It has been a very busy month for me. I am taking a couple of nature and art related classes. It is always rewarding to enrich my knowledge and skills. We finally got some badly needed rain. It rained out my butterfly count and a couple of other plans. However, I enjoyed watching the rain and the birds and squirrels through my back door, even the squirrel that thwarted my bird feeder, and pulled the stuffing from my patio furniture, presumably for its nest.

Starting January 1, I started a new Year List for Birds. I organized my second annual LB100. Ten people saw over 100 species of birds in 10 parks in Long Beach in a 10 hour birding marathon. That started the year off right. While I ventured as far as Playa del Rey, most of my birding was in or close to Long Beach for the entire month. I didn't have to go very far and yet saw birds from several habitats. Here are just a few highlights:

• Mountain Birds visiting for the Winter: Red-naped and Red-breasted Sapsucker, Dark-eyed Juncos including a less often seen Gray-headed subspecies
• Lost in Migration and other less often seen birds: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Vermillion Flycatcher, Black-and-White Warbler, White-throated Sparrow, Tropical Kingbird, Palm Warbler, American Redstart
• Dessert Birds: White-winged Dove, Verdin
• City Park and Backyard Birds (and returning winter birds): Black Phoebe, Northern Mockingbird, Sharp-shinned Hawk (wet from the rain in my yard), Cedar Waxwings
• Freshwater Wetlands Birds: American Bittern, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Hooded Merganser, Red-winged Blackbird
• Coastal Birds and Shorebirds: California Gnatcatcher, Black-Oystercatcher, American Oystercatcher, Black Turnstone, Ruddy Turnstone, a Brown Pelican eating a Rockfish, Wandering Tattler, Surfbird, Brants Cormorant, Red-necked Loon, Mew Gull (the "cute" gulls!)
• Exotic Birds: Red-crowned Parrots, Lilac-crowned Parrots, Japanese Tit, Scaly-breasted Munia

I also had a couple of wonderful Coyote encounters. My photos start with one at El Dorado Park. I watched the coyote cross a field and travel a couple of miles.  I saw it several times in the park. For the majority of the time I was watching him, he was checking out ground squirrel and gopher holes. Some he would stop at and listen, sometimes pouncing (he came up short handed, or should I say, short pawed) each time. He went around to many holes peeing on them. At first I just though he was marking territory.  Then I thought he was clever and was marking the holes he checked already. I wondered if he was marking the holes to prevent an escape route. Perhaps he was marking to force the prey to another exit hole.  I consulted with my panel of experts (it is good to know experts), and the answer came back that sometimes they are just A--holes. He was probably pissed off that the little critters got away. So I guess it is just a case of rodent rage.

The rain also brought out fungi. I just bought a Field Guide to Mushrooms of North America. That should be fun reading.
 

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