A pretty full day - leaving Ventura harbor at eight in the morning to reach Santa Barbara Island approximately three hours later. This was followed by a quick lunch at the camping ground, a walk through the Visitor center, and then walking tours to see the flora and fauna of this tiny island in the Santa Barbara Channel - led by three botanists from SBBG. After three-thirty in the afternoon, the Island Packers boat left for the return trip to Ventura arriving after six o’clock in the evening.

(Santa Barbara Island)

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I have done no photography since June 24, but did recently update the More Mesa website with photographs taken on More Mesa on June 10th for the June news, but they were not used until July.

On June 27th, I went on the first of four Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Ecowalks - which was a fascinating, informative and fast hour’s worth of Geology by Edward Keller of UCSB.

I tried to incorporate a tiny bit of the geology learned from the SBBG walk into the More Mesa July news - since the new knowledge also allowed me to understand some of the topography of More Mesa for the first time.

Usually, the More Mesa news is written by Valerie Olson, and I add it to the site with a photo, along with other site updates.

This time I wrote it per Valerie’s request, with input via e-mail from Mark Holmgren and Valerie Olson. The July news is at the link below.

Birds of interest: Grasshopper Sparrow (photo), Blue Grosbeak (photo) and Swainson’s Thrush.

Link

• More Mesa July News