Charmlee

Heads up for those (like me) who don't know that some parks close on fire-alert days. Charmlee is one of them. I now know to check fire conditions for possible park closures (I'll bet most of you knew this already!).

I haven't been up Encinal since the fires and, my, there's a lot of real estate for sale and in escrow. Nonetheless, it was a lovely day up there with barely a breeze.

Posted on November 27, 2020 11:23 PM by redrovertracy redrovertracy

Comments

I didn't know, so thanks for the PSA :)
Hopefully, you enjoyed a nice drive at any rate.

Posted by scubabruin over 3 years ago

I did enjoy the drive. I re-jiggered and went to El Matador for 2 seconds...too crowded (duh...I was on a roll of sorts). Then I pulled over at La Peña and PCH. Did a little tide pooling there, by myself, yay. Nice and quiet.

Posted by redrovertracy over 3 years ago

I didn't know about Charmlee either, but I stay out of the mountain parks on red flag days anyway. There were a few close calls this summer, in particular when the fire broke out in Malibu Creek State Park mid-day on a Sunday, and hordes of people had to be escorted out. But the Santa Ana wasn't too bad this time. The gusts were around 40mph, mostly yesterday and overnight, but today was quite pleasant, just really low humidity.

I was at Zuma Beach this morning and it was empty, as was PCH. People were sleeping in I guess...

Posted by andreacala over 3 years ago

Hello all,
Not sure about you, but I have not been to the Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve in many months because of the fires, COVID, and my belief the area was just decimated. Guess what?! It is a bit sparse, but lots of plants are making a comeback along the water and there are lots of waterfowl still around. Mostly, today was filled with cormorants (still can't tell them apart) and Grebes, with plenty of Canada geese, but I was treated to a first for me...a Belted Kingfisher (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65855901). So that made my day, as well as the sunshine yellow of the darling yellow-throat too.

Hope you all enjoyed a lovely holiday weekend. Susan, your trip to the condor reserve sounded marvelous. I've never been there.

Posted by scubabruin over 3 years ago

Too bad I missed you! I was at the Wildlife Reserve too today, around noon, after yet another visit to Los Encinos, for take two on all these geese and ducks there. There weren't any Canada Geese in the lake when I was there, but I saw a single Canada Goose at Los Encinos who was calling for its mates...

Posted by andreacala over 3 years ago

Darn! Gotta say it is nice that Los Encinos is open again.

Posted by scubabruin over 3 years ago

It's such a pretty little park in a beautiful neighborhood. Thank you for leading the way! I can imagine that the romantic pond cafe there was an amazing spot to hang out and watch birds. I was so much wanting to enjoy a cup of coffee when I visited. On Saturday I was the only visitor, on Sunday there were three small family groups, all masked.
As I'm on a roll with the Valley ponds and parks, I'm heading to Reseda Lake now, in case you want to join...

Posted by andreacala over 3 years ago

Darn! Was off doing my regular Monday morning TJ's shopping . I'm not familiar with Reseda Lake.

Posted by scubabruin over 3 years ago

Just back from there. Fascinating place. It's a large, flat park area in between sports fields and the Los Angeles River, with a pond in the middle. The pond is about the size of Lake Balboa, but features a few floating and stationary islands with greenery and shrubs on them, for birds to breed and rest. The fascinating thing is that animals were watching people, not the other way around, because every once in a while, someone shows up with a bag of old bread or even bird food. I observed one such hand-out by a kind, older man, probably the highlight of his day or week. There were a handful of people, all masked, and I never got closer than 50 steps to anyone.

Population includes about 200 American Wigeons and American Coots, lots of Canada Geese, Western, California, and Ring-billed Gulls, two Double-crested Cormorants, and all sorts of domestic/hybrid ducks and geese, Mallards, Ravens, Fox Squirrel, American Pipits, Feral Pigeons... and who knows what else is on my camera roll. I can imagine there could be some Hawks showing up to catch a bird or squirrel, but not while I was there. I think my most fun observation could be a series of pics of fighting Coots, if the pictures represent what I saw. They are vicious!

Posted by andreacala over 3 years ago

I've driven by hundreds of times and have never stopped in. Time to put it on my list of places to visit. Thanks for the update and I look. forward to seeing the coot photos.

Posted by scubabruin over 3 years ago

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