The first wildflowers (like this Milkmaid) are blooming, the finches and sparrows are eating willow buds, and the first Allen's Hummingbird has returned. Spring must be near? No, I am living in coastal southern California and it is January 17. We do have four seasons (honest) - wet (winter), windy (spring), foggy (summer), and dry and mostly sunny (fall). It is wet now and all of the above things are happening.
I dash out to the seabird lookout (see map) at Montana de Oro on my bike - to get some birding in before the approaching storms. I pedal and a neighbor birder and his beginning birder friend meet me in their car. It is a beautiful spot, but the wind and prolonged observation of different colored specks that have different shapes and flight patterns is not the stuff to excite a beginning birder for long. Pacific Loons are streaming by to the south with Common Murres and a Rhino Auklet (new BIGBY). A nearby otter eating shell fish on its stomach and being harassed by a Western Gull provides some entertainment. We leave after less than an hour to try a quick hike at Coon Creek where it begins to rain and the birds are quiet. I then experience one of the downsides of bicycle birding - pouring rain.
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