CLAPPER RAIL.
"Tolerably common resident in the salt marshes along the coast. Among the lagoons between San Pedro and Long Beach, their loud cackling notes are frequently heard, especially at high tide, when they are driven to the higher ground. They probably nest in moderate abundance, though few eggs have so far been taken. W.B. Judson took a set of six slightly incubated eggs at Ballona, May 16, 1894."
This quote by Joseph Grinnell regarding the Light-footed Clapper Rail at Ballona Wetlands in Playa del Rey was from his 52 page monograph entitled: BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, published by the PASADENA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. At the time of his writing, 106 years ago, the Los Angeles River occasionally, during heavy storms, still flowed to the sea at Ballona in Playa del Rey. Joseph Grinnell, in 1898, was an instructor at the Throop Institute (later to become the California Institute of Technology) in Padasdena. Joseph Grinnell went on to earn a PhD in Biology from Stanford University, and became a world-famous scientist and director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) at the University of California in Berkeley. Joseph Grinnell was a member of the newly founded Sierra Club and wrote articles for the Sierra Magazine. At the time that Joseph Grinnell wrote his Clapper Rail quote, the Sierra Club was six years old. In 1938, he wrote the classic paper on the extirpated Brown "grizzly" Bear of California for the Sierra Club magazine. A year later, Joseph Grinnell passed away. Joseph Grinnell had searched in vain as a young man in the San Gabriel Mountains behind Pasadena for a glimpse of the Brown Bear, but alas, he never would see one alive in the wild in the state of California. Nonetheless, his insightful Sierra Club article on the Brown Bear clearly shows that he knew more about the "grizzly" bear than any other single individual. He also showed in his writing of this article that it could be a part of the fauna of California except that hunters with repeater guns and bee-hive keepers could not prevent themselves from shooting all the remaining bears of California. Joseph Grinnell wrote to all of us that the Brown Bear is shy and reclusive and could live among us in California. In the last few years, several expert scientists have shown that it is possible to bring the back the Brown "Grizzly" Bear to some parts of California. The documentation by Joseph Grinnell of the birds of Los Angeles County is a statement today on goals for restoration and recovery of birds for our County. Also, he discussed restoration regarding seals in California and hinted at the restoration for the Guadalupe Fur Seal in southern California. He knew the birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians of our great state of California, better than any other individuals from the 1890s through the 1930s, a time when California was still largely very rural and human population was beginning to grow. He lamented the arrival of the alien Virginia Opossum and Appalachian Red Fox from the eastern United States and alien pest invaders to California.
Joseph Grinnell is absolutely incredible as a vertebrate biologist, ornithologist, and naturalist. My research has shown that Joseph Grinnell spent a considerable time at sea. He did studies at Catalina Island in 1897, where he went on a small rowboat along the island shore in pursuit of seabirds. He went on a longer voyage to explore San Clemente Island, Santa Barbara Island, and San Nicolas Island. He visited two other Channel Islands, Anacapa and Santa Cruz Island. It appears that there were only two Channel Islands that he did not visit: San Miguel and Santa Rosa Island. Further research may show that he visited those islands as well. I estimate that he spent about 30 days at sea on boats during his puruit of biological studies on birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
On land, he found 29 species of birds at Catalina. This number is fairly low for spending eight days in one location, but Catalina has naturally depauperate number of birds, as do all islands of the word due the distance from the mainland of California. Although Joseph Grinnell did not explicitly state it, he was suggesting to his readers that the most important birds of Catalina Island are those that nest there. Thus, the 14 species identified in his list in the previous paragraph are more important in priority of conservation than the 15 species that are merely vagrant, accidental, and consequently ephemeral members of the bird fauna of Santa Catalina Island. The endemic native birds are the most important bird to insure that no extinction occurs, would be another conclusion of Joseph Grinnell.
I learned through research, that Hilda Wood Grinnell, the new wife of Joseph Grinnell was also on the visit to Catalina. It was also a trip that he made during winter break from his teaching assignment at Throop Institute in Pasadena. In essence, Joseph Grinnell and his wife spent Christmas and New Years on the exotic island of Catalina birdwatching. Hilda Wood Grinnell was a significant biologist and naturalist in her own right. She would publish about 20 years later after this Catalina visit, the most important monograph on Bats of California, in the University of California Publications of Zoology. This work was completed while she was raising three children.
Joseph Grinnell needed to visit Catalina Island because it is part of Los Angeles County and it is on the Pacific Slope so he could have a better grasp of the understanding of the birds and natural history of Los Angeles County. I believe that Joseph Grinnell always hoped that he would write a Natural History of Los Angeles County because he did a monograph on reptiles and amphibians of Los Angeles County with his wife, Hilda Wood Grinnell. He visited San Clemente Island, which is also part of Los Angeles County. He knew more about the fauna of Los Angeles County than any other individual 100 years ago. It is important to note and understand the perspective of 1898, one years ago, for example, Orange County did not yet exist and it was still part of Los Angeles County. Therefore, the context of his writing of birds would have included the three large wetlands and estuaries of Orange County, namely Bolsa Chica, Newport Bay, and Anaheim Bay.