May 4
This morning we drove to Danville to meet up with the Mount Diablo Audubon group. The outing was let by Jim Edgar and we car pooled in Hugh Harvey's car. Hugh is the club's record keeper and list keeper. Hugh is very knowledgeable of the area as he pretty well grew up here. There were about 20 people on the outing and we stopped at several stops on the way to the summit of Mount Diablo which is almost 4,000 feet above sea level. While we did not get any lifers here, we did get lovely looks at some the birds we have seen such as the Hermit Warbler, a Western Bluebird pair on the nest in a hole in a live oak, Townsend's Warbler, Pacific-slope Flycatcher and Hammond's Flycatcher. We saw a covey of about 4 California Quail and then in the afternoon we saw a pair crossing the mountain road.
On the road up the mountain and down, we met up with several cyclists. Apparently there is a race here every year which is famous and is on TV. The race attracted people like Lance Armstrong in his heyday. This is a tough mountain. Hugh told us that he cycles the mountain once a year on his birthday, the 17th of July and he has been doing this for years. It takes Hugh two hours to get up the mountain and 45 minutes to come down.
One really special sighting we had was the Calliope Humming Bird, which was the first time we saw this hummer on this trip, taking a bath in a mountain stream. It was so neat to see this tiny bird enjoying a cool shower under the trickling water.
We met many members of the Audubon group and there are group members who are plant and flower experts. We saw Stinky Monkey Plant, Black Sage, Chemise Sage, Ethereal's Spear, and Miner's Lettuce. There were some lovely butterflies such as the Western Tiger Swallowtail and the Variable Checkerspot.
After lunch and the group bird list compilation, we continued to bird the mountain with Hugh. We climbed to the very top observation tower at the lighthouse beacon of the mountain. This is where the above photo was taken. From this spot we could see the towers of downtown San Francisco and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge and the mountain nearby (forgotten the name of this mountain). It is said that one can see over 80 miles away from this spot. The vista is stunning.
Hugh then drove down the mountain. We stopped at point to listen for sparrows as we did not have any today. Hugh was hoping for Sage Sparrow or the Black-chinned Sparrow but it was quiet. Hugh graciously invited us to his home. We drove back to the meet-up spot and we followed Hugh to his home as it was on our way back to our motel. We met Hugh's wife and visited their lovely patio where they have bird feeders set up. In addition they have a bird house where a pair of Chestnut-backed Chickadees had just fledged three young ones. Hugh feeds them meal worms and there was constant activity from the parents in feeding their young.
We watched the humming birds come to the flowers and the hummingbird feeders also and both Anna's and Allan's Hummingbirds showed up to feed. We ended up going out to supper with Hugh and his wife and we had a delightful supper conversation covering education, politics a bit, and other interesting topics. We said goodbye to this gracious couple and headed back to our motel to make arrangements for tomorrow. We worked out the routes and GPS addresses for tomorrow so we are set for not getting lost. Usually this works. Sometimes the GPS acts up and we drive on directional ideas and sometimes this works. Generally we are fine.
Below are Western Bluebird and Allen's Hummingbird.
This morning we drove to Danville to meet up with the Mount Diablo Audubon group. The outing was let by Jim Edgar and we car pooled in Hugh Harvey's car. Hugh is the club's record keeper and list keeper. Hugh is very knowledgeable of the area as he pretty well grew up here. There were about 20 people on the outing and we stopped at several stops on the way to the summit of Mount Diablo which is almost 4,000 feet above sea level. While we did not get any lifers here, we did get lovely looks at some the birds we have seen such as the Hermit Warbler, a Western Bluebird pair on the nest in a hole in a live oak, Townsend's Warbler, Pacific-slope Flycatcher and Hammond's Flycatcher. We saw a covey of about 4 California Quail and then in the afternoon we saw a pair crossing the mountain road.
On the road up the mountain and down, we met up with several cyclists. Apparently there is a race here every year which is famous and is on TV. The race attracted people like Lance Armstrong in his heyday. This is a tough mountain. Hugh told us that he cycles the mountain once a year on his birthday, the 17th of July and he has been doing this for years. It takes Hugh two hours to get up the mountain and 45 minutes to come down.
One really special sighting we had was the Calliope Humming Bird, which was the first time we saw this hummer on this trip, taking a bath in a mountain stream. It was so neat to see this tiny bird enjoying a cool shower under the trickling water.
We met many members of the Audubon group and there are group members who are plant and flower experts. We saw Stinky Monkey Plant, Black Sage, Chemise Sage, Ethereal's Spear, and Miner's Lettuce. There were some lovely butterflies such as the Western Tiger Swallowtail and the Variable Checkerspot.
After lunch and the group bird list compilation, we continued to bird the mountain with Hugh. We climbed to the very top observation tower at the lighthouse beacon of the mountain. This is where the above photo was taken. From this spot we could see the towers of downtown San Francisco and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge and the mountain nearby (forgotten the name of this mountain). It is said that one can see over 80 miles away from this spot. The vista is stunning.
Hugh then drove down the mountain. We stopped at point to listen for sparrows as we did not have any today. Hugh was hoping for Sage Sparrow or the Black-chinned Sparrow but it was quiet. Hugh graciously invited us to his home. We drove back to the meet-up spot and we followed Hugh to his home as it was on our way back to our motel. We met Hugh's wife and visited their lovely patio where they have bird feeders set up. In addition they have a bird house where a pair of Chestnut-backed Chickadees had just fledged three young ones. Hugh feeds them meal worms and there was constant activity from the parents in feeding their young.
We watched the humming birds come to the flowers and the hummingbird feeders also and both Anna's and Allan's Hummingbirds showed up to feed. We ended up going out to supper with Hugh and his wife and we had a delightful supper conversation covering education, politics a bit, and other interesting topics. We said goodbye to this gracious couple and headed back to our motel to make arrangements for tomorrow. We worked out the routes and GPS addresses for tomorrow so we are set for not getting lost. Usually this works. Sometimes the GPS acts up and we drive on directional ideas and sometimes this works. Generally we are fine.
Below are Western Bluebird and Allen's Hummingbird.
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