(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . I got distracted. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-23 I got distracted. Not sure if you heard, but California got some rain this winter. I mean, we really did need rain but ... “Biblical proportions” seems an apt descriptor. People lost homes and livelihoods, and some even lost their lives. Wild winds added to the toll, knocking down trees everywhere — hundreds fell here in San Francisco. I can’t say as I’m fond of the new normal of Climate Change. But now we’re in the calm after the storm, and we get to see the upside. There are rainbows available on demand, but they’re not light refracted through water — they’re every color of bird and flower. My favorite spring birding sites are flashing exuberant colors across their hillsides. A lone Canada Goose stands guard on a water tower at the start of Mines Road. Of the many great places in the Bay Area, my #1 springtime destination is Mines Road, which runs south from Livermore, climbs to a high valley, then splits and continues over Mount Hamilton into the South Bay in one direction, or heads eastward toward the Central Valley in the other. It’s a nice mix of oak woodlands and grasslands, with conifers at the higher elevations. It’s mostly ranchland and has a very “Old California” feel. What had been brushy bottomland was scraped bare by the torrential rains. I can only imagine the volume of water that must have come through here. Two weeks ago I made my trip — a little earlier than usual, but I just couldn’t wait. Signs of our wet and wild winter were everywhere: the creeks were running well, the hills were every shade of green imaginable, there were small slides all around and every floodplain had been scoured down to gravel. The Cliff Swallows were having an easy time finding the mud to build their nests! Spring migrants were just starting to trickle into the area, but since trees were just beginning to bud out, the birds were still pretty easy to spot. At the lower elevations, swallows were everywhere (all that water means lots of insects!) — Tree, Violet-green and Cliff. There were still a few lingering Golden-crowned Sparrows, who were showing their chunky pre-migration appearance, as well as some late Yellow-rumped Warblers who were getting into their breeding finery. Raucous chatter of Bullock’s Orioles greeted me at several spots but they were not cooperative for photos, bouncing from tree to tree. Even more raucous chatter of Yellow-billed Magpies rang from the oaks and the fields. Western Bluebirds hovered over the fields hawking insects and paused on distant fenceposts. As the road begins to climb, it gets harder to scan as you drive, because you’re either looking up or steeply down. (Also, because you really need to keep your eyes on the road - it’s very twisty for much of its length.) I stopped at a pullout to give a quick listen. There were a few Scrub Jays squawking and some small bird song down by the creek. Looking down to the water I saw what appeared to be a nest in a tall sycamore next to the creek — it was. I got the scope on it, and was surprised to see a Great Horned Owl with two chicks. The surprise in the sycamore Several of my favorite stops were inaccessible — covered with slide debris — but the drive was beautiful and there was a nice assortment of birds. Meadowlarks serenaded at most stops in the grassy areas, along with Lesser Goldfinches, and White-crowned Sparrows; Nuttall’s and Acorn Woodpeckers were busy in the oaks. I had to take time to check out the Turkey Vultures that soared overhead because one turned out to be a Bald Eagle and two others were Golden Eagles. One of the regular stops for as long as I’ve been coming to Mines Road is The Junction — a bar and restaurant and general community hangout where the roads come together at the top. It’s a popular stop for birders, bikers and bicyclists with good food and clean bathrooms. We like to stop for lunch and check out the surrounding oaks while we dine at the picnic tables —Bluebirds, Lesser Goldfinches and House Finches are abundant, and we have had Lawrence’s Goldfinches there regularly. Alas, it was closed — a sign announced it was for sale, for any of you who might be looking for a new career as the proprietor of a birder’s bar. There’s woodpeckers in them thar hills… and wildflowers in them thar fields. Just south of The Junction is prime habitat for Lewis’s Woodpecker, one of the main attractions for this trip (along with the Lawrence’s Goldfinches). I heard them at a couple of stops near past nest locations but only got one actual sighting — a bird perched in a treetop in the middle of a field. By the time I could find a safe spot to pull over for a photo, it had flown. Del Puerto Canyon with poppy bloom starting on hillside. What this stretch of road lacked in visible woodpeckers, it more than made up for in wildflowers. The area burned during the 2020 fires; a post-fire environment can be really good for flowers. The fields and meadows were carpeted with yellow, white and pink blooms. I headed down Del Puerto Canyon, a warmer, drier and rockier road which descends to the Central Valley. There were