Date: 8/20/25 8:30 pm From: <tgmiko...> via groups.io <tgmiko...> Subject: [LACoBirds] Blue Ridge Road birds/fire damage
Hi, This weekend I wanted to go up to Table Mountain to look for various bird species, including one of my favorite birds, Clark's Nutcracker (I found some), but driving up Highway 2 I was curious as to whether or not the yellow metal gate was still closed, keeping people from driving up towards the now non-existent Grassy Hollow visitor center. It turned out that the gate is open and you can drive quite a bit up the 2. After confirming that the Grassy Hollow Visitor Center no longer exists, I found that I could drive on the dirt road that goes to Blue Ridge Campground. I did not drive all the way to the campground at all. I was surprised to find that the condition of the road itself was pretty good. I was in my Prius C and there was another dude driving one of those little Subaru WRX sports cars that had zero clearance. I only drove in less than a mile on the road and parked and walked around and I was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of birds. Numerous normal mountain bird species were feeding babies. There were also numerous flowering plants, butterflies, European honey bees, and three species of rodents (the cute ones). I was hoping for Dusky Flycatcher and Black chinned Sparrow but then again I went up there at 4:00 in the afternoon. So perhaps those species are actually there, and it also doesn't help that I went there in mid-August, instead of being up there in the spring. I definitely will return here next spring for those two species and more. I intend to return here earlier than that, during the winter to see if I find something like a Golden crowned Kinglet. The other sort of almost pleasant surprise was that while, yes, there is extensive damage and many thousands of dead conifers, I'm guessing here, but 20 or 30% of the conifers survived the fire. There are extensive stands where if you randomly park and look in a certain direction, you would think that every single tree in the entire Mount Baldy area has been burned to death. But, like Mark Twain, rumors of their death have been greatly exaggerated. Of course, the amount of time (measured I assume in decades) that would take for a lot more conifers to grow back will take longer than I have left on this planet (you never know, so far I've outlived a lot of my male family members so maybe I'll get lucky) but I felt a certain level of hopefulness while I was standing there. One thing that might factor in is global warming might not be so conducive to all of those firs and pines growing back. If anybody feels like cross-posting this to the Los Angeles WhatsApp group, you have my permission. Tom Thomas Geza Miko Claremont, LA County 909.241.3300
