Big Morongo Canyon

Every birder that lives in Southern California has heard of Big Morongo Canyon. Every birder ought to go there. Libby and I made our first trip out there yesterday, and it was a lot of fun.

Big Morongo Canyon is one of the largest natural oasis in the California deserts. It's a 4.5 mile long creek formed by water seeping up from a fault line just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, and as such, is a magnet for desert animals seeking water. During migration, that includes birds. Basically, it's a bird magnet, and throughout the years people have been birding there, they've seen an amazing number of rare species - largely Eastern warblers - that have gone astray. It's well known as a usual place to see the unusual. There was one Black and White Warbler there while we were, but we were unable to find it.

It's also home to some breeding species unusual to Southern California. It has Summer Tanagers (the males are a brilliant red from head to tail), Vermilion Flycatchers (also brilliant red) and Brown-crested Flycatchers in numbers unrivaled anywhere else in California. It's the closest place to see some desert birds that you would otherwise have to visit Arizona for. It's also near where the Pacific birds meet their similar inland species. You can find both Nuttall's and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, for example.

Our trip was a delight. The temperature was mild, in the 70s all day, there was only an occasional wind gust, and the birds were fairly cooperative. We had over 50 species, though nothing rare, and two lifers - Dusky Flycatcher and Brown-crested Flycatcher. There were flycatchers everywhere, every field was full of Gray Flycatchers and Western Wood Pee-wees, with a sprinkling of Dusky, Hammonds, Pheobes, and both California Kingbirds. We had 11 species of flycatchers, with one possible Olive-sided Flycatcher that we didn't examine because we were eating lunch. That would have put us at 12, which is pretty amazing for California.

The oasis is also probably worth visiting in the Spring if you're not a birder. All of the trees' leaves were bright green. The Cottonwoods were shedding their cotton in the wind, and sitting in the shade surrounded by a dappled marshland was wonderful, especially when you looked through the trees at the scrubby brown hills. A recent fire has thinned the vegetation somewhat, but that only added to the charm because the plants are really recovering beautifully.