Sometimes when I’m birdwatching I see things that aren’t birds.
I’m covering East Pinery tomorrow for the Cachuma CBC. It won’t look like that; that was on May 20, 2018 (eBird list), and the lupines were blooming.
This will be winter. There’s a storm watch for tomorrow calling for 6”–12” of snow above 5,000’, but I’ll be a little below that, and I suspect for me it will mostly be rain and wind.
Pete, who organizes the Cachuma count, is worried about what the weather will mean in terms of people bailing on their assignments. I’m going to be there regardless as long as the forest service doesn’t close the road; I should be able to drive to the locked gate at Ranger Peak, and from there it’s just a couple of miles to my assigned location. If I can park an hour before sunrise I should be able to walk up the road and be ready to start birding on East Pinery at first light.
Montane birding in winter can be tough. The birds are few and far between, and when you do find some they’re often high in the canopy and hard to see. Add wind and rain to that, and, well, let’s just say it’s going to be challenging.
I don’t care. It’s about the experience, not the number. It’s an excuse to be out there at a time and place sensible people don’t go, counting birds on a mountain in a storm. Who wouldn’t want to do that?
Thanks! If I have cell coverage (which I might have, at least some of the time) you’ll be able to see my checklists as I submit them in my trip report here.
This entry was posted by jbc on Tuesday, December 28th, 2021 at 5:46 pm and is filed under Tumblr.
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