San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Spring is an excellent time to venture into nature and explore
Spring seems like such an inadequate word for this time of the year.
If you are a nature lover, there needs to be something more glorious to the name for this season of renewal.
Temperatures are mild, days are getting longer, fresh green grass paints meadows and trail sides with brilliant color, migratory birds are passing through or arriving until fall, and there is the buzz of courtship as animals prepare to fulfill their programmed destiny.
It’s simply a spectacular time to be outdoors and observing, and there is something for just about everyone.
One day I noticed ladybugs feeding on aphids on the budding leaves of rosebushes, and my morning alarm clock is an eager house wren belting out his lilting tune to attract a female. The tiny camera is ready in our wren nestbox and soon we will hopefully be following the progress of a new crop of baby wrens.
In no particular order, here are a few things I encountered in the past few days that offer the nature observer some wonderful opportunities.
The road has been repaired and vehicles once again have access to La Jolla Cove where Brandt’s cormorants are nesting just a few feet beyond the walkway. Visitors have an intimate view of eggs and young chicks.
With their breeding colors of a blue throat and sapphire-blue eyes, the adult birds are beautiful in the morning sunlight.
The nests of cormorants are nothing more than a loose pile of seaweed on the edge of the cliff. Some are still building nests, several birds are tending eggs, and a few chicks have already hatched.
Rattlesnakes have also become more active as days get longer and temperatures warm.
The San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy has joined with the Southwestern Field Herping Association to offer a free rattlesnake safety class.
Geared for adults only, the class will provide indepth information on identifying dangerous snakes locally and what to do if they are encountered.
The 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. class will be held March 21 at the Del Mar Branch Library, 1309 Camino Del Mar. Registration is required at sdrvcrattlesnakesafety2020.eventbrite.com.
For additional information, contact Ana Lutz at ana@sdrvc.org or (858) 755-6956.
This is the season for wildflowers in the arid expanses of Anza-borrego Desert State Park.
Early rains brought wetter than normal storm totals but did not continue throughout the winter. The result appears to be an average wildflower year.
There is a beautiful display of bright yellow brittlebush blossoms along the highway into Borrego Springs, and a blanket of desert dandelions is carpeting the desert floor around the community.
Patches of purple sand verbena or magenta monkey flowers can be found, along with blooming red ocotillo, but the vast fields of blooms like last spring are not expected. Desert lilies are early this year, already in bloom in the badlands around Font’s Point.
This wildflower season can be better described as a discovery year rather than a “superbloom” with flowers everywhere.
Visitors to California’s largest state park can still enjoy lots of color and varied flower species, but they will have to explore various areas to do it.
Progress of the spring bloom is reported daily on the Anza-borrego Wildflower
Hotline at (760) 767-4684.
If you are planning a desert visit, you might consider adding the annual Borrego Hawkwatch to your itinerary.
Hawkwatch began 18 years ago when birders realized that Borrego Springs was on the migratory route of Swainson’s hawks that pass through every spring on their long journey from South America to as far north as the Arctic Circle.
Borrego Springs is an important way station, providing good roosting locations and often an excellent source of food when large, juicy, green caterpillars arrive during the spring wildflower bloom.
When birds launch each morning to continue their journey, as many as a thousand hawks can fill the sky as they gather in a rising, circulating column.
Hawkwatch organizer Hal Cohen said this year’s reduced spring flower bloom could mean fewer Swainson’s passing through the region.
“We will not have a major flower bloom and with it the caterpillars. Our expectation is for an average hawk migration of around 5,000 Swainson’s hawks,” Cohen said.
Typically, the peak number of birds arrives during mid-march.
Observers at count sites are welcome.
Counters gather daily each evening through the end of March about an hour before sunset on a dune 1.8 miles north of Palm Canyon Drive on Borrego Valley Road.
Each morning counters meet at 8 a.m. on a raised mound 2.8 miles north of Palm Canyon Drive on Digiorgio Road. Most often the migrating hawks and vultures depart the valley on their northward journey between 8 and 9:15 a.m.
I still don’t have any good ideas for another name for spring. Send me your suggestions.