Hyperion Bridge: Tourist VS Local POV

Photo: D. Hibbs, April 23, 2011.  The Hyperion Bridge offers a unique angle on the urban wildlife interface of the LA River for a scenic tourist shot.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 23, 2011.  The local's POV includes luggage floating down the LA River.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Photo: D. Hibbs, April 23, 2011.  The old Red Car Trolley bridge footings on the Hyperion Bridge make dramatic photographic composition.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 23, 2011.  The tourists make a bold statement in the local's photo.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

We took a hike with some out-of-state visitors last weekend.  So we're showcasing D. Hibbs' wonderful photos of our LA River urban wildlife corridor.

Red Car Property To The LA River: Through A Tourist's Eyes

Photo: D. Hibbs, April 23, 2011.  The current guerrilla art on the historic viaduct footings was more interesting from behind. (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Last weekend, visitors from out-of-state joined us for a hike up the Red Car Property to the LA River and back through Elysian Valley.  They commented (without prompting) on how lucky we were, living in such a densely populated neighborhood surrounded by freeways, to have a natural resource like the Red Car Property to link us to the LA River. 

Photo: D. Hibbs, April 23, 2011.  The walk down Fletcher, between the Red Car Property and the river, is more challenging than usual because of an unnamed pubic works project choking traffic down to one lane.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)  

The LA River Revitalization Master Plan (LARRMP), calls for narrowing Fletcher to one lane in both directions.  This is a stupid idea for a major commuter route leading to the 5 & 2 Freeways, as well as the secondary highway of Riverside Drive.  Let's hope this unnamed public works project is not the implementation of the LARRMP's narrowing of Fletcher. 

Photo: D. Hibbs, April 23, 2011. The DWP power station is on the Atwater side of the river (seen from Crystal St. and Fletcher). (Click on photo to enlarge.)

LA River: Great LA River Clean Up, Saturday April 30, 2011

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 23, 2011.  Cat faces used to adorn storm drain covers throughout the LA River, like this one, just north of the Fletcher Bridge.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The Great LA River Clean Up is Saturday, April 30, 2011 at various scenic spots on the river, including in our area: Marsh Street Park, Elysian Valley Gateway Park, , Taylor Yard, Steelhead Park, Sunnynook Bridge, Los Feliz and Griffith Park. 

For info, maps and more, see Friends of the Los Angeles River (FOLAR).

18 Acre Elysian Park Parcel: Ribbon Cutting

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 28, 2011.  City Council President Eric Garcetti introduced longtime activists, Christine Peters, the outgoing current and recently re-elected** President of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park (CCSEP) and Cecilia Dominguez, Elysian Valley Neighborhood Council, while kids frolicked on the new playground.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

**Corrected - thanks to a CCSEP boardmember.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 28, 2011.  Former City Councilmember and State Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg joined Garcetti and community members from Elysian Valley and Echo Park for the ribbon cutting. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

 

The 18 Acre park site was once at risk for becoming a Foodcraft Coffee warehouse.  CCSEP fought the proposal as far back as 1989.  Goldberg was City Councilmember for the area when the site was acquired with Prop K funding in the 1990s.   

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 28, 2011.  Unlike the Silver Lake Reservoir Meadow, dogs on leash are allowed on the 18 Acre Elysian Park Annex.  Always pick up after your dogs!  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 28, 2011.  The basketball court closest to Riverside Drive always seems to be in use.  Rec & Parks took down the construction fence, leaving no fence behind the backboards to keep balls and kids out of Riverside Drive.  Last week, I brought this to the attention of CD13 deputy Alejandra Marroquin, who walked a Rec & Parks rep down to the site to address the potential disaster.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 28, 2011.  Lupines and California Poppies attract large bumble bees to the slope facing Riverside Drive.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

18 Acre Elysian Park Annex: Remember This Kid?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 28, 2011.  You may remember Ricky from the 2003 photo in the same location on the 18 Acre Elysian Park Annex.  Ricky is 15 now.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

18 Acre Elysian Park Annex: Ribbon Cutting Thursday, April 28, 2011, 4PM

Photo: Diane Edwardson, Spring 2003.  The 18 Acre Elysian Park Parcel doesn't look like this anymore.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Despite being unofficially open for several weeks, there's a ribbon cutting (read: dog & pony show for politicos) today at 4 PM.  

It is the only part of Elysian Park that Red Car Property neighbors can safely walk to on a sidewalk. 

4PM today: Ribbon Cutting
18oo Riverside Drive - between Allesandro and Stadium Way 

Red Car Canyon: Non-Native Competition

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  A non-native, invasive Morning Glory vine competes for the dappled sunshine by choking a non-native, invasive Calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica).

Learn more about non-native, invasive plant species on California Invasive Plant Council's website. 

See also: Red Car Property Neighborhood's catalog of non-native, invasive plants.

