Birding centric B&B in Southern California (1 Viewer)

[Katy Penland]

Hi BirdForumers,

Been awhile since I've been back and wow, has this site changed and grown! Fabulous!

I'm taking a very informal "survey" of BirdForum members: I'm thinking of offering the master suite in my mountain home as a bed & breakfast venue primarily geared for birders.

I know when I've traveled around the world, birding-friendly B&Bs can be kind of hard to come by, primarily due to the early hours we birders like to rise to get out in the field and so miss the "&B" part of our stay (unless you find a really accommodating host/hostess who will get up early with you). I was also thinking of offering a boxed lunch as part of the birder appeal.

Where I live is 20 minutes from "condor country" where the California Condor has nightly roosts; is half-way between Los Angeles and Bakersfield (1 hour); and is 1-2 hours from the best inland birding in the U.S. (Kern County's Galileo Hill, Mojave Desert, Butterbredt Spring, Kern River Valley, Wind Wolves Nature Preserve, etc.); and less than a half-hour's drive to the top of Mt. Pinos and Mt. Abel (eles. 8,000+ feet) in the Los Padres National Forest. I'm about 6,000 ft.

I was thinking of calling my new venture "The Bird & Bear B&B" because in the summertime, black bears can be watched roaming the greenbelt behind my house from the safety of the 15-foot-high back deck. I also have seed and nectar feeders on the same deck and attract a respectable number of bird species year-round (will post list and a few representative bird and bear photos in the Gallery shortly).

There's only one other B&B in town whose three rooms on offer are $70 for one and $100 for the other two per night -- BUT they all three must share the same bathroom (yuck). My master suite with queen-sized bed and memory foam pillowtop mattress has its own private 3/4 bath (shower, not tub).

In these economic down times, I was trying to find a way to indulge my favorite hobby (birdwatching) with a little supplemental income that would benefit both visiting birders and myself and wanted to send out feelers to the global birding community. Plus it would be a great way to meet new birding friends from around the world!

I was thinking around $125/night during spring/summer/fall months. Whaddya think? Would something like this be of interest? What other amenities would you like to see?

Thanks much and look forward to some fruitful discussion here so I can give this embryonic idea more thought.

Katy Penland
(formerly of Overgaard, Arizona [124 backyard species] and
former BirdForum moderator waaaaaaaay back)

Pine Mountain Club, CA
(the "club" part means this is a private property owners association carved out of a national forest, and guests would also have access to the golf course, swimming pool, clubhouse bar and restaurants, horseback riding, etc., etc.)

 

[Gretchen]

Sounds quite nice... I've done so little B&B's in the States that I can't say about the price, and of course different birders have different budgets. My CA geography isn't too good - what is your closest major airport?

 

[Katy Penland]

Hi Gretchen,

LAX is the closest major international airport at about 2 hours. Burbank's Bob Hope Airport, about 1.25 hours away, would be the one to use if flying within the US. Burbank is also ideal if Hollywood stuff is on the birder's (or the birder's family's) itinerary.

There are buses and trains that connect with both airports but not through to Pine Mountain. A car is a must-have for Kern County birding, I'm afraid, but both airports have a full range of rentals available.

It really is a beautiful area because it's surrounded by a national forest but less than an hour away is the Mojave Desert to the northeast, the San Joaquin Valley (or "Central Valley" as it's locally known) to the north, the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains to the north-northeast, the Carrizo Plain northwest, and if you want to double-back to the coast, Santa Barbara is less than 2 hours northwest, LA Harbor 3 hours southwest.

I also forgot to mention something that took my breath away when I first moved here. After living for so much of my life in urban areas, I was stunned by the night sky. There is no ambient light from any city so the constellations and the Milky Way itself are astonishingly brilliant. I have seen the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station with the naked eye, it's that dark, and I've even seen four of Jupiter's 63 moons with just my bins. The annual Perseid (August), Leonid (November) and Geminid (December) meteor showers are simply unbelievable.

I've logged over 60 species (I'll get that list up, I promise!) from my back deck, and I'm expecting it to be an unusually good year for spring migrants with the strong El Nino influences on our westerly wind patterns.

Spring is also the time of year for the nearby rolling hills to be covered in bright orange California poppies, blue lupine and red Indian paintbrush.

In short, it's a wonderful area if you're interested in the natural world, but birds are the biggest draw. I mean, twice when headed to Bakersfield via "the back way" for some shopping, I've had California Condors swoop up over the ridge line and fly right over my car. At that proximity, they look like Cessna 152s! But they're more reliably seen when headed for their nightly roosting spot during the summer.

I'll climb down off the soapbox now and hope others will chime in on what they'd like to see or would expect if they visited here.

 

[DavidP]

Don't forget to mention the fantastic wildflower displays you get in that area especially I suspect this year after all the rains.