Amateur naturalist, photographer, journalist and former Escondido Mayor Ernie Cowan has written a book of essays to be savored. It is a volume worth taking your time with. Cowan is a local treasure, a writer whose words just keep getting better—very few people know the byways of the backcountry like Cowan.
This volume is the first of what will be a series sharing Cowan’s many wildlife, nature and outdoor columns that he writes for Union-Tribune.
I’ve tapped his knowledge enough times to know. “Hey Ernie, do you know if there is a bald eagle nesting near Lake Wohlford?” He did know, of course. “Ernie, what can you tell me about volunteer fire lookouts on Palomar Mountain?” Quite a bit, actually, since he is such a volunteer himself. Cowan’s knowledge and passion for nature runs deep and wide, like a great lake…