delight. The pond plants --

blue iris, taro, parrot feather, penny wort, straight and curly rushes,

dwarf cattails, and water hyacinth -- are emerging from their winter

dormancy and soon will look their summer finest.

I worked mostly on the plant border next to our front walkway this

past weekend. I made multiple trips to the nursery, planting one

trunkload of plants after another. I believe in edible landscaping, so

much of what I planted was herbs. I used sage, oregano, thyme, chives,

basil and marjoram to fill the space between more traditional flowering

plants like iris, gladiolus, freesias and tulips. In a nod to California

native plants, I have penstemon and sea lavender in the border and other

natives scattered about the yard.

Late in the afternoon, a white-crowned sparrow splashed in a shallow

part of the pond. The white-crowned sparrows have been in our yard all

winter, but most have headed north by now. This one was a late straggler.

Then a black-headed grosbeak, the first of the season, took a cautious

bath. He had just migrated in from his wintering grounds in Mexico and

was probably happy to find a pleasant rest stop with food and water.

By the time Vic came home, I had finished gardening and was soaking my

sore muscles in a hot bubble bath. He and his birding buddies had a great

time scouting their route for this weekend’s fund-raising birdathon for

the Audubon Society. Donors pledge money based on how many species the

team identifies. Send him an e-mail if you’d like to support his team’s

efforts.

* VIC LEIPZIG PhD and LOU MURRAY PhD are Huntington Beach residents

and environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 vicleipzig@aol.comf7 .