Pub Crawlin’

On New Year’s Eve day, we took a wonderful hike with Bob and Dianne in Carrizo and Dead Indian Canyons where we were thrilled to observe a beautiful male Desert Bighorn Sheep (aka Peninsular Bighorn Sheep) for quite a long time, and we climbed up a small waterfall in the canyon to take lunch a hidden oasis.  This was the last day to hike the canyon before it closes for the breeding season, so we were lucky to have such a beautiful day.

After our hike, we dined and tasted beer at Babe’s B-B-Que Grill before returning home to relax. We needed to get to bed early because January 1 was the Joshua Tree Christmas Bird Count. At Babe’s, D had two beers which I may comment more on later. I opted out of beer and just tasted his, as I didn’t think there could be anything “that great” after our trip to San Diego.

It was cold in Joshua Tree today, and a little windy, but it is mostly the dry conditions that accounted for the lack of bird life. We had a nice time, exploring the park, but we didn’t add a lot of species to the list.  Birds included:

• Loggerhead Shrike
• Raven
• Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
• Greater Roadrunner
• Ladder-backed Woodpecker
• Golden Eagle
• Peregrine Falcon
• White-throated Swift
• Rock Wren
• California Thrasher
• Gambel’s Quail
• Phainopepla
• Black-throated Sparrow
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Western Scrub Jay
• Red-tailed Hawk

Now for the long red-eye flight home…