Ernie's Great Outdoors

ERNIE COWAN   Union-Tribune  Outdoors WOODPECKER LEADS TO ANOTHER ‘SIT AND SEE’ SESSION It all began with a snake in the grass and ended with a bird in hand. I had not planned on spending any time observing nature. In fact, I was returning from a trip to the desert when I spotted a relatively rare Lewis’s woodpecker dancing between trees near Lake Henshaw. I couldn’t pass up this opportunity, so I grabbed my camera and slipped under the barbed wire fence. I didn’t want to walk the quarter mile to the gate and back, fearing Mr. Woodpecker would be gone. I was well aware that the tall, spring grass is a rattlesnake haven. Conditions were perfect. Grass to my knees, temperatures in the high 70s and soft afternoon light. My mind was convinced that somewhere in this field of grass there was a buzztail lurking and just waiting to terrorize me. I left footprints in the grass as I moved closer to the cluster of oak and sycamore trees with high hopes of getting a good...

ERNIE COWAN  Union Tribune  Outdoors GOLDEN MEADOW BRINGS BACK FOND MEMORY OF WEDDING “All that glitters is not gold.”  That famous quote kept going through my mind as I walked into the autumn meadow that was painted in the golden hues of late afternoon sunshine. The tips of the flaxen grass were glittering like an overflowing treasure trove of pure gold. The greens of spring and early summer had long since faded, replaced by beauty gold cannot buy.  I was hiking on Palomar Mountain when I pushed through pines and oaks into this lovely meadow. Gathering clouds were bringing a chill, but the setting sun was holding out as long as it could. I was near the end of my hike, but could not resist the urge to just pull up a rock and sit for a while. Beauty like this should be mentally stolen and kept as long as possible. What better place than this to enjoy one of my sit and  see adventures, where I spend at least one stationary hour simply watchi...

E RNIE COWAN   Outdoors MOUNTAIN LION, FOX APPEAR AT LATEST ADVENTURE At first there was only sound. Through the chilly morning darkness came the yelping of a distant coyote. Imperceptibly, the darkness began to transform into a flat gray, allowing me to see the natural world around me. In this soft light, however, vision was more imagination than reality. The first movement was a gliding hawk, silhouetted against a brightening morning sky with spring clouds ignited by the rising red sun. I was on one of my sit and see adventures, where I pick an interesting place to simply sit for at least an hour and observe the natural world around me. This morning, I had chosen a little canyon with a small stream running through it in the foothills east of Lake Henshaw. This is grassland, dotted with stately live oaks and filled with deer, bobcats, coyotes, hawks, and even mountain lions. I learned about the mountain lion when I left the warmth of my truck to hike to  my ...

ERNIE COWAN   Outdoors Summer ushers in the beginning of meteor-watching season d There is something quite peaceful and humbling about a star-filled sky on a clear, moonless night. Adding the flash of a streaking meteor is like the final note of a captivating symphony. There are big and little meteor showers throughout the year, but I consider summer the beginning of meteor season because the evenings are warm and pleasant, the brilliant Milky Way hangs in the night sky and it’s just more pleasant to be outside. Unlike many activities, there is nothing more than a folding chair or blanket required to become a full participant, so pack a picnic dinner, head out to a dark sky location and enjoy the view. One of the brighter annual meteor showers is the Perseids arriving next month. Tiny bits of debris from the Swift-Tuttle Comet will enter our atmosphere, producing up to 100 meteors per hour for several nights, peaking on the night of Aug. 12-13. This year a bright...

County’s second most common bird moves fast and avoids the limelight BY ERNIE COWAN Union Tribune  The characteristic “witchetywitchety” song confirmed what I was looking for, but I just couldn’t spot it. The colorful little common yellowthroat is another one of those birds that you are initially more likely to hear than see. Despite its bright yellow and olive colors, and the male’s bold, black facemask, the yellowthroat typically hangs out in dense thickets of brush or rushes at the edge of marshes or ponds. They tend to bounce around quickly, not spending much time in one place. Sometimes you just need to be patient to get that flash of color and a good look. Despite my efforts to locate this singing bird, I wasn’t having any luck, but he continued to sing and I continued to scan the tangled thickets for a glimpse of Mr. Yellowthroat. A movement made me glance up, and there he was, uncharacteristically out in the open, pouring his heart out with a spring melo...

