Nature Happenings

• Great Backyard Bird Count, mid-month, www.birdsource.org/gbbc
• Project FeederWatch continues, www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw
• February is National Bird Feeding Month
• Indian Paintbrush, Giant Coreopsis and Iris start blooming early this month.
• Queen bees emerge from over-wintering underground and search for this year’s new nest sites.
• Watch for hawks carrying sticks to refurbish an old nesting site.
• Look for conical-shaped balls of twigs and dead leaves in the canopy of oak and bay trees – these are the new nests of Western Gray Squirrels.
• Tree and Violet-green Swallows return this month.
• Look for hummingbirds visiting the cream-colored flowers of the California Bay Laurel Tree.
• Saucer Magnolia and Purple Leaf Flowering Plum bloom this month.
• Sandhill Cranes are migrating north.
• Peak of American Goldfinch population.