[SBB] Monte Bello Gate 5 area

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

Hello All,

This morning 11/1/2005 I stopped for just 20 minutes at Monte Bello OSP's Gate 5 (7:20-7:40) and witnessed a migration event of moderate intensity. In that span 74 Varied Thrushes passed overhead mixed in with 38 American Robins, 43 Cedar Waxwings, and a couple each of Pine Siskins and Purple Finches. All but the latter two species were heading determinedly south. (Perhaps this wave is moving ahead of the weather front that is moving down from the north?) I can't help but wonder what might have come through if I'd been able to stay.

Yesterday 10/31 there were two Wilson's Snipe down by the pond edge. On Friday 10/28 I stopped in at twilight and saw the Virginia Rail and two adult Sora there, and heard a Western Screech Owl and a Northern Saw-Whet Owl in the woodlands to the west. Two Great Horned Owls called from the upper Coal Creek watershed, making a third silent GH Owl anxious as I observed it fly from tree to tree at the woodland edge and eventually strike at a rustling vole on the ground. Once this owl was on the ground it remained motionless for more than 15 minutes, allowing me to pass within 25 feet of it as I moved by on the trail. (It seemed way more concerned about the other owls calling in the distance.)

Wood smoke was in the air all along Skyline Blvd. this morning, especially to the south on the west side of the crest.

--Garth Harwood
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