Fall Tours of Upper Newport Bay Begin

NEWPORT BEACH —  Tours of the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Preserve began for the 23rd autumn season Saturday, luring 350 people to the paths lining the estuarine marsh where they caught glimpses of sea gulls, western grebes, great blue herons, white egrets and--through a telescope--even a rare peregrine falcon.

Led by members of the Friends of Newport Bay and naturalists from the county and the state, groups of 30 people took the free, 90-minute tours throughout the morning. Among those who showed up were two busloads of Girl Scouts from San Gabriel.

“I think the kids enjoyed themselves,” said Frank Robinson, a Friends of the Newport Bay board member. “It gets a lot of people excited” to see the falcon, an endangered species, Robinson said.

Other groups saw brown pelicans, which also are endangered. Ducks and long-legged shore birds have already returned to the area from summer nesting grounds in the Arctic, along with at least one osprey, Robinson said.

Birds were not the only attraction. Visitors were invited to smell and--in the case of the pickleweed, watercress and wild celery--taste the flora. Guides also explained that local Indians used bark from the willow tree, which has the same ingredient as aspirin, for healing purposes. A display of locally discovered fossils, including the leg bone of a woolly mammoth, was also included in the tour.

Robinson, who, with his wife, Fran, was a prime mover in preserving the bay, talked to the Girl Scouts about the bay and how it was formed. He detailed the importance of ecological preservation, not just in Orange County but across the country. It was up to them, he said, to carry on the tradition exemplified by the successful effort to save the bay.

The Irvine Co. sold 752 acres to the state in 1975 to create the preserve. Since then, other parcels have been added to the area.

“We’re about 900 acres in an ecological sense,” Robinson said, noting that not all the land is contiguous. “But the birds don’t know anything about boundaries.”

The tours, on the second Saturday of the month, continue through March, except for December, when they will take place on the third Saturday.