Snow at last! Although most of it has melted in town, the mountain peaks are still covered in white. "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...."
For 115 years, Christmas Bird Counts have been held throughout the US. Tomorrow we will be participating in our first Audubon CBC in Idyllwild. Our goal is to count as many birds as possible in one day. We will keep a record of the furry animals we encounter as well.
Over the last few days we have been looking for good places to count birds. Some birds like the Acorn Woodpecker are pretty easy to spot since they live in groups and loudly greet each other.
Others like the Hermit Thrush take more searching since they are pretty quiet in the winter and hang out in underbrush.
Then there is the challenge of not being fooled by great imitators like the Steller's Jay who can imitate a variety of birds including the Red-shouldered Hawk.
Merriam's Chipmunks have a call they do while wagging their tails that sounds like a mystery bird calling in the woods.
We are hoping to catch another glimpse of the Varied Thrush which is a rare visitor to Idyllwild. We were shocked to see 3 of them in a tree after the snow had just fallen.
We were equally surprised to see this Raven with a funky beak. Not sure how he eats!
Whatever other wildlife we see is a bonus. Today we saw 3 coyotes in a grassy meadow. One leaped in the air before pouncing on its prey.
We also saw 5 Mule Deer. Instead of fleeing in the woods which they normally do, one of the adult females groomed a younger deer who seemed to enjoy it a lot!
No matter how many birds we see, it will be great to spend the day outdoors.
