Pointers in San Diego area?

[Pierre A Plauzoles]

"Jeffrey A. Caldwell" wrote:

> Hannu, I am not a San Diego local, but venture to suggest a few things.
> "Birds and Butterflies of  San Diego County" is a web site with a number of
> good links for you and a color photo gallery of some of  San Diego County
> butterflies.   It is at:
> http://sdbirds.basiclink.com
>
> The web master is Douglas Aguillard, who I have not met personally but only
> online.   His email address is: doug at basiclink.com
> he is a professional field guide, usually for birders but perhaps useful for
> you anyway; his business web site is:
> http://sdbirds.basiclink.com/socal_field_guides.html
>
> His site includes links to the local chapters of the North American
> Butterfly Association  [for San Diego County that would be the Los Angeles
> and Orange County Chapters], but there are probably members of those
> chapters that live in San Diego County; perhaps if you contact those local
> NABA chapters you will find other lepidopterists who would love to meet you
> and show you around.
>
> On Doug's site there is a link to an article [from NABA I think] about
> butterflies in Anza-Borrego National Park in San Diego County.

Anza-Borrego is a unit of the California State Park System.  I am not sure, but
it may also have its own web site as well.

> One of  the more useful links is for the San Diego Natural History Museum,
> which presents a lot of information about San Diego County natural history
> on their web site:
> http://www.sdnhm.org/

Excellent web site.

> Jeffrey A. Caldwell
> California Garden Habitat Network
>
> Hannu Saarenmaa wrote:
>
> > I am a lepidopterologist from Scandinavia that will be visiting San
> > Diego, California, on May 6-12.  If any locals are reading this, I'd
> > appreciate pointers to places to visit.  Moreover suggestions for
> > accommodations outside town but not too far commuting where I could stay
> > and put out my light for moths would be welcome.

For the casual visitor from abroad, such a visit can be quite daunting, but it
needn't be. There are two things which, together, are the key to a pleasant and
successful trip: 1/ communication with the proper individuals, 2/ possession of
the right information.  The American Automobile Association  publishes a set of
TourBooks and CampBooks.  These list points of interest and overnight
accomodations, and public and private campgrounds, respectively.  Although
perhaps not as complete as one would find in the Michelin Guides, the coverage
is quite good.  Personally, I would say that the quality of the information
included is, on the whole, about equivalent.  Accuracy of the information for
some of the motels may not be quite as high as one would find in the Michelin
publications, but on the whole, AAA TourBooks and CampBooks are reliable.
Another source of information is the Woodall's camping directories., which are
also pretty reliable.  Both AAA and Woodall's publications are updated
regularly, perhaps even yearly.

Aside from San Diego County, you might want to go to Joshua Tree National Park,
which is north of Indio and Salton Sea, which, like the Dead Sea, is n inland
body of water in a fault-controlled depression.  This the southeast end of the
San Andreas Fault Zone, which is one of the world's most active fault systems
and ends in northern California (San Diego County is west of Salton Sea).  Since
both National Park and State Park systems require permits for any kind of
collecting within their boundaries, you should be careful of this situation as
well: as far as I can tell, both the regulations and their enforcement are ogten
quite strict and the rangers do patrol the area.  Additionally, two other
situations arise: immigration problems (Border Patrol agents patrol the area
frequently), and poaching (State Park rangers and U S Fish and Wildlife Service
wardens also patrol the area because of illegal collecting of certain species,
including Federally- and State-listed endangered species, of which there are
several in San Diego County).  Don't get too close to the Mexican border, at
least not without contacting the Border Patrol ahead of time (their offices are
in San Diego and Calexico, if I recall correctly).

I hope this helps.

Pierre A Plauzoles
sphinxangelorum at bigfoot.com