NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:Merry Christmakwanzanukah to all

We are so not ready for Christmas.

Because we’re still in the throes of moving and painting our various home offices, the living room and family rooms are filled with boxes and boxes of books. Not much sense in trying to put up a Christmas tree in the midst of all that mess.

Several months ago, Vic started our home clean-up and renovation by working on the garage storage space. He bought and assembled storage racks, and we put things in boxes and put boxes on shelves. It looked great.

But here’s the kicker. I live in chaos. I can manage chaos. I knew where things were in the chaos.

I have no idea where things went when we reorganized. It looks neat, but I can’t find my stuffed Christmas snowman that goes in the front entryway. We did manage to find our hip-swinging Santa and our more traditional Santa that goes in the dining room, so we’ve made a token move toward decorating for Christmas. In the futile search for the snowman, I uncovered the sack of Christmas cards that we bought last year and never sent out. We’re hopeless.

You are probably done with your shopping. You probably mailed out your cards long ago. I’m still working on our Christmas letter and haven’t even thought about presents for the family.

You probably have baked dozens of Christmas cookies. We’ve eaten dozens at various holiday parties. Hey, at least we have lots of poinsettias on the porch this year. But they need water.

We blame our lack of holiday preparations partly on the busy lives we lead. On Friday, I attended a Christmas party at the Orange County Conservation Corps. Staff members and board members bought presents for the children of Corps members. To me, the Corps members are still kids. But, in fact, many of them are parents. In minimum-wage jobs, they have trouble just housing, feeding and clothing their families, so Christmas presents for their children are very welcome. I got presents for five of the little ones.

Corps members who brought or made an ornament for the Christmas tree were entered into a raffle for some nifty donated prizes. This year, the Corps arranged for gift certificates to restaurants, gift cards for variety stores and a grand prize of a DVD player.

Christmas or not, we’re always working to set up Corps members in their new households, especially the ones who have been homeless. This past year, I was able to donate a twin bed and a sofa bed to two Corps members who had been sleeping on the floor. Dave and Margaret Carlberg donated a nice Sony television.

Staff members are working on getting a twin bed donated for yet another Corps member who is sleeping on the floor. He helps support his mom, but there isn’t enough money left over to buy food sometimes, much less furniture.

Vic has been busy, too. Last weekend was count day for the annual Audubon Christmas bird census for inland Orange County. He signed up for a night of owling. Vic and several others met at midnight and drove up Silverado Canyon to listen for owls until dawn.

Vic asked if I wanted to go along. If you remember, we were in the midst of a cold winter storm on Saturday. I pictured the mountain road up Silverado Canyon. It’s one lane of gravel, potholes and steep dropoffs. It crosses the creek several times with no bridges. There wasn’t even going to be a moon out to light the way. And it was pouring rain. I considered it for one millisecond before declining.

The entire night of owling in the rain and snow netted them one tiny hoot out of a Northern saw-whet owl. They also located two barn owls, 10 great-horned owls and 13 Western screech-owls, about half the usual number found on Christmas count in that area.

They didn’t find a spotted owl or a long-eared owl, both possible in Orange County.

Vic had to leave the bird census takers at mid-morning because we needed to go to San Diego for our twin grandbabies’ first birthday party. The rest of the birders soldiered on without sleep until dinnertime, when they gathered to add up the number of bird species and individuals.

The Audubon bird count for coastal Orange County is scheduled for New Year’s Eve this year. We’ll both be up before dawn to count birds in parts of Huntington Beach and Westminster. Terry Hill will be leading a group that counts birds at Bolsa Chica that day. Vic’s territory includes the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge and Westminster Memorial Park.

The neat thing about the Audubon Christmas census is that, over the years, it gives a good picture of trends in bird populations. We’ve seen spotted doves decline and disappear entirely in our area. We’ve seen crow populations first burgeon and then shrink as the West Nile virus reduced their numbers. And we’ve seen populations of Western sandpipers increase with restoration at Bolsa Chica. During the 1980s, counts hovered at around 10,000. Those numbers have gone up to 15,000 to 16,000 in recent years.

There is always something new in nature, always something beautiful or interesting to see. And that is the greatest gift of all — a healthy environment for humans and wildlife alike. We hope that you have a Merry and Happy Christmakwanzanukah.