AR04/03 SB County Museum 23FEB04

Braving inclement weather, 21 Big Morongo Birders went to Redlands when the museum is closed to the public, and were entertained by Gene Cardiff who took us on a guided tour of the most wonderful displays of birds, nests, eggs and pictures. Not content with that, we were shown to the library, remarkable in itself, and shown - and handled - examples of the vast number of stuffed birds in storage. Gene estimated a total in excess of 20,000!. Later he demonstrated his technique for stuffing and mounting the birds.

Following a picnic lunch by the Santa Ana River, thankfully without rain - we were very fortunate - we had a short bird walk and saw;

American Goldfinch Lesser Goldfinch Turkey Vulture
Bushtit House Finch Red Tail Hawk
Yellow Rump Warbler Western Meadowlark Black Phoebe
California Thrasher Spotted Towhee White Crown Sparrow
Bonaparte's Gull Brewer's Blackbird Red Shafted Flicker
Phainopepla California Towhee Downey Woodpecker
Western Bluebird American Crow Red Wing Blackbird
Killdeer Bewicks Wren Song Sparrow
Coopers Hawk American Kestrel Common Yellowthroat

The down side was that many of us were very conscious of having insufficient time to do justice to the very extensive and beautifully arranged displays - but then that is encouragement to return!

Our sincere thanks go to Dee for arranging today and especially to Gene who gave us his time, and whose patience made the difference on this very special day.

Barry Parkes
bbparkes@ix.netcom.com