![]() The antenna and receiving station will log birds that fly by with transmitters, a new way to follow the migration of birds. The Bear Divide has become a place where bird watchers can see thousands of migrating songbirds. Chris Spurgeon of the Pasadena Audubon Society checks out the Motus receiving station inside an abandoned laundry room near the Bear Divide Fire Station on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. That’s probably because so few birds have transmitters, since the program is so new in California, he said. So far, no birds have been detected, he said. He punched the buttons to make sure it was working. On Tuesday, Spurgeon flipped open the box that gets signals from passing birds that are wearing a transmitter. The group is hoping for an 80% reimbursement for its expenditures of about $9,000, from the Forest Service, Spurgeon said. Forest Service to place two antennas on an abandoned laundry building down the road from the Bear Divide Fire Station in November 2022, the first Motus device operating in the county. Pasadena Audubon received a permit from the U.S. Of those, 44 are in California, but only two are in Los Angeles County, Spurgeon said. There are 1,500 Motus listening stations in North America, most of them in the eastern U.S. Some birds will get a tiny transmitter put on their back so land antennas can record their whereabouts, part of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System (Motus is Latin for movement). “With the kids, when they see us release the bird, you can tell it is a monumental moment.” Like the other birds, it was released within a minute, she said. The Swainson’s thrush was the last bird tagged on Tuesday. They came back this year with their baby,” Hill said, as clouds began covering the mountain. “We met a couple last year and she was pregnant. It’s become a place where scientists and hikers merge. Lauren Hill, co-leader of the Bear Divide Banding Station, said on Tuesday that she enjoys sharing with everyday folks. “On a day when there are a lot of birds moving through, you could see 100 times more birds than you’d see in any place in California,” Spurgeon said. He will lead a special Mother’s Day bird walk to Bear Divide on May 14. (Photo by Steve Scauzillo/SCNG).īeside biologists, everyday bird watchers are flocking there, said Chris Spurgeon, program manager with Pasadena Audubon Society. It’s located a few miles up Little Tujunga Canyon Road near Canyon Country and Lake View Terrace. That led to an official bird-banding and bird-counting operation beginning in 2021 that continues today, staffed by graduate students from several colleges including Occidental, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Cal State Los Angeles and Colorado State.Ĭhaparral, scrub grass and a few wildflowers sit behind the rusty gate at the Bear Divide songbird migration site on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. ![]() He started visiting the spot in the forest to witness it himself. That changed in 2019 when Terrill heard about this place when he was doing post-doctorate work at Occidental College in Eagle Rock. Scientists didn’t even know that songbirds migrated during the day, he said. “If you see a dozen Western Tanagers, I’d say that was an awesome bird-watching day,” Terrill said during an interview on Monday, May 8. The birds fly by in swarms like bees, dozens at a time, making Bear Divide the most amazing spot to watch migrating songbirds in California, experts said. ![]() “It is the ability to watch songbirds actively migrating which is really unique,” explained Ryan Terrill, assistant professor of biology at Cal State University, Stanislaus and science director at the Klamath Bird Observatory in Ashland, Oregon. This recently discovered migration phenomenon has tickled the fancy of bird watchers and launched new scientific studies of bird migration in Los Angeles County. Where the mighty San Gabriel Mountains crouch down to only 1,500-foot elevation north of Lake View Terrace, thousands of migrating songbirds fly every day in the spring on their journey to Northern California, and some fly as far as Alaska. ![]()
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