BirdWatching

Just add water

Paso Robles, California, the heart of Central Coast wine country, receives about 14 inches of rain per year, mostly in the winter. My in-laws’ 5-acre ranch lies on the east side of town, so, the dry side. Ten inches of rain per year constitutes desert conditions, and the region west of Paso approaches this. As of December 2020, Paso had not received a drop of rain since April, when 1.59 inches fell.

It is dry, tinder-dry, and water in any form is

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from BirdWatching

BirdWatching1 min read
Final Frame
An adult Black-browed Albatross preens its fuzzy chick on a nest in January 2020 on Saunders Island, one of the Falkland Islands east of Argentina. Saunders is an Important Bird Area that is home to 11,000 pairs of Black-browed Albatross, four pengui
BirdWatching1 min read
Complex Coloring
We delight in the glittering plumage of hummingbirds, those iridescent colors produced by the nanostructure of the feathers’ flattened barbules with tiny air pockets. But, frustratingly, the colors we perceive depend on the triangulation of the bird,
BirdWatching1 min read
More To Read On BirdWatchingDaily.com
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently said it will protect the California Spotted Owl under the Endangered Species Act. The move comes after more than two decades of advocacy by environmental groups to protect the owl and its habitat. Bald Eagl

Related Books & Audiobooks