Re: [SBB] Caution: Access Restricted to Loma Prieta

[Tom Grey <[[email protected]]>]

I headed up to Loma Prieta yesterday morning, hoping to get a photo of a
Black-chinned (but figuring that was a long shot). I was right about the
odds. I took off a little late because around my house it looked like a
foggy morning, not good for photography. So I got to the closed portion of
the road up to the LP "parking lot" around 9.15 (in full sun after driving
through thick fog along Summit Road -- I shoulda gone earlier!). Some Santa
Cruz birders were just emerging from the closed road, and reported good
close views of a singing BCSP along the paved road just past the parking
area. I hung out with them for a few minutes, which may have been fatal to
my chances, as I neither saw nor heard a BCSP up around the parking area. I
did hear one of the charming locals shouting "f... you, lady" at someone
around the parking area while I was tending my camera and big lens just
around the bend in the paved road.

When I returned to the parking area, a nice young male ranger came by. I
had met him a couple of weeks back at the Sierra Azul parking lot along
Hicks Road, the trailhead to the Woods Trail. He passed on in very mild
terms the new policy that the closure of the road up to LP from the fork in
the public road was now for real, except to residents and those visiting
them. (Suggests possible gambit -- "I'm up here to see if there are any
lonely mountain dwellers wanting company.")

I expressed my regret, noting that this was a valued spot to local birders.
He made sympathetic noises, said something about "trouble with the
residents," and noted that the Sierra Azul plan was being worked up for
submission and they had hopes for more and better public access to more of
the area. (Looking at the maps for the current alternative plans for Sierra
Azul at the MROSD website, I don't see anything for Loma Prieta, though --
there looks to be a plan for parking down on Loma Prieta Ave, but nothing
for the area at the foot of the three dirt roads to the Loma Prieta
summit.)

By the way, this nice young ranger, whose name I regret I didn't get, told
me that there has been a Golden Eagle nest in recent years a couple of
miles down the Woods Trail from off Hicks Road, visible from the trail. He
hadn't been by there recently and didn't know if it was active this year.

As for me, my Loma Prieta trip was a photographic and avian bust, but the
view from up there on a beautiful spring morning is sufficient reward. I
went home and did some did some googling, finding the websites Akkana
posted. Late afternoon my wife and I went for a walk at Rancho San Antonio
and I got a couple of birdpix I've posted on my website.

Tom Grey



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