Our thoughts are with the people whose lives and property are in jeopardy from the terrible Station Fire in Southern California today. Every time there is a big fire in California, we get questions about the impacts to birds. We'll have more about that in a day or so, but we should note that the fire has now hit the Big Tujunga Valley and is approaching the Little Tujunga area as well. These sites are part of the larger Los Angeles Flood Control Basins Important Bird Area, which encompasses several sites throughout the area.

This area supports sizeable examples of alluvial fan scrub, a very rare habitat limited to southwestern California with bird community similar to that of coastal sage scrub. The area (including adjacent gravel pits) supports Lesser Nighthawk, Greater Roadrunner, Costa's Hummingbird, Cactus Wren, Loggerhead Shrike, as well as several other sensitive vertebrates nearly gone from the LosAngeles Area, including San Diego Black-tailed Jackrabbit and probably also San Diego Horned Lizard.