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News of the arrival of the scarlet tanager - more usually found in the forests of North America - broke last weekend, sending birdwatchers into a state of excitement.

The scarlet tanager is Mr Nash's 435th species spotted in Britain.

The landscape may look desolate and unforgiving to an outsider — a setting where Chuckwalla lizards, cactus wrens and western tanagers thrive — but for the Cahuilla it is a paradise.

Exactly why the area attracts as many as 13,000 tanagers, orioles, buntings, grosbeaks and warblers on a single day is not entirely understood.

“It’s from a scarlet tanager. Tia Rosario found it in the Dominican Republic and just brought it back for me. Isn’t it beautiful?”