Tag: wildlife

Pollinator garden planted near Lemon Grove Depot!

A week ago, members of the Lemon Grove volunteer group Revitalize Broadway planted an extensive pollinator garden next to the Lemon Grove Depot trolley station, in what is called Promenade Park. I first read about the project here. I saw the garden today!

Keep in mind the new plants are very small now, but they’ll grow and eventually fill out the garden spaces.

Several informative plaques among the new plantings explain the benefits of native plants, and how they attract a variety of local wildlife, including beneficial insects like butterflies and bees.

If you’d like to learn more about the Revitalize Broadway group and their positive community efforts, click here. Do you live in Lemon Grove? Why not join these good people?

What did I see today?

One plaque describes the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.

Another plaque explains the migration of monarch butterflies and how certain plants provide food sources for declining butterfly populations. Pictured are Yarrow, California Lilac, Pozo Blue Sage, Pacific Aster and Narrow Leaved Milkweed.

Another part of the new garden is slightly depressed and resembles a dry creek. It’s called a rain garden.

Designed to be environmentally friendly, it will help valuable rain water permeate the ground and act as a natural filter.

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Painting wildlife at Oceanside Transit Center!

Wow! WOW!!!

Look what I discovered today!

Amazing wildlife murals are now being painted at the Oceanside Transit Center! Passengers walking under the tracks to catch a train are in for a big, wonderful surprise!

These photos were taken from the steps descending to either side of the train tracks, and inside the tunnel that connects platforms.

I see the artists are JustJon Art (@just_jon1), Ground Floor Murals (@groundfloormurals), Victor Rodriguez (@tone_dog), Maxx Moses (@maxxmoses777), and Signe Montefalcon Ditona (@signeditona).

Unfortunately, none of the artists were working on the mural when I happened by.

It appears as if this fantastic project is approaching completion. One guy who works at the Oceanside Transit Center told me the artists have been at it for a couple months.

Feast your eyes on this!

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Colorful wildlife mural beautifies Bay Park!

This very colorful mural debuted in Clairemont’s Bay Park neighborhood back in March. It decorates a fence on Morena Boulevard south of Ingulf Street.

Flora and fauna one might find in the neighborhood is depicted. In Tecolote Canyon one might observe a Red-Tailed Hawk. On the shore in Mission Bay one might spy a Snowy Egret. A bright yellow Bush Sunflower is an exclamation point to the brilliant artwork.

The digitally printed mural, part of the Morena Boulevard Beautification Project, was created by ArtReach (@artreachsd) in partnership with SDG&E. It was designed by artist Ian Stiles-Mikl (@ianstilesmikl) with input from community members.

Before the mural arrived, equipment and porta-potties in a dirt lot were visible through the fence. So much more beautiful now!

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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.

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Wildlife on the streets of National City!

During my last couple walks in National City, I noticed many electrical boxes have been beautifully painted with native flora and fauna. It’s almost as if wildlife has joined me on the sidewalk!

These photos were taken on National City Boulevard, a little south of 8th Street. I’ve observed boxes like these elsewhere in National City.

It appears many of these electrical boxes were painted last year by artist Laura Green (@lauragreenstudio). It’s part of the National City Utility Box Project.

Some of the boxes also specify the names or species of the painted subject.

What a great way to beautify an urban environment! One can learn to recognize our wild neighbors, too!

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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.

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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.

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Two eras: Contrasted paintings at Timken Museum.

The Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park has opened a fascinating exhibition titled Reconsidering Bierstadt: Kent Monkman. Visitors to the fine art museum are encouraged to compare two similar but very different works: Albert Bierstadt‘s 1864 painting Cho-looke, The Yosemite Fall, and First Nation Cree artist Kent Monkman‘s 2012 work The Fourth World.

The photograph above shows Kent Monkman’s painting (on loan from the Denver Art Museum) which reimagines the Bierstadt piece in the light of a different perspective.

Bierstadt’s oil painting conveys a sense of rustic tranquility and natural beauty; the somewhat shocking bottom portion of Monkman’s bolder, brighter acrylic piece shows bison being frightened and funneled in Yosemite through sheer steel walls by white men with guns.

Monkman’s contemporary painting clearly expresses that an environment can be forcibly altered by the actions of humans. Like any good art, the image ignites complex thought.

I’m no expert when it comes to the history of Yosemite. Doing some online research, I was surprised to learn that, according to a National Park Service Facebook post: Here in Yosemite, though, bison have never roamed.

Here’s the bottom portion of The Fourth World:

The next photograph is of Cho-looke, The Yosemite Fall. It’s darker, vaguer, somehow more sublime. (The docent thought perhaps the painting needs to be cleaned.)

This Smithsonian website has a better photograph and explains: Bierstadt was inspired to paint Yosemite after seeing Carleton Watkins’s photographs in a New York gallery in 1862…In 1864, the year Bierstadt painted this view, President Abraham Lincoln set aside Yosemite as a protected reserve…

Head down to the Timken Museum of Art when they’re open and observe both canvases up close. When I visited, a friendly docent was standing by to answer questions and provide more insight.

