January 26, 2022 Las Virgenes Canyon

It's always great to post something when you have an amazing discovery or see interesting creatures. However, sometimes things don't work out and you find very little. Today was such a day, and it seems worthwhile to post something based on the condition of the habitat.

I went to one of my favorite areas, Las Virgenes Canyon and I saw very little on my 4 mile hike. In fact, it was very disappointing to see the habitat. While the initial trail into the area never has great habitat due to the amount of invasive plants, once you get past that, things usually pick up. You can also count on this location as having a little bit of water in some places most of the time, even during droughts.

I hadn't been to the area since our last big rainstorm and it appears that a combination of that storm along with all the dead and dying trees that were a result of the Woolsey fire in late 2018 as well as our recent strong winds, pretty much destroyed the two riparian habitats where I normally find a fair amount of wildlife.

Instead, the reeds in the creek bed were bent down and clogging the stream. Trees and limbs were down in several places, many of them small, but nevertheless, contributing to the general look of destruction. While there was water in some areas that normally are dry, that didn't seem to make up for the lack of wildlife in general. As you can see from the few photos posted, the trees (for instance the one on which the nuthatch is perched) in the riparian areas pretty much all look like that one--charred. Even some of the willows and valley oaks that seemed to have bounced back after the fire didn't look too good.

I'm hoping that we actually get more rain at some point this year and maybe some of the habitat will recover. That being said, I did see 5 red tailed hawks --a species that seems to be having a very good year as well as one Lewis's woodpecker, a species that is also having a good year.

Publicado el enero 26, 2022 10:43 TARDE por naturephotosuze naturephotosuze

Observaciones

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Bajapalos Pecho Blanco (Sitta carolinensis)

Observ.

naturephotosuze

Fecha

Enero 26, 2022 a las 11:07 MAÑANA PST

Descripción

Las Virgenes Canyon

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Carpintero de Lewis (Melanerpes lewis)

Observ.

naturephotosuze

Fecha

Enero 26, 2022 a las 12:06 TARDE PST

Descripción

Las Virgenes Canyon

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Aguililla Cola Roja (Buteo jamaicensis)

Observ.

naturephotosuze

Fecha

Enero 26, 2022 a las 12:05 TARDE PST

Descripción

Las Virgenes Canyon

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