[SBB] Monte Bello Gate 5, 6/7/2005

["Garth Harwood" <[[email protected]]>]

Hi All, 

Made my ritual stop at Gate 5 this morning, but first stopped at the Skyline/Page Mill jct. to listen for my hit & run Hooded Warbler - no such luck of course (no self-respecting HOWA would stick around in such inappropriate habitat.) But still one has to check.

At that location I did hear a Red-breasted Nuthatch among the pines in the tiny wedge of SCL north of Page Mill there. I had thought I had one there last week as well, but it was more distant that time, and very brief. This time it was very clear and close, but alas it did not sound off again in the 1/2 hour I lingered nearby. I staked out a potential nest snag for part of that time, but detected no movement.

Also present at the junction was a pair of Steller's Jays carrying nest material and family groups of Orange-crowned Warblers and W. Scrub-jays with fledged young.

Down near the Gate 5 pond I enjoyed watching two Lazuli Bunting males singing from high points. One of them hangs out very close to the gate itself, often singing from a roadside coyote bush. There is a lush profusion of purple-flowered vetch along the trail down to the pond, and this is drawing a fair number of hummingbirds, which today included at least 2 Selasphorus birds, including a male which gave energetic chase to a female (the female was seen several times but that was his only appearance.) A Snowy Egret was a surprise at the pond; wading birds have been absent on my visits ever since the winter rains filled the pond to capacity.

On my way back up I met Bob Reiling and Frank Vanslager coming down. We all saw a Western Wood-pewee fly in silently and begin flycatching - not a rarity perhaps, but one of the few times I've seen one at Monte Bello.

--Garth Harwood
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