Finding Mother Nature

NATURAL PERSPECTIVES

Mother Nature always seems to have some new sight to shock, startle

or delight us. On a recent weekend, Vic led a camping field trip in

the Big Bear area for his birding class from Friday until Saturday

noon, and then an Audubon trip from Saturday afternoon until Sunday

noon. I came along for the fun.

On the way up to the mountains, we stopped to meet graduate

student Tom Benson in his lab at Cal State San Bernardino. He’s

studying the genetics of pygmy nuthatches, cute little birds that

live mainly in the upper reaches of our local mountains. These birds

pick seeds out of pinecones and wedge them in the bark of a handy

tree, cracking the seeds open to get at the nutmeat inside.

Pygmy nuthatches don’t migrate and don’t travel far from their

homes. As pine forests have disappeared from the valleys in between,

the different populations have been isolated, each on their own

mountain. Tom will be determining how much genetic variation has

occurred in these isolated populations.

Vic and I reminisced about our days in the lab. The biggest change

in technology is that DNA sequencing is now automated. We had to

struggle with timers and water baths of different temperatures during

long nights in the lab. Tom just put his sample in the automated

machine and headed off with us to the mountains. Today’s graduate

students sure have it easy.

We set up our camp at the Heart Bar campground, met up with the

various members of the birding class, and drove off to bird for a few

hours. After dinner back at camp, Vic led the group on a late-night

owl prowl, also searching for whippoorwills. I decided that sitting

in my camp chair with a glass of wine and stargazing sounded more

fun, so I declined the nighttime hike in the woods. Good thing.

Following Vic’s advice, the group left the trail and promptly got

lost in the dark. I suppose “lost” is a relative term, since they did

manage to bushwhack their way back to camp eventually. I slept right

through their misadventure, but was awakened later by the pack of

coyotes that yipped and howled their way through camp.

The next morning, I again opted for the comforts of camp and hot

coffee while the hard-core birders trekked over hill and dale. They

were rewarded with rare birds such as hepatic tanager and calliope

hummingbird. I was quite satisfied with my morning’s labor. It

consisted of moving my comfy camp chair periodically in search of

shade as the sun traversed the deep blue sky.

At noon, there was a changing of the guard, so to speak. Vic’s

bird class headed home and were replaced by an Audubon group. Vic

took the new group out and I made more progress reading a novel. The

intense blue of the sky in the clear mountain air was a real contrast

to the pearly gray of our coastal sky. Living here by the beach, we

get so used to seeing sky the color of nonfat milk that we forget how

beautiful the sky can be. And a pine woodland sure smells better than

smog along the San Diego Freeway. By mid-afternoon the water in our

solar shower had heated up enough for me to have a refreshing shower,

followed by a nap in the tent.

The Audubon group had been warned by the bird class about Vic’s

nighttime owling expeditions, so they wisely set up camp chairs at

the edge of the campground to listen for whippoorwills and owls in

the meadows below. With a new moon and no city lights to obscure the

night sky, we gazed upward and pondered the distance in light years

to the billions and billions of stars above.

The next day, I decided to tag along on the morning field trip to

see the hepatic tanagers. You never know what you’re going to find on

one of Vic’s outings. There are always surprises. This trip’s shocker

was the remains of a dead rabbit wedged into a treetop by a hawk or

owl. We all gathered under the oak to gawk at the corpse, and were

startled by a red-shafted flicker flying out of its nest in the tree

trunk at face height.

After driving five miles on rough dirt forest service roads, we

forded a stream and parked. A short hike up an alpine meadow rewarded

us with sightings of many different birds and butterflies, plus a

red-tailed hawk carrying a hapless Merriam’s chipmunk in its talons.

We were certainly being treated to the harsh realities of life in the

wild.

Back at camp, we had lunch and went over the list of birds sighted

on the field trip. The group enjoyed the overnight camping trip so

much -- and so did we -- that we made plans to do it again next

summer.

We are blessed to live here in Huntington Beach, where we can

enjoy beaches, mountains and deserts all so close by. Pack a picnic

lunch -- or your camping gear if you’re so inclined -- and spend a

day in the wilds. Go see how blue the sky really is. Go remember how

many stars really fill the sky at night. Go visit Mother Nature. She

misses you.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].