Tag: natural history museum

Ancient bison skull found at San Diego stadium!

Today, down in the San Diego Natural History Museum’s basement Paleo Center, Mary was working on a fossil found in Mission Valley.

Visitors peering through the Paleo Center window could watch her as she removed tiny bits of sandstone from the partial skull (with horn cores and cervical vertebrae) of a Bison Latifrons, found in Ice Age stream deposits, and dating from 100,000 years ago.

She was using a small pneumatic chisel-like instrument to “clean” the fossil. It reminded me of my last dental appointment!

The ancient bison fossil was unearthed in 2020 while workers were excavating the parking lot of the old Qualcomm Stadium, getting ready for San Diego’s new Snapdragon Stadium! The ancient bison would have stood between seven and eight feet at the shoulder! Imagine it roaming eons ago in Mission Valley!

I learned The NAT has numerous unearthed fossils in line waiting to be expertly prepared. Fossils are frequently discovered at different construction sites around the city.

Right now the San Diego Natural History Museum is half open as it undergoes a monumental roof renovation. Fortunately the paleontology center on the lower level of the museum remains open. Follow various signs and you’ll find this Amazement in the Basement!

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Natural History Museum skylight on the ground!

Remember the large, beautiful skylight above the central atrium of the San Diego Natural History Museum? It’s no more!

What you see in the above photograph is what remains of the old skylight structure. Dismantled sections of the framework now sit on the ground in a nearby parking lot.

The Natural History Museum is reconstructing its roof. No more skylight. As this NAT webpage explains, the new solid roof allows for the installation of 200 solar panels and promises better climate control to protect the museum’s valuable collections. The new roof will be easier to maintain and more environmentally friendly, too.

Visitors to Balboa Park can see the huge crane that is being utilized for the work…

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Kids can become a Junior Ranger in Chula Vista!

Hey families in the South Bay, check this out! The City of Chula Vista has a Junior Park Ranger program for kids ages 5 to 15!

I learned about the program today during South Bay Earth Day. A friendly City of Chula Vista park ranger was educating those passing by about this cool opportunity.

Take the kids down to Rice Canyon Park (on North Rancho Del Rey Parkway) every fourth weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and meet park rangers between 9 am and 12 pm.

Kids who are with a guardian get to see native animal specimens from the Natural History Museum and learn how to protect local wildlife. They can also learn about native plants, then take a self-led hike through Rice Canyon Preserve and have fun identifying them!

Kids who fill out an activity book will become a Junior Park Ranger. How cool is that!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

660 plants added to Natural History Museum garden!

Today the Nature Trail at the San Diego Natural History Museum became much more lush and biodiverse. 660 plants native to the San Diego and Baja California region were added to the outdoor garden surrounding the museum!

I saw dozens of workers and volunteers this morning at work putting in the native plants. I learned that many new species (many of them pollinators) will now grow along this nature trail in the heart of Balboa Park.

This greatly increased diversity of plant life is fitting for a world-class natural history museum. I was told many more educational signs will be appearing, providing information about the new plants.

Wow! Look at my photos! The NAT has many helpers and volunteers!

According to one online description anticipating today’s event, experts from the Barona Cultural Society Museum, Tree of Life Nursery, Native West Nursery, City Farmers Nursery, and the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) will provide step-by-step guidance on proper planting techniques and native plant care.

I walked along the nature trail in the afternoon after the work was completed, and all the new plantings are amazing!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Rooftop views from San Diego Natural History Museum!

The rooftop of the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park is seldom open to the public. I was lucky that the rooftop happened to be open today, the first Tuesday of the month, when The NAT is free to San Diego residents and active military and their dependents. But I was told that’s not always the case.

The rooftop is indeed reliably open to the public the third Friday of every month, when the museum presents Nat at Night and remains open until 10 pm.

The Natural History Museum’s rooftop not only offers spectacular views, but there’s food and drink and plenty of tables. Today The Craft Taco had their menu available. Later this year, the food will be provided by San Diego’s Restaurant of the Year in 2024 (according to San Diego Magazine): Wolf in the Woods.

