Ardent birders are flocking to this remote forest location to find myriad migrating species.
Even if you’ve lived here a long time, Southern California can amaze you. Hundreds of different bird species can whiz through the area unnoticed — until you stop and watch in jaw-dropping awe. That’s what happened to outdoor writer Matt Pawlik. He recently joined an expert birder who showed him a secret place in the Angeles National Forest north of L.A. where, so far this season, 130 migrating species have passed through.
“Three lazuli buntings,” Ryan Terrill shouted out. “Look at their blue heads. Stunning! Here are some warblers coming by: yellow, hermit, Townsend’s. Vaux swifts overhead! And is that ... yes, that’s our first purple martin we’ve ever seen here!” This was my first early morning visit to the Bear Divide Vista Picnic Site east of Santa Clarita in the Angeles National Forest. Terrill, a postdoctoral researcher at Occidental College’s, was swiftly chirping out the identities of winged passersby.
Calling Bear Divide a migratory hot spot would be an understatement. Every year — roughly between March 15 and June 15, with peak migration between April 10 and May 20 — thousands of birds funnel through the narrow pass. The Moore Lab team appears nearly every day during the season to count them. As of now, more than 130 species have flown through, with total bird numbers this season exceeding 23,000. It’s a great spot for amateurs to learn about the remarkable diversity of L.A.
The rugged mountain area with a single drivable road, Little Tujunga Canyon Road, once was a place where bird experts caught roosting California condors; those endangered birds no longer stop by. Bear Divide was first noticed as a key migration spot in 2016 by Dan Maxwell, Terrill’s friend and birder. Since then, Terrill, his colleagues and local birdwatchers have been observing the spectacle and studying its ornithological implications.
“Migration is something that can be incredibly hard to study in the field, because the vast majority of bird migration happens where we can’t see it,” Terrill said. During my 7 a.m. visit, I saw more birds in the wild than I had ever seen in one place in my entire life — and my coffee was still hot.My visits to Bear Divide carried that familiar exhilaration of experiencing something undeniably special for the first time. For Terrill and his team, the thrill is constant.
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