ERNIE COWAN  Union-Tribune Outdoors   Looking south over San Diego County from the summit of Toro Peak  TORO PEAK VIEWS RECALL MEMORABLE ADVENTURES I climbed a mountain last week, not simply for the spectacular view, but to survey the landscape I’ve wandered for most of my life. The highest mountain in San Diego is a little over 6,000 feet, but just a few miles north into Riverside there is a mountain nearly 9,000 feet tall that offers a commanding view of San Diego County. Toro Peak is part of the Santa Rosa Plateau and stands guard over Borrego Springs to the south and Palm Springs to the north. Ona clear day you can stand at the summit and see from the Salton Sea, south into Mexico and west to the Pacific Ocean. Mountains that I have climbed, like Cuyamaca Peak, Stonewall, Hot Springs, Sunset, Black, Sombrero, Whale and Angel, were easy to pick out on  this clear day.  Gazing out over the vast, curdled landscape, I was not seeing nameless mountains and ...

ERNIE COWAN   Union-Tribune Outdoors SMELLS OF NATURE BRING BACK THE DAYS OF SUMMERS PAST As spring teeters on the fulcrum of summer, it’s the smells of nature that ignite the most vivid memories. A recent drive through the Cuyamaca Mountains was filled with the fragrances that brought back memories of my summer of emancipation. Pine trees, damp summer meadows, the delicate scent of wildflowers, campfires and even fresh air were the accelerants that ignited the fires of  vivid memories.  My 16th summer was spent working as a senior Boy Scout at Camp Hual-Cu-Cuish near Julian. Tucked into the oaks and pines at the edge of a broad meadow, it was home for several glorious weeks. I was there as free labor to greet arriving young Scouts, watch over them in the swimming pool, lead hikes, or supervise games of Capture the Flag in the golden meadow below the camp. This was my first time away from home for an extended period and my last summer before becoming fully emancipated by ...

BACKYARD  BIRD-WATCHING TAKE A CRACK AT THE GREAT NUTHATCH HUNT BY ERNIE COWAN Getting kids interested in birdwatching might be as simple as adding a little excitement. And what could be more exciting than the Great Nuthatch Hunt of 2017? Spring is the perfect time to grab those binoculars, put on comfortable hiking shoes and head east to our oak woodlands and pinewoods in search of nuthatches. There is even a bonus bird for the overachiever. There are three nuthatch species found in San Diego County, and they range from relatively common and easy to find to somewhat rare and more challenging. The beginning nuthatch hunter should easily locate the white-breasted nuthatch. This is the largest of the three species, but it’s hardly large, measuring slightly less than 6 inches in length. As the name implies, it has a distinctive white breast that extends up and around the eyes, and a black cap that extends to gray-blue feathers on the back. This year-round native is the most widely di...

ERNIE COWAN  Outdoors SIT BACK AND ENJOY NATURE’S ANNUAL SPRING PARADE It may not be marching bands and floats, but nature’s annual spring parade is about to begin as longer days and warmer weather awaken San Diego’s backcountry from its winter chill. A drive into the oak woodlands or pine-covered mountains will give you a hint of things to come. Fields are painted in brilliant green; blankets of tiny yellow goldfields are starting to carpet grassy meadows like paint slowly spreading from a spilled bucket, and daffodils are lining the highways to Julian like a cheerful welcoming committee. Migrating orioles have returned to local backyard feeders, and just about every critter from spiders to coyotes is pairing up. Doves are gathering nesting material and fuzzy grebe chicks are already riding on the backs of parent birds at Lake Hodges. Shiny black cormorants are already raising their featherless, black chicks, and soon gulls will be tending  eggs then fuzzy, spotted hatchlings...

DESERT OFFERS PRISTINE VIEWING OF MILKY WAY San Diego’s spring desert wildflower show may have been out of this world, but an even more unworldly show is soon to arrive in the dark night sky of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. March means that the spectacular display of star clouds known as the Milky Way arrives just before dawn in the dark desert sky. As spring turns to summer, the Milky Way rises a bit later each night, traveling across the heavens in one of America’s greatest dark sky locations. By July the shifting heavens will begin the nightly show around 9 p.m. and by late August the Milky Way will be almost directly overhead at the same hour. By fall, the Milky Way will be setting shortly after sunset. Summer crowds will be nothing like the hordes that swarmed spring wildflower fields, but you will be surprised at the number of people in the desert on the dark sky weekends when the moon is not affecting stargazing. If you are prepared for summer heat and have an off-road vehicle...

It would be hard to over estimate the beauty of this year's wildflower bloom in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.