Three bird haiku by Celeste White, Photos by Jim Dowling.
Hummingbird Experience
I found a hummingbird on the ground where I live. I was afraid that the cats would harm it so I picked it up in the palm of my hand. It was alive but very still in my hand, giving me the opportunity to pet it and comfort it. The bird stayed in the palm of my hand for a short time. I walked with it (in my hand) inside my building and then transferred the hummingbird to an employee where I live. She walked with it (in the palm of her hand) through the hallway and outside where the hummingbird then flew away.
It was an incredible experience!
Camels In California?
Yes, there are camels in California! It all started when the U.S. Army at Camp Verde in Texas imported several hundred camels from Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece to deliver supplies to the arid Southwest. The United States was on the cusp of the Civil War, and southwestern California was strategic, but had various local groups with questionable allegiance to the Union. A detachment of thirty-one camels ended up at Fort Tejon at the northern end of the Tejon Pass, also known as the Grapevine in Kern County, California. It was the western terminus of the experimental U.S. Camel Corps. From June 24, 1854, to its abandonment on September 11, 1864, Fort Tejon was home to U.S. Dragoons followed by California Volunteer Troops, including companies of the 2nd California Volunteer Cavalry.
A Botanical County
Oso Flaco Lake
The Circus Is In Town
I am witness to some especially exciting hawk activity in the backyard this morning, along with a circus of dark-eyed juncos, mockingbirds, Black Phoebes, California Towhee’s, house finches, and squirrels. The hawk startles an adult squirrel, who has been camping out on the squirrel-proof feeder, sphinxlike, for nearly half an hour, into a sudden and urgent leap to safety in the neighbor’s magnolia grandiflora. The feeder swings madly back and forth from the shock.
The Los Angeles Cardinal
From the time I was a teenager, the Northern cardinal has held a special place in my heart. When my family was forced to move from Los Angeles to the mid-west when I was 15, I was heartbroken to leave my home. However, the first time I saw a bright red male Cardinal on a black iron fence against the stark white snow, I felt a sense of hope, renewal and peace. I cannot explain why. It was just a natural, emotional and spiritual response to this unique and beautiful bird in such a desolate, barren setting.
