By Nancy Bye
Nature Watch
Last updated 11/16/2016 at 4:41pm
Exciting things are happening around us in the new year. In Rancho Mirage an observatory is being built next to the library. Our county is building the Santa Ysabel Nature Center in 2017.
On certain mornings we have a pre-dawn cacophony in the part of Deep Well where I live. Trash truck roars, squeals, rings, and slams. Coyotes howl. And a bird who I think was here last year, comes and bangs for hours on my bedroom window. Ahhh, yes. Our peaceful, quiet little desert valley.
Scientists are really worrying about our climate change. Will La Nina arrive to bring us cooler water. Kelp beds have been damaged and Catalina is beginning to look quite different. Some researchers are sequencing the entire genetic code of the Joshua Tree in hopes of preserving them as the environments become hotter and drier. Many biologists think they are fairly adaptable, and they hope to know by the end of December.
My friends know that all I watch on TV is evening news and Lawrence Welk on PBS, Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. They recently re-ran a California show from 1968. Lots of songs we all know and like. But I had forgotten “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano.” Lovely. Are we all wearing our safety pins?