Rooftop views are to the east and south. To the east, one can see Balboa Park’s beautiful Desert and Rose Gardens, Morley Field and Florida Canyon, and in the far distance, the Cuyamaca Mountains. To the south is the Bea Evenson Fountain, the Fleet Science Center, and glimpses of downtown San Diego skyscrapers through treetops. In the distance one can recognize a slice of South Bay, and, on a clear day, one can see all the way to Mexico.

Okay! Time for today’s photographs!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!

Natural History Museum’s 150 years Block Party!

The San Diego Natural History Museum celebrated its 150 year anniversary today with a big “block party” in Balboa Park!

Shortly after 9:30, presentations were made on the museum steps by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, California’s Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, and Judy Gradwohl, President and CEO of the San Diego Natural History Museum. Not to mention a friendly dinosaur! Then everyone watching enjoyed free morning admission to the museum!

Those who ventured into the San Diego Natural History Museum could experience fascinating exhibits and enjoy live entertainment. By heading down into the building’s basement, visitors could see the museum’s amazing new Paleo Center. I did just that, and posted photos of it here!

The big outdoor block party attracted visitors to numerous canopies situated on either side of the museum, which sheltered environmental and educational organizations from throughout San Diego County.

Scientists from the Fleet Science Center were happy to be asked anything! I asked two daunting questions. What is existence? What is consciousness?

The San Diego Air and Space Museum showed kids how to make straw gliders and paper helicopters!

The Coronado Public Library was showing how to made a newspaper pot for plants!

A smile from the Earth Discovery Institute! They are helping with natural habitat restoration and conservation.

A kid uses a stamp to print an image using red ink from ground up cochineal, at the Balboa Art Conservation Center table!

I correctly answered Balboa Park Facts for 500 at the Forever Balboa Park table and won a cool pin!

Inside the San Diego Natural History Museum during their 150 year celebration block party!

Great live music inside the museum.

Back outside, on the north side of the museum, on the lawn near the Moreton Bay Fig and the Natural History Museum’s new nature trail.

The Friends of Famosa Slough in Point Loma were showing award-winning photographs. I need to return to the slough for another bird watching walk.

All sorts of great information was available concerning Mission Trails Regional Park.

Cans4Books recycles cans and bottles and uses the proceeds to provide books for kids!

Reef the Whale is a fun sculpture on a trailer used by Cans4Books to collect recyclables!

A wood plaque shows that Reef the Whale was born in Point Loma this summer!

So many organizations were present for The NAT’s big block party.

Amazing sculpture of a California Red-legged Frog made of unrecyclable plastic collected at the museum. A cool creation of local nonprofit Endangered Concepts.

San Diego Botanic Garden had lots of plants to check out.

A big, wonderful smile!

I learned construction of the San Diego River Park Foundation’s new nature center in Mission Valley is making good progress!

Thank you for helping to maintain our beautiful San Diego River!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Paleo Center opens at Natural History Museum!

The new Paleo Center had its soft opening today at the San Diego Natural History Museum!

The Tom Deméré Paleontology Center has opened in the museum’s basement, where visitors can view a huge number of fossils behind glass windows and scientists at work in their processing lab! The new Paleo Center is a state-of-the-art facility that provides adequate room for the museum’s extensive fossil collection and frees up space in the museum for other collections and exhibits.

Visitors this morning could enter The NAT for free as the museum celebrated its 150 year anniversary with a “block party” in Balboa Park. (I’ll be posting a blog about the big event shortly!)

I walked down stairs to the Natural History Museum’s basement not knowing what to expect, and look what I discovered!

In addition to the processing lab and fossil storage space, museum volunteers and scientists had assembled several puzzles and displays for both young and old.

The Paleo Center is still being worked on and is scheduled to fully open in Spring 2025. Visitors were asked for suggestions for the center’s name. I suggested The Paleo Vault!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Garden Fair at San Diego Natural History Museum!

A very fun and informative Garden Fair was held today outside the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. The event coincides with the recent opening of the nature trail that now encircles the museum.

