Wetlands Tours

I volunteer at the wetlands near my house as an educational tour guide. When schools send kids on field trips, I teach them about the wetlands, their purpose, and the plants and animals that make that area their home. I've toured kids from 3-year olds through high school seniors. Most of the kids are pretty cool. I've wanted to adopt a few of them, and I've wanted to push a few over the cliffs. Actually, I've probably wanted to push more of their teachers over the cliffs. A few act like it's their day off and they want nothing to do with their unruly classes. That annoys me. Anyhow, I took a group of high-schoolers out today. They were good and they managed to complete their plant research project, do some restoration weeding, and go on my hike. The hikes are the best part, getting out into nature. And we are entering into the best time of the year--all the plants are coming back to life after being dormant during the late summer, fall and early winter. Everything is green, the wildflowers are starting to bloom, the fragrant purple sage is coming back to life, and lots of animals are out and about. Today we saw tons of rabbits and ground squirrels, lizards and cormorants, great blue herons and snowy white egrets (my personal favorite!) But best of all, the highlight of the day, holy crap, we saw a coyote!!! It was a treat because coyotes are not usually out during the middle of the day. He watched us, and even followed us for a while--fortunately he was on the other side of a fence. One of the girls asked "Can he climb that fence?" And while I know he can, I said "Let's hope not!" No need to induce mass hysteria among high school girls! But we were safe and everyone was happy that we got to see him. That coyote, while keeping an eye on us, was doing exactly what we were doing--enjoying another flawless, sunny, 75-degree winter day in Southern California!