Red Car Property: Non-Native Clover?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  I think this is a type of non-native clover that grows low to the ground in the mid-section of the Red Car Property between Rose Scharlin Nursery School and India.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

If you can identify this or any other plant we highlight, send us an email: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Red Car Property: Native Miner's Lettuce

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  Native Miner's Lettuce is shooting out 4" to 5" stalks packed with tiny white flowers on the steep slope below the last house on Adelbert.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Click here for our Red Car Neighborhood native plant catalog.

Corralitas Drive: Stinkhorn City **Updated

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2011, 8:03 AM.  That's no Easter egg, but yet another species of Stinkhorn Fungus sprouting near the site in my yard of the earlier Stinkhorn Fungus.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2011, 12:16 PM.  By midday what appears to be a Common Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus)** developed slime and began attracting flies. By this morning, it smelled as if something had died.  The smell was so bad, we couldn't open the windows on that side of the house.  A few hours later the smell had dissipated and the fungus began to droop. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2011.  Easter was Stinkhorn day.  Another Stinkhorn, like the first we saw a few weeks ago, had already gone flat by midday.  Look closely and see the fly feeding on the red portion of the fungus.

Be sure to check out the Stinkhorm Hall of Fame on www.MushroomExpert.com.

**UPDATE: April 30, 2012: Special thanks to Michael Wood of Mykoweb for identifying the Stinkhorn in the first two photos as Phallus hadraini.  "Your Phallus impudicus may actually be Phallus hadriani…I’ve seen no record of P. impudicus in California. The obvious difference is that the “egg” is pinkish to lilac in P. hadriani."  

Disclaimer: The Corralitas Red Car Property Blog prefers to quote reliable sources, such as Calflora and California Poison Control, on the issue of toxicity. We often get email suggesting some plants are edible. If you are eating your way through the Red Car Property, we DO NOT recommend you eat any plant you find in the Red Car Property neighborhood without first doing your own research.

Red Car Property: Purple Nightshade

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  Native Purple Nightshade marks the trail cut-through from Adelbert to the Red Car Property.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

WARNING: CalFlora lists Purple Nightshade as Majorly Toxic.

Click here for our Red Car Property Neighborhood native plant catalog.

I Saw Jesus On The Menlo Property

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 23, 2011.  He's still there today.  Happy Easter.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Red Car Property: Blue Fiesta Flowers Still Blooming Near Adelbert

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  A small patch of native Blue Fiesta Flowers is blooming between the Adelbert All-Weather Lounge and the Adelbert trail cut-through.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  Although not as prolific as last year's patch, the buds (to the far left of the flowers) should keep blooming for a few more weeks.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Click here for our catalog of Red Car Property neighborhood native plants.

Red Car Property: Please Don't Pick The Native Wildflowers!

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  Someone keeps picking the California Poppies blooming on the slope between the Viaduct Footings and the last house on Adelbert.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

This year we have a sad show of wildflowers on the Red Car Property.  Most likely, because brush clearance happened early, before everything went to seed last year. 

Very few native Lupines came back to the meadow on the south end of the Red Car Property. Blue Fiesta Flowers, California Poppies and Kotolo Milkweed are sorely lacking this year. The patch of California Fuchsia has mostly died off.  Golden Stars have yet to make an appearance.   Spanish Lotus is back and should bloom next month. 

Native wildflowers reseed themselves and return to the same spots year after year.  Unlike the non-native, invasive species, they don't take over an entire territory.  They cling to their small patch of earth, which is how I know where to find them every year. 

PLEASE DO NOT PICK THE WILDFLOWERS!  Let everyone enjoy them while we can.

Click here for the Red Car Property Neighborhood's catalog of native plants.

Red Car Property: Probably Native

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 19, 2011.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

How do you know if this is probably a native wildflower?  There are very few and are very hard to find. 

They bloom in the same spot every year, never taking over an entire swath of land.  In this case, above the historic viaduct footings.  They also bloom on the same slope with the Tomcat Clover and other native species.

The flower is minuscule. Usually, these are more pinkish than white.  If you can identify this or any other plant we highlight, send us an email, redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Click here to see the Red  Car Property Neighborhood catalog of native plants.

Who Says We Don't Need The El Pueblo Trail?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 23, 2007.  Horses sometimes show up on the Red Car Property.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Horses were seen on Sunset and Alvarado yesterday: The Eastsider.

It's not the first time for horses on Sunset: 2009 Louis Elovitz video.

Read more on the El Pueblo Trail in an earlier post. 

Red Car Property: Native Tomcat Clover

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  Tomcat Clover, paler in color than in past years, seems to be one of the few native wildflowers thriving this year on the slope below the last house on Adelbert.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011.  The steep slope makes the lighting conditions difficult, which could also be why the flowers are not as vibrant this year. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Click here for our catalog of Red Car Property Neighborhood native plants.

Red Car Property: Woolly Caterpillar Eating Non-Native, Invasive Jupiter's Beard

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 18, 2011.  Woolly Caterpillars seem to like the non-native, invasive Jupiter's Beard.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Check out Bug Guide and What's That Bug? for more on Woolly Caterpillars.  There's a  variety of the genus Grammia, which turn into Tiger Moths. (Don't ask me which species, as there are many.)

