April 28
Today we went birding with Steve who is a great bird guide. We started out in the Tijuana Regional Park system and walked a steep road that led up to the Mexican border and the fences/wall between the US and Mexico. It was a steep walk up and we could hear but not see the California Gnatcatcher. We looked hard and long and we were up quite high on this road and finally had views of the male and female California Gnatcatcher. They were obviously feeding a family on the steep hill. From here we went into the desert area of the Regional Park system to look for the Black-throated Magpie Jay but no luck there.
At the nearby Butterfly Garden park there were many migrating warblers including the Hermit Warbler!! This was a lifer for us. We then headed to mountain country, to Mount Laguna for the Mountain Quail. Mount Laguna is about 4,000 feet above sea level and it has dry sage scrub areas and forested areas. We traveled up and it turned cool and cloudy and we were in the clouds here. We stopped at numerous spots up there and it wasn't until the end of the day when we saw the Mountain Quail cross the road in front of us on a isolated road. The area had the favourite bushes of the Mountain Quail.
While we were coming down the mountain back to San Diego, and while the girls were not catching 40 winks in the back seat, a Bobcat was spotted in a field. The Bobcat looked very healthy and beautiful. After this pleasant interlude some of us went back to snoozing. We decided to try for the Black-throated Magpie Jay again as it was sunny and warm and almost sunset in San Diego. Steve heard the bird in the desert area in the Tijuana Regional Parks. We went looking for the bird and Steve and Jane had good looks at the bird. Connie and I were parking the car. It was dusk and too late to do much more. We have decided to look for the bird tomorrow morning.
We just received an email that our pelagic for this Saturday is cancelled due to high ocean winds. As a result, we have decided to split our trip to the San Francisco area into two days to avoid having one long day of driving. So there is some planning to be done yet to figure all that out.
We are doing great here but the early mornings and all the chores that have to be done before we go to bed keep us up. Sometimes there is splash to celebrate a new lifer. There is laundry to be done some nights. So there is NO free time. It will take us days to recover from this trip! But then tomorrow is a new day with new birds for us which is sweet and we are keen to get going.
Today we went birding with Steve who is a great bird guide. We started out in the Tijuana Regional Park system and walked a steep road that led up to the Mexican border and the fences/wall between the US and Mexico. It was a steep walk up and we could hear but not see the California Gnatcatcher. We looked hard and long and we were up quite high on this road and finally had views of the male and female California Gnatcatcher. They were obviously feeding a family on the steep hill. From here we went into the desert area of the Regional Park system to look for the Black-throated Magpie Jay but no luck there.
At the nearby Butterfly Garden park there were many migrating warblers including the Hermit Warbler!! This was a lifer for us. We then headed to mountain country, to Mount Laguna for the Mountain Quail. Mount Laguna is about 4,000 feet above sea level and it has dry sage scrub areas and forested areas. We traveled up and it turned cool and cloudy and we were in the clouds here. We stopped at numerous spots up there and it wasn't until the end of the day when we saw the Mountain Quail cross the road in front of us on a isolated road. The area had the favourite bushes of the Mountain Quail.
While we were coming down the mountain back to San Diego, and while the girls were not catching 40 winks in the back seat, a Bobcat was spotted in a field. The Bobcat looked very healthy and beautiful. After this pleasant interlude some of us went back to snoozing. We decided to try for the Black-throated Magpie Jay again as it was sunny and warm and almost sunset in San Diego. Steve heard the bird in the desert area in the Tijuana Regional Parks. We went looking for the bird and Steve and Jane had good looks at the bird. Connie and I were parking the car. It was dusk and too late to do much more. We have decided to look for the bird tomorrow morning.
We just received an email that our pelagic for this Saturday is cancelled due to high ocean winds. As a result, we have decided to split our trip to the San Francisco area into two days to avoid having one long day of driving. So there is some planning to be done yet to figure all that out.
We are doing great here but the early mornings and all the chores that have to be done before we go to bed keep us up. Sometimes there is splash to celebrate a new lifer. There is laundry to be done some nights. So there is NO free time. It will take us days to recover from this trip! But then tomorrow is a new day with new birds for us which is sweet and we are keen to get going.
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