Watching birds from your own backyard is a great way to meet your feathered neighbors. During migration, when an unfamiliar bird shows up, you can grab your binoculars, field guide or bird app and investigate the newcomer.
"Going birding" is the next step. First, you need to climb out of bed at o'dark thirty so you can get to your destination early. Remember, the early birder gets more birds.
Nestled next to Thomas Mt, Lake Hemet is a fantastic place to find new and familiar birds in the San Jacinto Mountains.
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| Lake Hemet |
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| Salton Sea |
When you are in the high country looking out over the land, there are only a handful of bodies of water. It's easy to see why some migrating birds would pick Lake Hemet to refuel on their journey to the Salton Sea and beyond.
The month of October has been a great month at the lake. Early in the month, the Coffeeberry bushes were full of berries and hungry birds.Yellow-rumped warblers and Phainopeplas were everywhere!
White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows out number those birds now.
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| Caspian Tern |
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| Osprey |
Caspian Terns flying over the lake were a common sight for a couple of weeks but they moved on and were replaced by a couple of Ospreys.
It is amazing to find a bird you are least expecting when you go birding. Seems that this is the season for Lewis's Woodpeckers. They are irruptive migrants so they do not show up every year. This is the first sighting of them for me at Lake Hemet since moving here! It's been fantastic!
Another new bird for me this month at the lake was this feisty Merlin that chased a few pink-bellied woodpeckers while we were there recently. It certainly interrupted their storing of acorns.
Looking at photos is nothing like finding the bird yourself! For me, it's like going on a treasure hunt. Hope you grab a pair of binoculars and find your own birds in your "patch" where ever that may be.
"Many people think of birding as a passive pastime. No! That's bird watching. Birding is an active pursuit full of unknowns and excitement. To me, there's nothing better than a healthy dose of birding on the edge." James Currie When Eagles Roar
Click on photos to enlarge
Photos and content by Robin Roberts
