Kern County is a treasure trove for birders

Silence.

It's a skill not everyone has mastered, says avid bird watcher Harry Love.

But if you want to tag along with this member and former president of the Kern Audubon Society as he scans the woodlands and wetlands of Kern County and California for some elusive avian treasures, it's best to know when not to make a peep.

"Silence is important," Love says. "Stop and listen. You often hear the birds before you see them."

It's no secret to this retired educator and his wife, Kathy, that Kern County is one of the best counties in California for birders. And he will shout it to the treetops.

"Of the 58 counties in California, Kern is the birdiest county, excluding coastal areas," he says. "We have three distinct geographic zones: valley, mountains and desert."

And that wide regional variability gives Kern a wide variability of bird species.

Not only that, Kern is one of the stopping points for hundreds of migratory birds, feathered friends you're not likely to see in your backyard or city park.

The Audubon Kern River Preserve on the South Fork of the Kern River near Weldon is a riparian nature preserve owned by the National Audubon Society. The preserve is located in one of the largest contiguous riparian (river) forests remaining in California.

The Audubon Kern River Preserve is home to more than 300 bird species. Reading even a partial list of the birds that nest or rest there is head spinning.

Think multiple species of eagles, hawks, wrens, woodpeckers, goldfinch, bluebirds, towhee — not to mention the mountain chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, ruby-crowned kinglet, yellow-rumped warbler, and many more.

Some are quite rare, and may be endangered, so for visitors, care of the surroundings is imperative.

"Some of these birds breed in Alaska and fly to Mexico for the winter," Love says. "Unbelievable routes."

But you don't have to drive to Weldon, he says. Hart Park, a few miles northeast of Bakersfield, is terrific.

"You need two things when birding," Love says. "If you have trees and water, you’ll be successful."

And Hart Park has both.

"Hart Park is probably the best place in Bakersfield for birding," Love says. "You'll always find something."

But don't forget Panorama Vista Preserve, he says, referring to more than 900 acres along 2? miles of the Kern River just below the Panorama Bluffs.

Once dominated by farming, cattle grazing and oil exploration, this gem, managed by a nonprofit, is being reforested with indigenous trees and other plants — and bird species native to the Kern River corridor are coming back, too.

If you're new to birding, get a wide-brimmed hat, and dress in layers. Get an early-morning start, he advises. Then take a break at 11 a.m. or so. Get back out for the last hour of daylight.

There are plenty of free birding apps for your smart phone, Love says. He recommends Merlin as user-friendly and chock-full of the tools birders need.

"Birding" editor and author Ted Floyd, in his "Ten Ways to be a Better Birder," writes that you can spend a lifetime studying bird species, their colorings and markings, their behavior, their songs and vocalizations, their migration patterns, their breeding patterns, and much more.

And all that is worthwhile. All that is worthy of study.

But don't forget why you started in the first place.

"Birding is fun," he writes. "Birding sustains us. Birding keeps us going. Birding gives us great joy in this life. And that’s the point. That’s the whole point."