It is still January, but rising temperatures this week and a few hours of robust sunshine are already leading optimistic hearts to dream of spring. Living in the mountains, close to wind and stars, we look up to see our bird neighbors, and begin to wonder when we might see the first fawns and young bears venturing out for nibbles. This week we received notes from local nature watchers who had observed how busy humans can disrupt habitats without even realizing what they’ve done.

—Patric Hedlund, Editor

By Terre Ashmore and Stacy Balbona, with Marcy Axness

Southern California Edison was in Frazier Park last week to put up a new pole on Idaho Trail. Of course it is good that SCE upgrades their equipment. But…what about the animals?

The pole they were replacing had been a woodpecker nesting and granary location (a place to store acorns to provide food through the winter) for at least thirteen years, said Stacy Balbona. She and her husband have lived next to it and watched the acorn woodpeckers, who live in large groups with a complicated social structure. This group’s life was…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Above: Terre Ashmore and her pup Ollie point out the last of more than 20 piles of ‘oak leaf litter’; Left: An acorn woodpecker at its granary; notice the acorn poking out of one of the holes in the wood.

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This is part of the January 24, 2020 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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