[SBB] Saratoga Gap 6/27/2006 (etc.)

Hello All,

This morning 6/27/2006 I took a walk along the Saratoga Gap Trail, crossing Hwy 9 to include a quarter-mile section of the Skyline Trail at Castle Rock State Park. There were not many total birds around, but at my starting point at the pullout just SE from the Saratoga Summit fire station, a Western Tanager was singing from the treetops over the road. At a little springhouse just below the trail a quarter-mile further SE, a Winter Wren scolded me. A family of Steller's Jays were present there as well, with a parent bird carrying food for fledged young. Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos also had fledglings there.

From the junctions of highways 9 & 35 I could hear a calling Olive-sided Flycatcher just to the east in Saratoga Gap OSP. A bit farther southeast, a Yellow-rumped Warbler sang from fir tops at milepost SCL 14.00, on the east side of the road. Also at that location, a Brown Creeper family with fledged young was working the tree trunks.

On Sunday 6/25 I checked nestboxes at Arastradero Preserve and found a female Lazuli Bunting carrying food along the Woodland Star trail, right where the trail crosses the little creek. She scolded me with her mouth full for some time, while I could hear a male singing on the slope to the east. I have suspected LAZB breeding at the preserve for several years but had not been able to pin it down until now.

I forgot to mention in earlier posts that on 6/20/2006 I found an active Cassin's Vireo nest by the White House at Hidden Villa (breeding code ON).

--Garth Harwood