[SBB] Sage Sparrow & MB05 today 6/18/2007

Hello All,

Things have changed little at the MB05 pond at Monte Bello over the past month; although many of the breeding species have begun to quiet down, most of them are still around. This morning 6/18/2007, there was still an Olive-sided Flycatcher audible in the distance, as well as a couple of heard-only Black-throated Gray Warblers and several Lazuli Buntings. Purple Finches were being followed around by their fledglings, and I had single Lawrence's Goldfinch flyovers at both the gate and by the pond. All of these have been here at every visit for the past few weeks, among other more regular species.

This is always a tricky time of year at the pond, much as I love it. As I have come to expect, the chiggers which occur there have returned this month. As if they and the ticks were not enough, the non-native Harding Grass is now as tall as my chin and it has reached the 'powder-puff' stage (when touched, the club-like seedheads release a thick cloud of pollen at nose level. It even fogs up my binocs.) Today there was an extra hazard though: a large rattlesnake coiled on the narrow path at the pond's edge. I've been waiting for that to show up there - everything else does! (Although I was only 4 feet from the snake when I saw it, it did not rattle or even blink, so it was easy to circle around.) I tell you all of this in the interest of full disclosure, so that you won't walk into these fun things and be surprised by them.

After leaving the pond I decided to try one more time for the fugitive Sage Sparrow 'almost' seen at Skyline Ridge OSP on at least 2 occasions recently. I parked at the Horseshoe Lake main lot and walked the Ridge Trail directly up to the dense chaparral which appears as you round the corner at about 0.6 miles and start looking out over a broad and beautiful vista to the ocean. I then spent about 35 minutes slowly cruising above the main chaparral area, looking and listening for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing but Wrentits and Scrub Jays, it seemed, so I was headed out when I decided to wait and see why one particular chemise clump was vibrating without the help of wind. Sure enough, a drab sparrow soon popped up and flew to a nearby shrub where it stared back at me. Through partial screening I had excellent looks as the Sage Sparrow and I inspected one another from less than 25 feet away. There was no mistaking it this time: unpatterned gray crown and brownish back and wings, bold white eyering, supraloral spots, and moustachial stripes, the latter underscored by a dark line; clear whitish breast with a large v-shaped smudge at the center. It twitched its tail nervously up and down, as the birds I saw last week at Monte Bello had.

I had this bird in view for about 7 minutes, until it finally flew off, staying very low, to the right and downslope. It was completely silent until about the fifth minute, when it started making its very soft, junco-like calls. I hung around for a couple more minutes and heard more calls like that after a while, these seeming to be under the chaparral canopy and slightly to the left. Maybe the first bird circled back...or maybe not. I had a gut sense there might be a nest nearby - if anyone else wants to try for it, the exact spot is about 0.7 miles from the parking lot, and about 100 yards west from the point where you first turn the corner and see the big view, where a low sandstone boulder bulges out of the trail bed. I left a tiny cairn on a small outcrop just above the trail there. It will probably require patience, but it doesn't hurt that this is probably one of the most beautiful spots in the entire Bay Area!

Good birding to all,

Garth Harwood