Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge

Back in early February of 2006, Matt and I met at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. We've posted about it before but this post comes with a few surprises. So here's "that was then" from January of 2009:



I won't make you wait - the big surprise for this trip was that the trails are now marked. Not just somewhat vaguely depicted. Nope, they're actually well represented. In fact, the new sign at the trail head was just an indication of what was to come.



Look at the beauty of that map. I mean, you can see Mexico from here! Er, actually, you can see the trails... and bridges... and parking lot... it's unheard of! The old map had some squiggly lines and that was about it. But if you're looking closely at the map above, you'll notice that nowhere on the list of trails does it say anything about "C-trail" ...and that my friends is why we, here at seetrail, had a moment of silence. Sure, change can be a good thing. That map will probably save dozens of tourists from getting lost and dehydrated in hot weather. But "C-trail" as we knew it, the generically labeled trail of "where Matt and Heidi met" is no more. So "C-trail" now lives on as a pun in our title. And it's finally actually labeled for something more realistic: the lakes that it meanders through.



"Is that a muddy shoe?" Why, yes it is. Not as muddy as it ended up, but showing good progress. Last year we shared a muddy walk on "C-trail" so it seemed appropriate for the weather to cooperate. Misty, overcast, muddy. Again. At least it's not intermittently raining, like the last bird walk I recall sharing from 2006. The lovely photo next to the muddy shoe is a wing-tagged American White Pelican. We're waiting to hear back on that* (still no news from our honeymoon Black-whiskered Vireo) but we're not holding our breath.



This is now; the first week of February, 2010. AND THERE'S A SIGN! (You have no idea how awesome it is for there to be signage.) Anyway, the photo is not really at the spot where we met (forgive us, the segment of trail is 1/4 mile so it's hard to know for sure), but at least it's in front of the pond that housed the tree that hosted the sapsucker... it's turning into a book!

There was a young couple who met at a refuge that had a trail that harbored a bench that was across from a pond that housed the tree that hosted the sapsucker who startled the birders who called the RBA who alerted the folks who birded the state who... started a vicious cycle of bad poetry?

For early orders on that dramatic essay for children of all ages, drop us an e-mail. I'll even draw some stick-figures of us and the sapsucker with four different colors of crayon to serve as illustrations ;-)