Opinion |

Spring has sprung on Mt. Hoo

Spring seemed impatient this year.

It arrived here on Mt. Hoo like someone flipped a switch.

The normal events of spring often unfold slowly, but this year the colorful orioles, the wren nesting cycle, glorious wildflower blooms and even the tiny bushtits all showed up around the same time.

It’s likely the result of two winters, now, where we’ve had lots of rain spread out over several months.

This is also why today’s column will be a “this-and-that” report, since there is so much to talk about.

Some of our winter migrants are still here, but the summer birds have arrived, and a few little things can help attract them to your home, bringing hours of joy as they feed in your gardens.

Food is always important, but so is cover and water.

Even on an apartment balcony you can attract hummingbirds and orioles with nectar feeders. I recommend the First Nature, 32-ounce oriole feeders, since both hummers and orioles will eagerly use them.

Fill them with fresh nectar made from one part sugar and four parts water.

Seed feeders will attract doves, finches, scrub jays, California and spotted towhees, quail and lesser goldfinch.

Adding a fountain or ground water saucer to your garden will be an additional attraction since birds love to bathe and drink during the warm days of summer. Bathing is also an important way for birds to maintain their feathers.

A ground saucer will often be used by roadrunners and towhees, and it’s incredibly cute when adult quail show up with a covey of their fuzzy little chicks to play in the water.

Cover is also important, giving birds a place to hide if danger arrives, like a marauding Cooper’s hawk looking for lunch.

A healthy landscape filled with a variety of plants will also offer insects, snails, snakes, small lizards and similar food that will attract birds who are not seed eaters.

Nesting house wrens

For the past several years, I have reported on the annual nesting cycle of house wrens that have annually adopted a tiny nest box we have in our yard.

Like clockwork, our first singing male arrived on the first day of spring to fill the morning air with his enthusiastic and hopeful song.

As readers may recall, we have a small camera installed in the nest box that has allowed us to follow the nesting cycle.

In previous years, we cleaned the nest box after eggs had hatched and chicks fledged. I decided not to do that at the conclusion of last season’s nesting cycle.

In past years, the singing male brought prospective nesting partners to show them the empty nest box.

If the female accepted the offer, she began building the nest. I was anxious to see what would happen inside the box containing last year’s nest.

There was a flurry of activity lasting two days when a wren methodically cleaned out old feathers, droppings and dead insects, leaving behind a sparkling nest ready for the next brood, and likely the female was tucked inside during the latest cold, rainy and hailing night.

You can follow the nesting cycle on the “Updates from Mt. Hoo” Facebook page.

If you build or purchase a wren nest box, make sure the entry hole is no larger than 1.25 inches. This allows wrens entry, but keeps larger, predator birds from getting inside.

Cute little visitors

Bushtits are San Diego’s smallest songbirds and rank right up there in cuteness. They are resident birds, often arriving in local gardens in flocks of several dozen to glean small insects and spiders from plants.

Each spring, however, they pair up and begin searching for suitable nesting sites.

It’s about now that they arrive at Mt. Hoo, often perching on an extended branch from a hedge adjacent to our window.

Like the wren, these cute little birds showed up as spring arrived, letting us know they were here by tapping on our bedroom window.

While I’d like to think they were letting us know they had arrived, it’s more likely they were simply basking in their own reflections.

Wildflowers

There’s been a lot of media on blooming wildflowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert, but you don’t have to go that far for a spectacular show of color.

San Diego’s chaparral forests, often referred to as brush, is filled with woollyleaf ceanothus or mountain lilac that are now bursting in full bloom with clusters of tiny blue to purple flowers that are painting the hillsides with a colorful haze.

During wet years, they put on a colorful display for several weeks in the spring, and this is one of those years.

Soon, the local wildflower blooms will spread to higher elevations with roadsides to Mount Palomar, Julian and Mount Laguna colored with clusters of lupines, monkey flowers or California poppies.

Volunteers sought

Spring is also a good time to be thinking about ways for nature lovers to get outdoors, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has an offer for you.

The DFW is looking for Natural Resource Volunteers to work in the San Diego County area.

Volunteers are trained to assist biologists and wildlife officers, respond to calls for help from residents encountering wildlife issues, habitat conservation, proctoring licensing examinations for falconry and trapping as well as Hunter Education classes.

Volunteers must be able to work at least one day a week, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Participants will also serve as conservation coaches and educators trained to work with the public, participating in and promoting a variety of wildlife conservation programs. Training is “on the job” and takes approximately six months and will include the annual Southern California Training Academy.

For additional information, contact Bob Gaskin at [email protected].

Cowan is a freelance columnist. Email [email protected] or visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com.