The interpretive nature trail, which leads visitors past a wide variety of native Southern California plants, is a cornerstone of the San Diego Natural History Museum’s 150 year anniversary celebration!

All sorts of booths were set up on both the south and north sides of the museum. Organizations who care about protecting our natural environment provided information for curious passersby. I took these photographs…

Smiles from Forever Balboa Park. They are working to revitalize Balboa Park’s Botanical Building and gardens.

The California Native Plant Society was educating the public about conserving our local flora.

Activity at the Master Gardener table.

Poster provides suggestions for native plants in your garden.

Lots of sunshine and smiles today in Balboa Park!

Table features seeds for native plants.

Kids learn about bees and other pollinators.

Balboa Park Alive! has a cool app in the beta stage, developed by smiling folks from the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego.

The augmented reality mobile app transforms Balboa Park into an interactive biodiversity adventure. On your smartphone, you can plant virtual flora, release butterflies, and simulate pollinator behavior. I was told that so far you can explore Balboa Park’s Zoro Garden and the Natural History Museum’s new nature trail. Very cool!

Learn more about Balboa Park Alive! by clicking here.

Technology helps bring nature in Balboa Park to life.

More booths for the Garden Fair, along the new nature trail on the north side of the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Member of the NAT Garden Corps tells me various facts concerning the cactus wren and prickly pear. While she spoke a hummingbird came by.

How cool! Moth Week 2024 has a night party outside the museum on Friday, July 26, after 8 pm. A naturalist will attract moths near the Moreton Bay Fig for photography.

San Diego Canyonlands focuses on the canyons in City Heights around Azalea Park. They support youth education and environmental job training in underserved communities. They also have an urban hike-a-thon event.

Smiles from some San Diego Natural History Museum Canyoneers. They offer free guided hikes throughout the county. Enjoy nature and become a citizen scientist!

The San Diego Habitat Conservancy currently manages 33 open space preserves in Southern California.

The Climate Science Alliance mission is to safeguard natural and human communities in the face of a changing climate.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Natural History Museum’s nature trail opens!

The construction fences are down! The San Diego Natural History Museum’s new outdoor native garden has opened, and there’s a trail that follows the newly planted greenery around the museum!

Native plants, flowers and trees now abound, but since the garden is just getting started, most plants are small and the landscape appears a bit bare. Once everything is grown, the garden should be much more beautiful!

Right now there’s plastic fencing along the pathway, protecting the new plantings from careless visitors and dogs. It appears to be temporary.

Informative signs can be read along the looping trail, and smaller signs indicate the native species planted nearby. There’s a boulder-filled sitting area and short side trail, too, on the museum’s north side–you know, the side with the enormous Moreton Bay Fig.

The “Nat’s Nature Trail” features various themed segments. As you walk around the Natural History Museum building, you encounter Pollinator Paradise, Spiny Sidewalk, Boulder Garden, Discovery Path, Wildlife Walkway, First People’s Garden, and Container Corner.

What a great addition to an already amazing Balboa Park!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

The Art of Science exhibit by UC San Diego.

The Art of Science is a photographic exhibit that explores the intersection of art and science. Curious eyes can view this cool exhibit inside the Sally T. WongAvery Library at UC San Diego, and at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.

The above fluorescent image of a pine tree stem cross-section was taken using a microscope. A stem that is scientifically examined might be a natural object, but like any art the resulting image is human-created, and can stimulate complex thought and emotion.

Many would say the above image is beautiful.

Do you consider it to be beautiful?

Why or why not?

Aren’t all things in this world potentially beautiful?

Is beauty entirely in the eye (or mind) of the beholder?

The Art of Science presents several intriguing images that appear simultaneously familiar and strange.

Here’s a web page that describes the exhibit, including: Now in its third year, the Library’s Art of Science contest celebrates the beauty that can emerge during scientific research at UC San Diego and beyond. This year, librarians and staff pre-selected items from the Research Data Collections repository. From these selected images, winners were chosen by the campus and the broader San Diego community via online voting.

More samples from the exhibit…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!