"Tails" of a New Birder's Journey

Today I attended a second Nature Journaling event, sponsored by OC Parks and their “Let’s Go Outside” programs. This one took place at Clark Regional Park in Buena Park, not too far from me. This is also a park that I’ve never been to. It’s one of these OC parks with an artificial lake that looks perfectly manicured, and not quite real. However, it does have a nice interpretive center and a native plant garden.

I’m still in a birding slump. The temperatures have been increasing although they’re not bloody hot yet. I haven’t had any motivation to go outside either. So, this event was timely, forcing me to go outside by putting it on my schedule.

There were 4 participants–me and 3 young women from the local high school. The Park Ranger handed out some cool pamphlets including one from the Wild Wonder Foundation, which I’d never heard of. She also gave us some blank OC Park notebooks. I’ll never turn down free journals!

Since it was warm (low 80s) and the interpretive center was closed, the Ranger took us to some shady picnic tables. She gave an intro to Nature Journaling and then a warm-up exercise to draw a White Clover. It was a bit challenging as the Clover was more detailed than I would’ve liked and I have this fear of “messing it up.” Finally, I realized I wasn’t going to get all the details of the leaves “right” and so I winged it.

Then, the Ranger led us to the native plant garden. I found a California Poppy leaf on the ground and decided to sketch it for my next task. While I was sitting at a picnic table, I heard a Cassin’s Kingbird calling (chu-beer) and a kerfuffle of wingbeats. In the tree directly in front of me, a Cooper’s Hawk had tried to take down the Kingbird and failed (which I was happy not to witness). 

The Cooper’s Hawk sat in the tree for the longest time. An Anna’s Hummingbird buzzed by it. Then a Northern Mockingbird landed in the same branch, just a few feet away! The Hawk would occasionally call and I concentrated on its sound, a bit raspy and buzzy with a descending note. 

As I was sketching the Hawk, I realized that I felt much more relaxed, peaceful, calm, and less stressed–that the goal of nature journaling was being fulfilled. 

When the program was over, I did a little birding on the walk back to the car. I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch, which I don’t usually see in OC. I also saw an entirely blue and gray bird who gave me ID difficulties. Finally, I realized that it had to be a juvenile Western Bluebird who has not grown any of its rusty or rufous-colored feathers yet. 

I also spoke to a dog owner who let her dog (on a leash) run toward a flock of Mallards that was resting peacefully on the lawn. The Mallards scattered at the dog’s approach. A local birder with whom I chat via Instagram recently experienced the awfulness of witnessing an off-leash dog kill a baby Marmot. I don’t usually say anything to dog owners, and this wasn’t egregious, but it irked me. What right does this dog have to disturb an entire flock of Mallards who were just resting in the shade? 

I approached the dog owner, a young woman who was walking with an older woman. I said, “I was wondering why you let your dog scare those ducks away?” The woman looked surprised and said, “Oh, it’s my puppy’s first time going to a park.” So I said, “Maybe teach it not to chase wildlife?” And she said, “Okay, sorry.” I was surprised she was amenable to my suggestion since so many dog owners get defensive at any criticism of their dog’s behavior.