Bird

Bird watchers angered by the destruction of 43 acres of a former wildlife preserve at Sepulveda Basin got a promise from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday that it wouldn't remove any more vegetation until at least mid-September. Tomas Beauchamp, a corps spokesman, told the Los Angeles City Council that further work on the so-called South Reserve, south of Burbank Boulevard and north to the base of the dam, is on hold, in part because nesting birds have been discovered in the habitat.

So here you are at Hinoki & the Bird, a new restaurant in Century City where detail in pursuit of high-concept extends right down to the shoelaces worn by the waitstaff. The entrance overlooks a sunken dining room awash in warm light, "a Bond-villain lair" as described by Jonathan Gold in a recent review. At the bar are suave cocktails such as gin and lemon poured over crushed grapes, and in the open kitchen, you'll see thin sheets of the hinoki - a fragrant wood - set on fire then sent out on plates of black cod. A large patio of diners might seat a few celebrities.

Goodbye, Eva: Eva chef-owner Mark Gold tells Eater LA that he has opted to sell his Beverly Street restaurant Eva to pursue an opportunity as a partner in a new Manhattan Beach restaurant. Permitting problems over parking spaces and its liquor license plagued Eva last year when Gold sought donations to offset the expenses of filing an appeal after the request for a variance was denied. "Although we will miss Eva ... it was time to find something bigger," Gold said of the decision to move on.  Early Bird's new chef: Speaking of moving on, Fullerton restaurant Early Bird announces that Frank DeLoach has succeeded Joseph Mahon as executive chef.

Just before sunrise, a hardy band of men and women gathered near a barley field in the remote San Luis Valley to await the dawn. Some fiddled with their cameras while others nervously scanned the cold, empty sky. As golden sunlight broke over the mountains, a distant trumpeting filled the air. Thousands of primeval-looking birds with long necks and dagger-like beaks appeared overhead. Their numbers were staggering, the noise deafening. As they spiraled raucously down onto the field, cameras fired from every direction.

Some of the earliest birds hailing from the age of the dinosaurs may have sported four flying limbs, a team of Chinese researchers says. If so, 11 fossils from the lower Cretaceous period, about 120 million years ago, could represent a missing link in the development of modern birds, according to a new paper released Thursday by the journal Science. Modern birds generally work with two wings, using small, clawed hind legs for ground travel. A few, like the golden eagle, have fuzzy down on their back limbs, which is for insulating their appendages, not flying.

It's long been a quandary for researchers and wildlife enthusiasts: How can they observe sensitive species without displacing or disturbing them? Remote cameras have solved the problem, and in some case web cams have created Internet stars of pandas munching on bamboo. Beginning this week, two of California's endangered bird species -- the western snowy plover and the California least tern - will get their shot at stardom.  The birds can be observed via a nest-cam at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach.

Rovio Entertainment is launching an animated series based on its popular "Angry Birds" game characters, which it will make available on television, smartphones and tablets. "Angry Birds Toons" will feature its familiar characters in a year's worth of episodes -- 52 weekly installments -- starting this weekend. New shows will appear on television Saturdays, then become available the next day through mobile apps and video-on-demand platforms. "Launching the channel, and partnering up with some of the best video-on-demand providers and TV networks, is an important milestone for us on our journey towards becoming a fully-fledged entertainment powerhouse," Rovio Chief Executive Mikael Hed said in a statement.

The seductive new Century City restaurant Hinoki & the Bird , reviewed by Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold last week, conveys a dark intensity. But take a closer look at some of the interior details and you'll find a degree of playfulness. Milo Garcia of MAI Studio in Los Angeles wanted the restaurant, the newest concept from chef-owner David Myers, to have a touch of glamour but also a sense of humor - a combination that plays out in two particular areas: bathroom subway tiles that cleverly double as mirrors and striking block-patterned denim banquettes.

Foreign auteurs tend to enjoy a good metaphoric image or three. And few like them more than Chan-wook Park, the South Korean filmmaker behind violent cult hits such as "Oldboy. " In "Stoker," Park's English-language debut starring Nicole Kidman that opened in Los Angeles last weekend, there are a number of memorable images. They're all there for a reason. "Stoker" centers on the loner India (Mia Wasikowska), her aloof and at times rivalrous mother (Kidman) and India's affectionate but mysterious uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode)

Donald A. Glaser Nobel Prize-winning physicist Donald A. Glaser, 86, a Nobel Prize-winning UC Berkeley physicist who invented a device called the bubble chamber, which allowed researchers to track the paths of high-energy atomic particles after collisions and which played a role in the discovery of new atomic particles, died in his sleep Thursday at his Berkeley home, the university announced. The specific cause was not given. Glaser, a longtime UC Berkeley professor of physics, as well as of molecular and cell biology, won the 1960 Nobel Prize in physics for the bubble chamber, which allowed scientists to track the movements of electrons, protons and other particles.