Denis Callet's 201 Birds

The great horned owls who live at Hahamongna Watershed park seem comfortable with Denis Callet. He has spent so much time there with his camouflage-covered camera that they're used to him. Even the babies pose with confidence.

Check out those toes.

At last Saturday's Hahamongna "Multi-Benefit/Multi-Use Project" Environmental Impact Report scoping meeting, members of the local Audubon Society reported that they have catalogued 201 different species of birds living at Hahamongna. I think Denis has photographed most of them. "It was an awakening meeting," says Denis. "I will attend all those meetings from now on, the wildlife need us more than we need a soccer field."

"Multi-Benefit/Multi-Use" can be considered a misnomer, depending upon how you define "benefit." At a time of drought, when the Colorado River (a source we've long depended on) is at historic lows and the Metropolitan Water District no longer guarantees enough water to fill local groundwater basins, building pollutants into our watershed makes no sense. Nor does disrupting the habitat of squirrels, rabbits, snakes, lizards, bobcats, mountain lions and 201 species of birds.

Denis says four Cooper's Hawk babies were born this year "and I was lucky enough to see them grow up and fledged." He says lucky, I say patient.

I think we can all agree that there's nothing wrong with athletic fields. But some of us--a majority of us, I'll bet--think there's something wrong with athletic fields at Hahamongna. Let's put them somewhere else.

A couple of links you might find useful:
The City of Pasadena's website for the MBMU Project, including the Initial Study prepared by Willdan, the company that will do the Environmental Impact Report (the city will be updating this site as the project moves forward;
Sycamore Grove Field Grant Analysis, a concise report by Hugh Bowles that delineates how the City of Pasadena possibly falsified information on its grant application for state funding for the Hahamongna athletic field, which is part of the MBMU Project;

Talk About the Walkabout

You'd think that, after all my talk about the Hahamongna Walkabout last Saturday, I'd be showing you pictures of the park. But I've posted many, many, many pictures of Hahamongna Watershed Park and for me, the Walkabout turned out to be about the people.

I led a group of at least 900 wonderful people (okay, maybe 35, but still wonderful) through the old Oak Grove Park area and across the Devil's Gate Dam. We made stops to learn from experts about the park, its history and the critters who live there. The presenters were fascinating and so well-informed we could have spent our whole morning with each of them.

Tim Martinez (above) charmed the crowd with his talk about the different habitats at Hahamongna. Tequila does not grow there (I knew that), but sage does, and when you soak sage in tequila you get a soothing ointment for sore muscles. Tim knew a lot of other cool stuff, but for some reason the tequila sticks in my mind.

Laura Garrett of the Pasadena Audubon Society had 'em riveted as well. She knew everything about the Hahamongna birds and spoke knowledgeably of species after species, playing their calls on the stuffed animals you see in the center of the photo (not dead--plush). How many species of birds live at Hahamongna? A lot! You can see photos of some of them taken by local treasure Denis Callet at his pbase site.

Other presenters included Tim Brick of the Arroyo Seco Foundation (sponsor of the event) on the scope of the Arroyo Seco, Michele Zack on history and how the Tongva people lived in the Arroyo, Brad Boman from Pasadena Water and Power on water (he took my group under the dam to see the devil!), and our very own Barbara Ellis speaking about the wildlife that thrives at Hahamongna. I was so busy listening to Bellis that I forgot to take her picture! Luckily, Debbi Swanson Patrick of Altadena Above It All was in my group and she got plenty of great shots. She got a good one of Bellis. If you were on my tour, she probably got a good one of you, too.

For a detailed run-down of the day's activities, check out Laura Monteros's informative article on Altadena Patch.

Big thanks to Wilson Lau and Tim Brick of the Arroyo Seco Foundation for putting it all together. It was a great day.

Okay. I'm not going to talk about Hahamongna now for at least a week, maybe more, at which time I'll remind you about the meeting of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee on March 22nd at 6pm. You can wait 'til then or you can mark your calendars now.

Update: thanks to countrynmore, here are videos of some of the presenters, posted on Seeds of Change, the blog of the PCC club.

Props for Peeps

Local folk have heard Steve Scauzillo's name. He's the opinions editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers. Now his name is being heard nationally because yesterday he accepted the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing.

According to Editor and Publisher, The Wilderness Society presents the award every year "to an editorial writer who has produced editorials that strongly advocate protection of America's remaining wildlands." We'll pardon their redundancy; the award went to Steve after all.

Steve is a local treasure, a CDP blogger at Temple City Daily Photo, a teacher, an outstanding journalist and a friend. Congratulations, Steve.

Another local treasure is Denis Callet. You might have seen Gary Altadena's piece about Denis on Altadenablog. Denis comes to mind whenever I try to photograph a bird. His superb photos of birds at Hahamongna make me think I'll just stick with clouds and the occasional telephone pole.

Thanks, both of you. You are fab guys and I'm a fan of your works.