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You're visiting the award-winning Sketching in Nature , a group blog began in April of 2009; it's grown both in readership and contributors since then, and just gets better all the time. but don't miss this international look at nature through our observant artists' eyes.

We've had a recent re-focus, and you'll see LOTS more art and nature notes.

Watch this space...become a follower...bookmark the blog...

Comment, please! We love to know what you enjoy about our blog.

NOTE: Spammers, your comment will be removed and reported to Blogger. Sorry, but this is not the place to make a generic remark and tout your business.

Our correspondents are here by invitation only, from habitats and habits all over the globe. W e'd love to have you check in frequently to see what's going on in nature around the world, subscribe to posts, become a follower of the blog--or feel free to join our Flickr group pool by the same name if you enjoy working and learning in nature!

The Flickr Sketching in Nature link is http://www.flickr.com/groups/nature-sketching/ and also on the slide show above--just click and join us! Quite often we find new artists for the blog from that group.

Cathy Johnson (Kate)--please contact if you have a question
kate@cathyjohnson.info

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You're visiting the award-winning Sketching in Nature , a group blog began in April of 2009; it's grown both in readership and contributors since then, and just gets better all the time. but don't miss this international look at nature through our observant artists' eyes.

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Widespread and familiar (though often called "crane"), the largest heron in North America. Often seen standing silently along inland rivers or lakeshores, or flying high overhead, with slow wingbeats, its head hunched back onto its shoulders. Highly adaptable, it thrives around all kinds of waters from subtropical mangrove swamps to desert rivers to the coastline of southern Alaska. With its variable diet it is able to spend the winter farther north than most herons, even in areas where most waters freeze. A form in southern Florida (called "Great White Heron") is slightly larger and entirely white.

Conservation status

Formerly often shot, simply because it made a conspicuous and easy target, but this rarely occurs today. Colonies may be disrupted by human disturbance, especially early in season. Still common and widespread, numbers probably stable.

Family
Herons, Egrets, Bitterns

Habitat

Marshes, swamps, shores, tideflats. Very adaptable. Forages in any kind of calm fresh waters or slow-moving rivers, also in shallow coastal bays. Nests in trees or shrubs near water, sometimes on ground in areas free of predators. "Great White" form is mostly in salt water habitats.

Feeding Behavior

Forages mostly by standing still or walking very slowly in shallow water, waiting for fish to swim near, then striking with rapid thrust of bill. Also forages on shore, from floating objects, and in grassland. May hunt by day or night.

Eggs

3-5, sometimes 2-7. Pale blue. Incubation is by both sexes, 25-30 days. Young: Both parents feed young, by regurgitation. Young capable of flight at about 60 days, depart nest at about 65-90 days. 1 brood per year in north, sometimes 2 in south.

Young

Both parents feed young, by regurgitation. Young capable of flight at about 60 days, depart nest at about 65-90 days. 1 brood per year in north, sometimes 2 in south.

Diet

Highly variable and adaptable. Eats mostly fish, but also frogs, salamanders, turtles, snakes, insects, rodents, birds. Has been seen stalking voles and gophers in fields, capturing rails at edge of marsh, eating many species of small waterbirds.

Nesting

Breeds in colonies, often of this species alone, sometimes mixed with other wading birds; rarely in isolated pairs. Male chooses nest site and displays there to attract mate. Displays include stretching neck up with bill pointing skyward, flying in circles above colony with neck extended, stretching neck forward with head and neck feathers erected and then snapping bill shut. Nest: Site highly variable, usually in trees 20-60' above ground or water; sometimes in low shrubs, sometimes on ground (on predator-free islands), sometimes well above 100' in tree. Nest (built mostly by female, with material gathered mostly by male) is a platform of sticks, sometimes quite large.

All Seasons - Common

All Seasons - Uncommon

Breeding - Common

Breeding - Uncommon

Winter - Common

Winter - Uncommon

Migration - Common

Migration - Uncommon

A harsh squawk.

Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others. Learn more about this sound collection.

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Widespread and familiar (though often called "crane"), the largest heron in North America. Often seen standing silently along inland rivers or lakeshores, or flying high overhead, with slow wingbeats, its head hunched back onto its shoulders. Highly adaptable, it thrives around all kinds of waters from subtropical mangrove swamps to desert rivers to the coastline of southern Alaska.

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Early-blooming plants gladden the heart, hinting of approaching spring.They also provide food for hungry bees and other insects.One of the most dependable - and cheery - of our early blooming shrubs is the Bush Sunflower.It is an easy-care mainstay in many local gardens and natural areas.

