Happy New Year! Welcome 2021!

 

What a glorious way to welcome a new year! Twelve or more inches fell over two days in Idyllwild with much more in the high country. 2020 was an incredibly difficult and for some, tragic year. Let's all hope that 2021 will bring healing to us all!

I'm not quite sure why snow is such a joy to see. When the snow is falling, the skies are grey and gloomy. Plus, there is so much work to do. My goodness, we spent two days shoveling, stoking fires, knocking snow and ice off of birdfeeders and refilling those feeders for all the birds that found our oasis. The kindness of strangers is the most noticeable during challenging times. Next door, weekend renters happily shared in the work of clearing 12 plus inches of snow off of our steep driveway. Living on the coast, snow was a novelty to them. Thank you, Sean and Ryan!

     Anna's Hummingbird

The reward comes the first morning when the skies clear and the beautiful white snow is covering the land. For me, seeing the tiny, feisty birds that survive the storm makes my efforts to help them out before my morning coffee worth it!

And finally, a video from nearby cowboy/cowgirl country.... Garner Valley

Happy New Year!

Photos, video and content by Robin Roberts

Click to enlarge.

Music by Gabriel Witcher (Blue Mountains)

Got Fish?

 

Imagine being a fish-eating bird leaving your northern breeding grounds for the winter...You are a creature of habit and really like going to the same place but you're now having to find a new place to spend the winter since your once favorite spot (the Salton Sea) no longer has fish to eat...Where do you go? You spy this place from overhead (Lake Hemet). Perhaps, they have some fish to eat.

Not bad! This is a pretty good spot to be but what about some other places since this place gets mighty cold in the winter and there aren't a lot of fish to go around.

Wow, this place is beautiful (Sunnylands Estate). You hear that some famous two-legged people hang out here at times (presidents, queens, kings, entertainers) but you really only care about some good, tasty fish.

You don't travel alone. It's much better to be with your buddy pelicans since you all catch fish better when you work together in unison. One, two, three... glide. Four, five, six... duck and open your huge beak. Yum!

You notice one of your fishing buddies has something on its wings. Mmmmm...

If you knew more about those two-legged humans, you would know that there are many who care a lot about where you choose to spend your future winters so they can help you and all the thousands of American White Pelicans who are needing to find new places to spend their winters now that the Salton Sea is no longer the best place to go.

Here is a note to you humans, if you have the opportunity to encourage the stocking of lakes, please do it. Plus, if you see a banded pelican or other bird, contact USGS at reportband.gov.

They will send you an appreciation certificate as well as information about the banded bird in thanks for your efforts.

It is pretty humbling to see the journey that this pelican has made from its initial home in Idaho to a desert oasis in southern California. Let's hope the other pelicans will find suitable places to spend their winters soon.

Click on photos to enlarge

Photos and content by Robin Roberts

A Night of Santa Ana Winds

 Tonight the strongest Santa Ana Winds that we have ever experienced are howling outside our home. Before moving here, we had never even heard of these powerful winds that arrive from the Great Basin area. If we were on the southeast coast, we would attribute these unrelenting winds to a tropical storm or hurricane. The electric company was right in their decision to turn off the electricity to prevent wildfires today. It's a pain to be without electricity and to have to relocate food from the refrigerator into ice-filled coolers but it certainly is worth the effort on a night like this. Our home is on a ridge so we feel every bit of the wind. Our home is shaking and even the water in the toilets is moving. Whoa! I've never seen that before. When the storm is over and the power returns, I plan on writing about some incredible birds that I saw this week but for now, the story is the wind! Here's to hoping the windows and trees hold strong through the night! We don't want to experience a blow out like we did at the lookout tower! Whew!