Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation

Check here for information on changes to activities and for open space status.

  2/6/2010 - Today's planting activity at Heather Farm Park starting at 9am has been canceled due to the threat of rain..

Winter is our big season for .planting native plants.  We are planting acorns in Lime Ridge (North), grasses, flowers and shrubs at Bayberry Pond and the Nature Area in Heather Farm Park.  Here is a photo report from two recent activities.

  Our project leaders need your help to get the work done.  Look at the list of events below or on the calendar page and pick an activity and date that suit you.  Contact us and sign up!

Volunteer Opportunities on Weekdays

Many of our activities are held on weekends to fit the schedules of people who work or attend school on weekdays.  We now have regular activities during the week for volunteers who are free during the week,  Click on the underlined group description for more information.

• Our regular Tuesday morning group has openings for activities through early February.
• A new group is meeting on the first and third Wednesday mornings.  Both groups perform a variety of taks related to habitat restoration.

The first four images on the right are taken from walks around our open space.  Click on the spider image to see more pictures of bugs we've seen on wildflowers.  Click on the butterflies image to see those pictures and pictures of wildflowers.

These links take you to photo galleries on the SmugMug website where some of our members display their photos.  We have links to other galleries and information on viewing images at SmugMug here.

If you haven't visited SmugMug before, here are some pointers:

You can view images in several styles: as a page of justl thumbnails (All Thumbs), several pages with thumbnails on the left and a single larger image on the right side of the web page (SmugMug style) or as a slide show.  You can change the style using the Style control.

You can also view images at the original size to see all  the details.  Slide the mouse to the right side of the large picture in the SmugMug view.  A menu will slide out and you can click on "original" or other sizes.  When you are finished viewing the original size image, scroll to the top of the web page and click on "close".

We will be adding more links to SmugMug galleries as we get them organized.

 In cooperation with the California Bluebird Recovery Program (www.cbrp.org), Foundation members including Brian Murphy and Bob Brittain have been constructing, installing and monitoring nest boxes for bluebirds in our open space. Western bluebirds and several other species of native cavity-nesting birds have been raising their young in these nest boxes. Click here for a pictorial essay with photos of nests, eggs, chicks, and parent birds! If you are interested in adopting a bluebird trail in Walnut Creek, please contact Bob at bobbrittain@astound.net or at 925-938-5831.

 

Other New Material

We have added three items to the website. First, there's an article on our riparian habitat projects. Second, we have a new gallery called Out of Sight which shows the clues animals leave to their presence. And third, there's a list of wildflowers seen on a late March walk in Acalanes Open Space. We hope to create a series of these which will cover the whole wildflower season. One of the treasures in Acalanes is baby blue eyes, an enormously appealing wildflower, blue with a white center – see the photo on the right.