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| OHCC LIVING | APRIL 2019 | 17 Birdwatchers There will be no bird club meeting in April. Our next meeting will be May 28, in the Ladies Club Room beginning with a social hour at 12:30 pm followed by a 1 pm presentation by Ernie Cowan, outdoor writer for the Union Tribune. You will not want to miss this! Ernie is an excellent bird/nature photographer and speaker who brings to his presentations years of experience and knowledge generously sprinkled with very funny anecdotes! I promise you will enjoy it! Our next bird walk will be on April 26. We will be going to Live Oak Park and Los Jilgueros in Fallbrook. Live Oak Park is one of the area's oldest parks. It is a 27-acre tract in the middle of a rare old growth grove of coast live oaks. The grove provides plenty of shade from the heat in the summer and tons of acorns for a family of resident acorn woodpeckers. Acorn Woodpeckers are constantly gathering acorns and storing them back into their oak silos. This communal effort in defending their centralized food store is unique to Acorn Woodpeckers and has been going on for generations with the result of hundreds or even thousands of holes drilled and stuffed with acorns! Along with the Acorn Woodpeckers, you will see Western Scrub Jays, California Towhees, and White Crowned Sparrows and, of course, Ground Squirrels snatching up their share of acorns. Not to be missed is the "Indian Kitchen" — multiple grinding rocks or morteros used for thousands of years by the native Luiseno people to grind acorns into acorn meal, a major staple of their diet. Los Jilgureos, Spanish for "the finches," is a 46-acre nature preserve, part of the Fallbrook Land Conservancy and is home to hundreds of mammal, bird, and reptile species that are regularly monitored. The greatest number of species are birds, with over 122 observed in the preserve. I hope that with all the rain we have had, the native plant garden there will be brimming with spring color. Lunch will be at the Garden Cafe. As always, we will meet at the overflow parking lot at 7:45 am and leave at 8 am. The drive is 35 to 40 minutes. Directions will be given and car pools arranged. Remember to help your driver with gas expenses. There is a $3 charge for parking unless you have a senior parking pass, which can be freely obtained at any county park. Please wear sunscreen, a hat, and good walking shoes. You do not have to be a member of the club to join us on a walk. All are welcome!