Birdies at Old Salmon Falls
A friend of mine told me he was at the Old Salmon Falls site at Folsom Lake recently, and he told me it wasn’t a lake there anymore, it was a river, and it was beautiful. I thought he was exaggerating, so I didn’t pay much attention to him at the time. But I went there this past weekend, and he was right! It is not that I didn’t believe him. I just thought he meant that the lake was super low (which I already knew), and that it just seemed like it was a river. But actually, it was a river. The lake was gone. And the river was flowing. It was flowing the way God created it to be. It was flowing the way it was when there were people living along here less than 100 years ago. And it was beautiful.
Of course, that does not change the fact that just downstream from here is a huge reservoir that is nearly empty (22% of capacity). And if we don’t get an above average rainfall this year, then we will be facing a severe drought here next summer in California. So from that perspective, it is pretty darn sad. Nonetheless, it was quite interesting and exciting to see a river flowing along here right now. I have never seen this before. But I’m also sure it won’t be the last time I see that either. I am firmly convinced that a severe drought in California is inevitable in the near future. It may not be this year or the next year, and I am praying fervently that we do indeed get our rain this winter. But I do believe a drought is inevitable. We have now had two straight years of drought here (below average precipitation). From 1987-1992, we had six straight years of drought. At the end of that period, the lake level was about as low as it is now. The population level has increased dramatically here in the past 20 years, and the water supply has not increased at all. Where is all the water going to come from for all these new people? Where are the brilliant city planners who thought about that? An extended multi-year drought is not at all uncommon in California. It happened from ’87-’92 and it happened multiple times in the past century (1928-34, 1943-51, 1959-62, 1976-77). It certainly will happen again in the future sometime. We may or may not be in the middle of an extended drought right now. Again, I am praying we are not. And so should we all.
Anyway, enough of the rambling, eh. I went back to Old Salmon Falls to do some bird watching. I saw less birds feeding here along the water than the previous time I was here, I think. Not sure why that would be. But I did see a few of these pretty little birds, and I believe they are rock wrens. This one little guy actually let me get quite close to him. I was following him around for awhile, and he pretty much ignored me as I clicked away at him from fairly close range. I did not bring my tripod with me this time, and I think that also helped me get closer to some of the birds. They didn’t think I was gonna try to whack them or anything like that.
Here’s a couple more:
