Galileo, Jawbone Canyon and Red Box Station - December 31st, 2004

Although the birds were on the light side, I enjoyed exploring Galileo Hill. The cave pictured (right) would have been a great place to take a nap if it weren't covered with rodent droppings.

No sooner had I seen my three New England target birds over the holidays than I began exploring my options for the last day of my Big Year. I could fly to Seattle and try for the Redwing in Olympia and the Baikal Teal (origin unknown) in Kent and maybe even have time for the McKay's Bunting at the Vancouver airport, but I couldn't find an affordable or timely flight. I could fly or drive to Oakland to look for the Lake Merrit Tufted Duck and follow up on a stale report of Nelson's Sharpt-tailed Sparrow. Or I could drive to Arizona where there was an unconfirmed report of a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher at Patagonia SP along with the Hammond's Flycatchers and Black-capped Gnatcatchers I had missed all year. Plus, Grasshopper Sparrow and Spotted Owl and even Baird's Sparrow and Dickcissel weren't out of the question. This seemed to be the best option, but it would require an all night drive to Tucson within hours of arriving back in LA and would require me to be away for New Year's eve. Still, I decided to go for it.

All it took was a delayed flight for me to have to change plans again. I decided to spend the day at Galileo Hill in the Mojave Desert looking for Chukar and then try for Spotted Owl near Red Box Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains that night. After catching up with Courtney for a few hours, I finally got to sleep at 1 AM and awoke at 4:30. I checked the weather report and was dismayed to learn that there would be a heavy rain in the desert. Still, I dragged myself up to Galileo and arrived just before 8 AM. The rain wasn't too bad for the first hour but then steadily picked up until it become difficult to continue. After almost three hours, I hadn't seen anything resembling a Chukar. In fact, White-crowned Sparrows, Common Ravens and a single Red-tailed Hawk were about all I saw trudging around the hill.

I packed up and drove to Jawbone Canyon which leads to Butterbredt Springs, a well known migrant trap in Spring. The rain was gone, but I now had to compete with hundreds of off-road enthusiasts as I walked the hills looking for Chukar in vain. As it started to sink in that I would most likely see no new birds for the year, I started to feel a bit melancholy. I thought back on my year and all of the great experiences I had and felt as though I was diminishing the entire adventure with such a lackluster final day. I decided to drive home through the mountains just to feel as though I weren't giving up, but the pass was closed (Why do they let you drive all the way up to the closure before turning you back instead of posting a sign at the base of the road?). I snapped this picture as a symbol of what I thought was the official end of my year.

The desert was full of these RV colonies where dirt bikes, ATV's and Dune Buggies zipped back and forth. Later, my plans were thwarted by a road closure.

I returned home feeling somewhat defeated. Courtney had spent the day finalizing a major project that had kept her exhausted and I resigned myself to a night of TV. Courtney pleasantly surprised me when she said, at 9 PM, "You still have three hours left. Where can we go where you might see a new bird?" We checked the internet and saw that Red Box was indeed accessible from the Los Angeles side and off we went.

For several hours, we listened intently for a Spotted Owl with no luck. However, we did hear a Great Horned Owl and that seemed just as special to us both. When the clock struck midnight, I felt a great sense of fulfillment at having finished the year in the field, especially with Courtney. I can not express how happy I was that Courtney had encouraged this last adventure of the year.