John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019-
It was the first day of winter. It felt like winter but still looked like autumn. Christmas was a few days away and I knew with the forecast that it would feel like spring by the time I arrived at my parents. Like Irving Berlin in 1940 on that 80-degree Southern California winter’s day, I also dreamt of a white Christmas.
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- For me, in my youth, I always began thinking of autumn as something in relation to football and Thanksgiving. Now as an adult and birder, the season begins with migration in August. On the morning of the 16th a steady stream of Upland Sandpipers called above on their journey south. It was as if they were attempting to pull the sun lower in the sky and shorten the days toward autumn behind each subsequent wave.
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- It is a place that you wake at 0100 for so you can arrive before sunrise. At dawn, you set out on the trail, the day’s trailblazer, the brim of your hat cobwebbed. Canyon Wrens great the day with song. An elk bugles in the distance.
John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019- I have always found irony in that on the summer solstice, when the sun reaches its northern most location in the sky, it provides the longest amount of daylight during the course of a year and that the subsequent days get shorter, yet hotter as we long for fall by late August.
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- I never really looked forward to spring being a lover of winter’s cooler air. Then I got into birding and in turn began paying attention to the natural world. I now look forward to the plant’s subtle signs they are awakening from their winter slumber, the behavioral changes of the resident birds, and for the arrival and passing through of neotropical migrants to our area.
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- It was a warm and windy Fourth of July. As I approached the pond, the sound of Chimney Swifts and their successful broods greeted me. Arriving at the pond, I hoped to see the fledgling Yellow-crowned Night-Herons exploring for the first time.
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- There alone, was an approximately three-week-old nestling Night-Heron on the ground.
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019 – By the second weekend of May I anticipated finding evidence of hatchling or nestling stage herons. When attempting to find evidence that the eggs have hatched, I look for many things.
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019 – “Sometimes I don’t. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.”- Sean O’ Connell- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019 – As April entered its first week, the moon was destined to intercept our line of sight to the sun, as were the Night-Herons for each other. April is possibly my favorite month in this location because of the sensations of spring, the smells and sounds.
