Returning Home

After being under mandatory evacuation for 4 1/2 days, we were able to return home on Sunday,

 July 29th. Most residents in Idyllwild-Pine Cover were able to return to their homes but unfortunately, some people lost their homes.

The mountain views facing every direction except South are the same. The pink splashes of

  phos-check on South Ridge are a reminder that the firefighters battled the fire on the other side of that ridge.

 The first couple of days, we heard and saw helicopters constantly dumping water along the ridge.

Seeing the tower with our own eyes was a relief!

Facing South and Southeast is quite a different view. The first is facing South towards Baldy Mt. The other is on the edge of the transfer station.

The next photos are taken from our cul-de-sac. We are very grateful that the fire which could have approached us on a couple of directions was stopped from going up our hillside!

Early on the morning of the fire, I caught this migrating Rufous Hummingbird guarding his new favorite feeder. I don't know how long he hung around Idyllwild but he definitely decided to leave town before we returned.

He's been replaced by a local Anna's Hummingbird. It's great to see him totally oblivious to anything but other hummers that might try to take a sip.

The "lovebirds" that show up every afternoon on the nearby post returned before the sun went down yesterday.

Today, I saw my first Monarch butterfly of the year. It's reassuring to see life outside our door. The full reality of the impacts of the over 13,000- acre fire will not be known until we are able to drive down the highway into a severely burned area and when we are allowed to get back into the high country. For now, we are very grateful for what has survived!

Photos and content by Robin Roberts

Click on photos to enlarge

Tahquitz Fire Lookout Tower

This is our beloved lookout tower on Tahquitz Peak. It has been serving the community for 100 years. We are proud to be a part of the lookout team. We were just up there a few days ago ourselves. I painted the east catwalk which is facing the flames. From this spot, up at 8,846 feet, the lookout who was on duty spotted this horrible fire! It has reached our tower's doorstep. As my husband says, the tower and its flag are a symbol of our community's resilience. We hope it can continue to escape those engulfing flames! Our hearts are breaking at this photo that was sent our way.

As of Friday, July 27th the fire lookout tower still stands.


Source of photo unknown

Wildfire in the Mountains

Life can change in an instant. We have all heard that thought but we may not really think much about it until something happens. Today started out as just another day of unseasonably high temperatures. We had our blinds closed and the swamp coolers at full blast since it is all we can do to keep the 100 degree weather outside and not inside. Little did we know that an arsonist was setting a fire down the hillside from Idyllwild.

Hundreds of people in Idyllwild, either as professionals or volunteers, are vigilant every day trying to prevent against destructive, out of control wildfires! You can imagine how we all feel when a raging fire is threatening our homes and beloved wilderness because of someone's intentional actions!

For many hours, the fire was kept just at this ridge that we could see from our cul-de-sac.

 Sadly, the wildfire got out of control and started racing up another ridge.

This is the last photo that I took before we evacuated. A mandatory evacuation for all of Idyllwild soon followed. Please keep our firefighters in your prayers. They are working extremely hard in very dangerous conditions! We are trying to keep optimistic but we are very fearful over the loss of homes, including ours since it isn't very far from this fire, our quaint little town and our beloved wilderness.

Photos and content by Robin Roberts
Click on photos to enlarge.

Searching for Birds in the Sierra Mountains

Back to one of my very favorite parts of the country, the Eastern Sierra Mountains. We still haven't made it to the world-famous Yosemite. There are so many alternatives. The goal of this birding trip was to find lots of woodpeckers and to add a new bird sighting to our "list". It began with a return visit to little known Billy's Pond. It is a birding hotspot at certain times of the year.

There weren't many birds on this visit but we had a nice surprise when a Swainson's Hawk flew overhead. (Sorry, no photo of the hawk) We did see plenty of unpopular Bullfrogs and ...

...lots of sparkling dragonflies. 

Behind the museum in Independence, a statuesque Great Blue Heron perched on a tall piece of historic farm equipment early one morning. 

We returned to the waterfall at Mt. Whitney's portal hoping for the American Dipper that we found last year. If you remember, they nest behind waterfalls. The view was gorgeous but no dipper.

Next stop, Twin Lakes in Mammoth. Wow! What a beautiful spot to camp! We were looking for a reported Red Crossbill. We enjoyed the hike despite missing the bird.

Before heading up to Mono Lake, we stopped at a rest stop with our short bird list. When I got out of the car, I noticed 3 frozen people looking through binoculars. Yeah! This was a good sign! Strangers become friends instantly in the birding world. If you want to make some new friends and explore this beautiful world with others, join your local Audubon birding club. Back to the birders, they pointed out a variety of birds that were drinking water from this bird bath. This turned out to be an unexpected hotspot!

The beautiful White-headed Woodpecker, male and female Western Tanagers and Cassin's Finches took turns drinking water. 

Guess who these 2 birds are? Check out the beak. This is the bird we were chasing down unsuccessfully earlier in the day. Yep, they are Red Crossbills! Yahoo!!! This was our first sighting which means a new bird for the "list". Our new birding buddies shared a tip for a rare bird that had recently been sighted and off we went down the road again.

Remember, we were looking for woodpeckers, too. So off we went to a postburn forest that are attractive to woodpeckers. We found a nesting pair of Black-backed Woodpeckers as well as a few pairs of Lewis's Woodpeckers. 

Aspen trees attracted these Red-breasted Sapsuckers. 

On our final day of birding, we found this beautiful Mountain Bluebird. It was really hard to leave him and....

..the inspiring views.

We decided to follow the tip to find the rare bird sighting. The ebird report informed us that we needed to drive down this gravel road through the woods for miles and miles. I was pretty skeptical we would find it.

Luck was on our side! We found this male Grace's Warbler. 

This was the end of our 4-day birding journey. Time to drive home.

Whether you find a new or rare bird, it's fun getting out and trying! 

Click on photos to enlarge.

Photos and content by Robin Roberts.