Also known as California Encelia and Coastal Bush Sunflower, Encelia californica is a member of the Sunflower family ( Asteraceae).It's a plant of western California from Santa Barbara County to Baja California.In nature, California Encelia grows mostly along the coast, including the coastal foothills.It's an important member of several Southern California plant communities including the Coastal Strand,Coastal Sage Scrub and Coastal Chaparral communities.Its inland counterpart, Encelia farinosa, is found in similar plant communities further inland (foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and desert mountain ranges).

California Encelia is a semi-woody sub-shrub.The lower parts of its branches are woody while the upper parts are more herbaceous.It has a mounded shape that's 2-4 feet tall and 3-6 feet wide.In many ways, it's a good example of how local shrubs succeed in our dry mediterranean climate.In nature - and in the dry garden - Encelia loses all its leaves during the dry summer months.While this may sound unattractive, a summer-dormant Encelia is not necessarily a detractive element in the garden.When used as a background plant, the dormant branches serve as a neutral backdrop to greener and more colorful summer plants.

With the fall/winter rains, California Encelia greens up rapidly.New growth sprouts from the woody branches and within a month the plant is fresh and lovely.The leaves are simple, 3-veined and medium green that becomes darker with age.The foliage is particularly attractive if the plant has been pruned in the fall.

Even a child can tell that California Encelia is a sunflower.It blooms during the rainy season - most often beginning in February and continuing even into May.The bloom season is dependent on weather conditions, particularly rain and temperature.The flower head is typical of the composite arrangement that makes the Sunflower Family so popular.The old name for this family - the Compositae - reflected the composite nature of the flowers.

The 'flower' of sunflowers is actually a flower head that contains many small flowers.The ray flowers (many people call these the 'petals') are flat and located to the outside of the flowering head.Not all Sunflower species have prominent ray flowers, but those of Encelia are large and a bright golden yellow.The central 'disk' flowers are smaller and often darker than the ray flowers, although they may be yellow, orange, purple, brown or other colors.In Encelia, the disk flowers are predominantly dark red-brown.

The entire flowering head is 2-3 inches across and the heads are held above the foliage on slender stems.A mature Encelia will literally be covered with hundreds of blooms, making it one of our showiest early spring shrubs.Like the California Poppy, Encelia makes our spring gardens uniquely Southern Californian.

California Encelia does well in full sun or part shade.It appreciates afternoon shade if you have a very hot, sunny garden.It grows in most soil textures and takes soil pH up to 8.0 or so.It also does fine in salty soils and seaside conditions, making it a useful plant along the immediate coast.An occasional frost may nip the leaves but rarely kills a plant in our area.However, California Encelia is a plant of temperate coastal climates; cold winters will surely kill it.

Watering is something of a matter of preference.Encelias are really tough plants that do fine with little or no supplemental water after the first summer.We have mature Encelias in the Gardena Willows Wetland Preserve (where Mother Nature's Backyard is located) that are never watered but look lovely every spring.

In the garden setting, some prefer to keep Encelia green through summer with a little irrigation.The choice is yours.The drawback to summer water is that you likely will shorten the plant's life.If you do choose to water, limit watering to one deep watering a month (let the ground dry out between waterings - Water Zone 1-2 or 2; see2012 posting on Water Zones) and withhold irrigation after mid-August.Encelia, like many of our local native plants, needs a rest period during the dry season.

In the wilds, the tender branch tips of California Encelia are nibbled back each summer by deer, rabbits and other browsers.They can take this abuse and in fact look more youthful because of it.You can rejuvenate your Encelia by pruning it back quite severely each fall.This is a scary undertaking the first time you do it - you literally prune the branches down to about 6-8 inches (see photo above).But if you prune Encelia each year it will reward you with a lovely shape and abundant flowers.Remember, you're just doing a job the deer would do in the wild.You can cut up the trimmings and use them as mulch or compost them.

Encelia is a good choice for the home garden.In fact, no garden featuring local native plants would be complete without at least one.It's fast-growing and makes a good filler around other, slower-growing shrubs.It does well on slopes, making it useful for hillside gardens. The flowers make nice cut flowers.Encelia does smell like a Sunflower; some consider the smell to be 'strong' although we find it simply reminiscent of being out in nature.

California Encelia is a wonderful habitat plant.As an early bloomer, it attracts scores of early spring pollinators including European Honey Bees, native bees, fly pollinators, butterflies - even beetles. The foliage of Encelia and Mulefat (larval food plants for the Fatal Metalmark butterfly ( Baccharis salicifolia) are Calephelis nemesis) . The seeds are gobbled up by seed eating birds like Goldfinches from late spring through fall.The shrubs themselves provide important cover for ground-feeding birds, lizards and other animals.