so many more flowers there than I’d ever remembered seeing in the past, even in some really wet years. Then I remembered: during past wet years, the hills had been covered with chaparral but at least two fires had come through since then. Now that everything had been burned off, the flowers were the tallest things in the landscape so you could actually see them. All of that color came at a price. Who do I spy hiding at Owl Rock? Not sure if it’s just the one Barn Owl, or perhaps the pale shape at the rear left is a nestling or two? I kept stopping to take in the views — it was just so nice to see it so full of life after a few rough years of drought. Toward the end of the road is a feature known as Owl Rock, a large rock formation with dozens of holes on one face, mini-caves well suited to nests large and small. There were no Great Horned Owls this year, though there have been in years past. There was one Barn Owl in a particular hole where they have often nested. (The amount of whitewash on this particular cavity is truly amazing for anyplace that isn’t a seabird colony!) Stunning mama redtail taking a moment to stretch and preen. There are at least four large raptor nests on the rock but they’re not all active — it seems like redtails use them but change holes each year and add a little fresh material to the current year’s location. This year’s nest is only about ten feet away from last year’s site. You can’t see it in this photo, but a pair of House Finches built a nest tucked away at the bottom of the stick pile for the redtail’s nest. Another attraction at Mines Road and Del Puerto Canyon: Phainopepla. Across the road from the owl and the redtail, a female Phainopepla flitted around the trees. I could hear a second bird calling (presumably a male) but never saw him. Such an elegant little bird. After savoring the end-of-road birds, one can drive a few miles to I-5 and get home reasonably quickly, or you can backtrack up the same roads and see everything again. I opted for the latter. Oh look — more flowers! They’re yellow! There are lots of them! When I started reviewing photos so I could assemble a diary, it was obvious that I’d been distracted by the flowers — there were only a handful of bird photos out of the dozens I’d taken. Oh well — a good excuse for a return trip the following weekend. Except… the news was full of stories about the superbloom underway throughout our state, and all of the stories mentioned Carrizo Plain. I’d been there once about ten years earlier and it happened to be a superbloom that year; each year we talk about going back but it there never seems to be an available weekend to make the trip. This time, we decided spur of the moment to make a day trip, leaving before 6:00 am for the 4 hour drive. The main difference between our last visit and this one is that Instagram wasn’t really a thing back then. We didn’t quite have the roads to ourselves back in the day, but there weren’t a whole lot of people. Between the many articles and social media feeds, a lot more people wanted to see Carrizo Plain for themselves. Fortunately (as is often the case) most of them just wanted a couple of photos and then got on their way again. They stuck to the main roads. Bird of the day at Carrizo Plain National Monument: Horned Lark We asked a docent about other routes in the area and she mentioned Elkhorn Road as good flower viewing, but said that driving the far end “gets a bit technical”. Challenge accepted! A (Western?) Side-blotched Lizard enjoys soaking up the sunshine. I would not have wanted to be out there during the rains that made everything possible, but we did manage to do it in a humble hybrid — no 4WD required. The road did require absolute focus to navigate, between deep ruts, soft sand and fist-sized rocks, so we made frequent stops to allow me to take it in. More distraction ensued. This is where we stopped for lunch. I could have lingered much longer. Tell you what — to try to get the distraction out of my system, are are a bunch of flowers… We’re still on the drive to reach Elkhorn Road so we can get to the really pretty part…. It’s not all yellow, gold and poppy orange —there’s a whole lot of purple out there too. Finally! We made it to Elkhorn Road and got a closer look at those mountains. They’re probably at least two miles away from us, and pretty much the entire surface is covered with blooms. It’s insane. (The San Andreas Fault runs right under our feet around here.) Okay, enough distraction. This is a Bird Blog after all. Let me close with one last bird, a species who has already appeared. Toward the west end of the valley we found a Great Horned Owl nest. I couldn’t see into the nest so couldn’t confirm there were nestlings, but someone was getting fed — the ground beneath the nest was covered with Eurasian Collared Dove feathers. Those kids are developing good eating habits! You can see mom, right? So what’s distracting you this week? (Originally published as a Dawn Chorus then found out Appy wrote one which is much birdier!) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/23/2164690/-Dawn-Chorus-I-got-distracted Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/