The Timken, which contains many painted masterpieces, is always free! The exhibition will continue through June 8th, 2025.

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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!

Sea life mosaics installed at Chula Vista trolley station!

Gorgeous glass mosaics depicting sea life were recently installed at the E Street trolley station in Chula Vista. The artwork was created by Rainforest Art Project (@rainforestartproject). The mosaics are meant to inspire people traveling through San Diego’s South Bay. Eyes are encouraged to look out at the world with a sense of wonder.

The mosaics are part of the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Color the Corridor project. You might recall that a long mural has been painted on a wall just north of the same trolley station. See my blog post concerning that by clicking here.

A short video concerning these new sea life mosaics can be viewed here.

Many of the glass mosaics aren’t readily visible to passengers waiting for a trolley on the E Street station platform. As you can see from my next photograph, most of the fish, whales, birds and turtles overlook Interstate 5 below.

Hopefully drivers whizzing down the busy freeway or heading up the nearby off-ramp observe this incredible public art!

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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!

Walking through Swan Canyon in City Heights.

For a small adventure, hike down into Swan Canyon from the streets of City Heights.

The long, narrow canyon is one of several in this San Diego neighborhood. Like other nearby canyons, it features trails for nature walks in a mostly urban environment.

I enjoyed a short, easy hike last weekend in Swan Canyon. My aim was to photograph a newly painted mural on an old concrete foundation down in the canyon. If you’d like to see those photographs, click here.

There are several ways to enter the canyon. The trailhead I used is at the intersection of Olive Street and Highland Avenue, a couple blocks east of Fairmount Avenue. I headed east down the Olive Street Trail to the bottom of the canyon. You can see several trails on Google Maps if you perform a search.

At the bottom of the canyon, there’s a sign showing where the Olive Street Trail and Quince Street Trail cross. From the Olive Street Trail, I turned left and headed north up the Quince Street trail.

After a short distance of upward climbing, I noticed a definite but unmarked trail to the left. It led to the mural.

It’s hard to get lost in the narrow canyon. Just keep looking around.

Once I reached the mural, I easily retraced my steps. You could venture down another trail or in a different direction if you’d like to conduct your own voyage of discovery!

The trails I walked down were fairly well maintained, but wear good shoes and bring water on a warm day. You can see a few hollows in the shrubbery where homeless people might live, and graffiti in places, particularly near the mural–so be aware of that.

The above sign stands at the trailhead.

The sign contains information about wildlife and plants in our city’s canyons, and is provided by the organization San Diego Canyonlands. See their website here. You’ll find loads of useful information!

Did I come across any wildlife during my walk? The canyon did smell fresh and wild. I observed no coyotes, raccoons or red-tailed hawks, but I did spot a squirrel, and a few small birds in some trees.

Looking down from the trailhead…

Here we go! Watch your step…

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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 new City Heights mural in Swan Canyon!

In September, this amazing new mural was painted on a long wall in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood, down in Swan Canyon.

Local muralist Shayne M. Oseguera (with the help of other artists and community volunteers, San Diego Parks and Recreation, and San Diego Canyonlands) created colorful scenes of nature in a place that is often beset by graffiti.

I hiked along trails through Swan Canyon to get close up photographs this afternoon. I’ll soon be posting a blog about my hike, with directions on how to get to the mural.

In the next two photographs, you can see the long mural from across the canyon. You can also see how concrete surfaces beneath and beside the mural have been tagged with graffiti.

Now, after my short hike, I’m standing right next to the artwork. The sun was very low, making photography a bit challenging, so most of my shots are at an angle.

Enjoy these beautifully painted images of native plants, birds and other life in Swan Canyon!

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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.

San Diego Bird Alliance celebrates 75 years!

A great event was held today at Liberty Station in San Diego. The San Diego Bird Alliance (formerly the San Diego Audubon Society) celebrated their 75th Anniversary! For 75 years they’ve been working to educate the public, protect birds and restore natural habitat!

The event brought in many community organizations that have worked with the San Diego Bird Alliance to make a brighter and birdier future!

The program began with Kumeyaay traditional Bird Songs performed by youth from the Barona Band of Mission Indians. Their songs were of birds and journeying, and respect for all Creation.

A presentation was then made by San Diego City Council President Pro Tem Joe LaCava.

Young kids in the audience would then became excited as they took center stage. Ms. Smarty Plants had them excitedly learning about the critically endangered California condor, protecting our environment, and singing!

A little later the Accipiter Dance Company performed. I posted photos of their beautiful dance here.

I left before the program was completed, so I missed more dancing and what promised to be a colorful Parade of the Species. But I did walk around, checking out the many participating organizations and learning more about this precious world we all live in.

Enjoy some random photos!

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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.