California Encelia was an important medicinal plant for the local Gabrielino/Tongva people.All parts of the plant were mashed and boiled to form a thick paste (poultice) that was spread on aching joints; the paste was also dissolved in warm water as a soothing bath to decrease the pain of rheumatism.A paste from above-ground parts was spread on gums and teeth to ease toothache.A poultice from green leaves was used to treat wounds and the stems were chewed as a breath freshener.Coastal Encelia's inland counterpart -the gray-green Encelia farinosa - was dried and used as a ceremonial incense.

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Plant of the Month (March) : California Bush Sunflower - Encelia californica

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Early-blooming plants gladden the heart, hinting of approaching spring.They also provide food for hungry bees and other insects.One of the most dependable - and cheery - of our early blooming shrubs is the Bush Sunflower.It is an easy-care mainstay in many local gardens and natural areas.

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Buddleja davidii (spelling variant Buddleia davidii), also called summer lilac, butterfly-bush, or orange eye, is a species of flowering plant in the family Scrophulariaceae, native to Sichuan and Hubei provinces in central China, and also Japan. It is widely used as an ornamental plant, and many named varieties are in cultivation.

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Learn all about Valley Oak (Quercus lobata) - what it looks like, where it grows, how to grow, where to buy

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Rosemary grows on friable loam soil with good drainage in an open, sunny position. It will not withstand waterlogging and some varieties are susceptible to frost. It grows best in neutral to alkaline conditions (pH 7-7.8) with average fertility.

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Learn all about Coyote Bush (Baccharis pilularis) - what it looks like, where it grows, how to grow, where to buy

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Wildlife Guide | National Wildlife Federation

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Learn about our nation's wildlife, the threats they face, and the conservation efforts that can help.

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Toyon ( Heteromeles arbutifoloia) is an attractive and unusual shrub, also known as Christmas berry or California holly. It is as attractive and useful as the cotoneaster shrub but uses a lot less water. In fact, toyon plant care generally is very easy. Read on for more information on toyon plant care.

Toyon Facts

Many people are unfamiliar with this native California plant and, if you mention you are planting toyon, someone might ask you "What is toyon?" As drought-tolerant plants are increasingly in demand, however, more people are likely to become familiar with this plant.

Toyon is a shrub that produces clusters of small white five-petaled flowers that smell like hawthorn. If you read up on toyon facts, you'll find that butterflies love the summer flowers. The flowers ultimately give way to berries, themselves devoured by a large variety of wild birds, including cedar waxwings, quail, towhees, Western bluebird, robins and mockingbirds. The berries decorate the shrubs for many weeks until they get ripe enough for the birds to eat.

Toyon is native to much of the state, growing in chaparral, oak woodlands and evergreen forest communities. It is also Los Angeles's official native plant - adaptable, easy-to-grow and works well as a specimen shrub, in a privacy hedge or as a container plant. With its deep roots and drought tolerance, toyon is also used for erosion control and slope stabilization.

The common name toyon comes from the Ohlone people who used parts of the shrub medicinally, for food and also for ornaments. Its green leaves are leathery with serrated margins, varying from long to short, and from thin to wide. The tiny flowers look like plum blossoms.

Toyon Growing Conditions

Toyon is hardy, drought tolerant and versatile, growing in almost any type of soil and exposure. However, toyon grown in shady locations is a little leggy as it stretches toward the nearest sunlight. Plant toyon in full sun if you want a full, compact bush.

Once established, the plant doesn't need water in summer. Careful where you plant toyon, too, as it grows to about 15 feet high by 15 feet wide, and it can get almost twice that size with age. Don't worry too much though, since toyon tolerates shaping and pruning.

Toyon Plant Care

Even in ideal toyon growing conditions, the shrub grows only moderately fast, but they are almost maintenance free. You won't need to prune them, feed them or even irrigate them in the summer.

They are deer resistant as well, the very last plant in your garden to get nibbled and only when deer become desperate.

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What Is Toyon: Learn About Toyon Plant Care And Information

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Toyon is an attractive and unusual shrub, also known as Christmas berry or California holly. It is as attractive and useful as the cotoneaster shrub but uses a lot less water and its care generally is very easy. Click here for more information.

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Pictures and description of Platanus racemosa, California Sycamore.

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Learn all about Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) - what it looks like, where it grows, how to grow, where to buy