Posts Categorized: My Nature Journal

Birders’ behavior can be almost as interesting as bird behavior. Definitely, birders have their own stamp of individuality when it comes to interacting with others of their kind. Some generalities can be made, however. The number one characteristic is rudeness.  I’m sorry, but it’s true.  I’ve known some really rude birders and I’m one of… Read more »

  I know I risk this entry being called an advice column, which it is NOT. Many birders don’t want to talk about family obligations and how difficult it is to maintain our passion/sport/hobby and still manage relationships!  Couples have foundered, children have been neglected, ageing parents haven’t been visited — all because we wanted… Read more »

Tales from a Sewage Treatment Plant – Looking back through my journal, I find certain days stand out.  Since shore bird season is upon us, and birding at the Goleta Sewage Treatment Plant is one of the best places to go, let’s step back in time to a day almost exactly 15 years ago. AUGUST… Read more »

  I have been following several news reports about signs that El Niño conditions may be building in waters off South America. As you may recall from the chapter on weather in my recent book, ENSO events (El Niño/Southern Oscillation as they are properly called) originate in the tropical eastern Pacific off Peru.  Eventually, they… Read more »

  June 25, 2014: Yesterday evening was classic summer in Montana.  It got warm and sticky.  The gray clouds over the mountains built. Small sounds of thunder.  Then the thunder gets closer.  Soon, it is upon us.  A loud crack.  Rain comes pouring down. After the rain, I went outside and just sat on a… Read more »

June 20, 2014 – Arrived here in Missoula to marvelous fresh air.   It’s been raining for a week and now everything sparkles and the Douglas-Firs shine green and the meadows are full of wildflowers.  Nothing can compare with late June in the northern forest. The Blackfoot River runs high and swift in this part… Read more »

  One of my favorite spring birding spots is the stone bridge over Rincon Creek.  The creek runs along the Santa Barbara/Ventura County line; it’s a thick riparian corridor there, and the best place for observation is from the stone bridge along Bates Road. Tall sycamores lean right over the bridge.  Willows grow in a dense… Read more »

Yesterday I drove to Morro Bay.  It was typical spring weather, with a strong northwest wind blowing cloud shadows over the morros.  These hills, which form a series of rocky outcrops beginning with Morro Rock and ending near San Luis Obispo, are really ancient “plugged” volcanoes that used to be much higher.  They formed a… Read more »

  Today I knew it was going to be a great Mother’s Day, when I heard a Yellow-breasted Chat singing to me from the back hedge in my garden!  And I could see there were birds hopping in and out of the pond, but I got busy with a lot of stuff during the day,… Read more »

Today I went hiking with my sister, Ellen.  We visited a favorite trail, the Aliso Loop, located at Sage Hill Campground reached by Paradise Road north of Santa Barbara. We got on the trail early, for it was to be a hot day. Aliso Canyon burned in the White Fire of 2013. Today was a… Read more »