The Sea and Sage Audubon Society will hold its annual Summer Barbecue at IRWD’s San Joaquin Marsh on Saturday, July 31 from 5:30-10 p.m.

This family event will feature something for everyone:

• Dining under the stars in the meadow
• Evening walks around the marsh
• A sale of used nature books
• A great program on ospreys and other Orange County birds of prey by Pete Bloom, who has studied raptors in the county for nearly 45 years
• A night wildlife talk

The menu will include barbecued chicken and hot dogs, salads, chips, fresh fruit, cake, lemonade and coffee. A vegetarian entrée will be provided for those who specifically request it on their reservation forms.

Advance reservations are essential. Those with email will be sent their reservation confirmations and tickets – all others may pick them up when they check in at the barbecue.

Tickets for the barbecue and program are $15 for adults and $7 for children under five. Tickets include meals and beverages, evening marsh walk and program. Activities will begin at 5 p.m.  Dinner will be served from 6-7 p.m., followed by the program, or whenever it’s dark. The first marsh walk will be from 6:30-7:30 p.m. to take in the sights and sounds as the marsh life settles in for the evening.

The post-speaker marsh walk will focus on bats and other nocturnal animals that frequent the sanctuary at night.

For more information, reservations, and directions, call Sea and Sage Audubon at (949) 261-7963. The Marsh is a hidden gem located in the heart of Irvine.

More than 200 species of birds have been sighted at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, including many raptors, such as the osprey. 

Now for the first time, an osprey pair has hatched a chick in a nest they constructed in a 40-foot tall nesting platform installed last summer.  The platform is located on a peninsula in one of the marsh’s ponds, which gives the birds the illusion of being surrounded by water, but also allows access to maintenance crews. Currently, the trail to the platform is not accessible to the public, but the birds may be best viewed from adjacent trails.

IRWD installed the platform at the request of the Sea and Sage Audubon Society, which wanted it modeled after the successful platform at Newport Back Bay’s Shellmaker Island.

“In January, we observed the nesting pair gathering material for the nest,” said Jason Tran, wetlands specialist for IRWD. “The chick hatched in early May.”

Interestingly enough, the chick’s mother was born in 2008 at the Shellmaker Island platform. She was tracked to that site by leg bands biologists at Shellmaker’s Marine Science Center had placed on her. Experts say female ospreys usually don’t nest until they are at least three years old.

In June, Sea and Sage held a banding event at the marsh. Local raptor biologist Pete Bloom and raptor expert Scott Thomas removed the chick from the nest and put bands on its legs then returned it to the nest.

Recently, the chick flew from the nest for the first time. It is still dependent on the parents for food, so it frequently returns to the nest.

It is estimated that osprey nests had not been reported in Orange County for more than 70 years, until the platform at Shellmaker Island was built four years ago. Since then, there have been several successful nests there. It is hoped that the platform at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary will see many more osprey chicks hatched there in the future.

Hundreds of posters from all over Southern California were submitted to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s annual Water Awareness Poster contest and an Irvine student was among the winners.

John David Choi, who was in fourth grade at Canyon View Elementary School when he submitted the poster earlier this year, will have his artwork published on MWD’s 2011 calendar. He and his family will be invited to attend a special ceremony at MWD to honor poster winners from all over the region in December.

Early next year, all of the winning posters will be part of a traveling art show making the rounds at different water districts. IRWD will be among the districts to host the art show, which will be on display in the lobby at the District’s Sand Canyon building.

Once the show has concluded, John David’s framed art work will be returned and he will then be honored at an IRWD Board of Directors meeting.

IRWD participates in the contest every year and teachers in the IRWD service area are encouraged to have their students enter posters. Once the posters are received, they are judged and five finalists are chosen and sent to MWD for regional judging. IRWD consistently boasts at least one winner every year.

IRWD Conservation Manager Fiona Sanchez will be a featured speaker at the Toro Company’s fifth annual “Success Without Excess ” symposium on Thursday, July 29.

The symposium will be held at the company’s headquarters in Riverside. IRWD will be one of eight water districts throughout the region as presenters at the symposium.

HOA landscape/irrigation committee chairs, building and apartment owners, landscape maintenance professionals and city managers are scheduled to attend. The symposium is designed to educate attendees about California water issues and commercial irrigation systems and motivate water users to implement this knowledge to realize savings on their landscaping water bills.

IRWD is one of eight Southern California water agencies participating in the event. Sanchez will speak on “Water Budgets and Tiered Billing.” IRWD has used an allocation-based conservation rate structure since 1991.

The Riverside Press Enterprise will broadcast the symposium live.