Red Car Property: Wildflowers Sparse

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2011. Even the usually prolific, non-native, invasive Wild Radish is putting out a meager bloom this year.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Click here for our neighborhood non-native invasive plant catalog. 

Silver Lake: LAPD Issues Property Crime Alert

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 20, 2009. 

LA Now reports Silver Lake property crime is significantly up in April.  According to the LAPD crime maps posted on the LA Times website, most of the crime is taking place near Sunset Blvd.  However, there have been a few vehicle related crimes on Lake View including a Grand Theft Auto followed by a residential burglary in the past week in the 2600 block of Lake View Ave.  (Waverly has been hit with vehicle and residential burglaries too.)

If you don't know your neighbors, now is a good time to chat them up and keep a watchful eye on the neighborhood.

Keep up with local crime on The Eastsider.

See crime prevention tips on the LAPD website.

Corralitas Drive: Moonrise Taylor Yard

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 17, 2011, 7:37 PM.  A really big full moon loomed over Taylor Yard, LA River, Lincoln Heights and Montecito Heights.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Red Car Property: New Weed Colonizing Southern End


Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 8, 2011. This grass has long grown in the moist and shaded conditions on northern end of the Red Car Property, near Adelbert. This is the first in the past 21 years, it's really colonized southern end, between the Canyon and the 2 Freeway. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Red Car Property: Keep That Snooter Out Of The Foxtails!

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 8, 2011. Foxtails (the catch-all term for those dried weed seeds that get stuck in your dog's nose, ears, eye and toes) are dying out fast throughout the neighborhood. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Corralitas Drive: Truck Found Buried In Silver Lake Backyard

Photo: Diane Edwardson, February 26, 2011. It's an ancient toy truck, found by the same neighbor with yesterday's treasure. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Corralitas Drive: Garden Treasure

Photo: Diane Edwardson, February 26, 2011. A neighbor found a variety of old colorful bottles and glass while working in his garden. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Red Car Canyon: Not A Park, It Just Looks Like One

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 3, 2011. The foxtails are drying out but the canyon is still green. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Red Car Canyon: San Bernardino Ring-Necked Snake *updated with photos

Photo: Todd H., April 11, 2011. A Corralitas neighbor of Red Car Canyon found this little snake under a piece of cardboard that blew into his yard. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

San Bernardino Ring-Necked Snakes (Diadophis punctatus modestus) seem to like Red Car Canyon. It's ideal habitat for snakes that prefer moist habitats, preying on worms, slugs, and small reptiles, particularly Slender Salamanders. When he found the snake, a salamander was just a few feet away.

This is only the second San Bernardino Ring-Necked Snake a neighbor has sent to me in the last couple of years. (There's a video on the CalHerps website showing just how fast the snake moves, which would explain why we don't see them very often.) Luckily this one is still alive. The last one had been killed by a cat.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 4, 2011. A couple of neighborhood kids got to check out the snake up close. The snake will curl up and reveal its colorful underside as a warning to predators that it does not taste good. Since Todd was having brush clearance done today, he carefully placed the snake in a bucket with some grass and released him when the work was done.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 11, 2011. The snake's olive color provides excellent camouflage in the leaf matter in the canyon.

Corralitas Drive: Not A Two-Headed Lizard

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 7, 2011. It's a perfectly articulated lizard skin found in a Corralitas backyard. (Click on photo to enlarge.) Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 7, 2011. Even the nostrils, lips and toes are preserved on the 8" skin, most likely from an Alligator Lizard. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Corralitas Drive: Corra, The Red Tail Hawk, With Kill

Photo: Shawnda Thomas Faveau, March 31, 2011. Shawnda sent last week's photos of Corra, the Red Tail Hawk, from outside her front door on Corralitas Drive. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Shawnda Thomas Faveau, March 31, 2011. Corra needs every squirrel she can get since she has a nest on Rosebud & Allesandro on the 2 Freeway parkway. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Allesandro & Rosebud: Red Tail Hawk Nest

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, April 9, 2011, 11:44AM. Corra, the Red Tail Hawk, was watching Gary too. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 9, 2011, 11:08 AM. The hawks built their nest in the crook of a Eucalyptus tree on the 2 Freeway, just across the street from the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract at Rosebud and Allesandro. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Corralitas Drive: How This Scenic Vista Led Me To Find The Red Tail Hawk's Nest On Allesandro & Rosebud

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 8, 2011, 7:13 PM. Last night while shooting the spectacular clouds, I heard two hawks screaming at each other, just below the log cabins on Corralitas Drive. (Click on photos to enlarge.) Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 8, 2011, 7:17 PM. Two Red Tail Hawks were squabbling over prey atop a telephone pole. Corra, the larger of the two, won. Corra's partner flew across the 2 Freeway, to a tree on Allesandro & Rosebud. It was too dark to get a decent shot, but with binoculars, we could see a large bird moving around in the nest. Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 9, 2011. This is the view from the base of the previous photo's telephone pole, looking toward the nest at the corner of Allesandro & Rosebud. The tree is across Allesandro from the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract lots, destined for development. (Click on photo to enlarge.)