It was cloudy in the morning, and very overcast by the afternoon, but mild temperature-wise: 47° when I first headed out, and up to about 51° by noon.

I headed over to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve to do my volunteer trail walking there. I had invited others to come along on the walk if they wanted to, but no one else showed up, so I was on my own (which is fine with me).

The air was full of bird song: wrens, nuthatches, woodpeckers, hawks, towhees, turkeys, everyone was talking.  I heard Nutthall’s Woodpeckers and Spotted Towhees but couldn’t see them amid the branches and brush.  I did get to see a lot of House Wrens and a few Bewick’s Wrens, California Scrub Jays and Western Bluebirds, Oak Titmice and White-Breasted Nuthatches.

In one area, I came across a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk that flew from tree to tree along the trail.  And in another area, I saw a pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks calling to each other and mating (twice). I think they might be using the nest on the Pond Trail near the fire suppression stanchion 4B. Their mating took place very near there, and I saw the female fly into the tree where the nest was.

During the second mating, there was a group of children on the trail, so they kind of got an eyeful. Hah!  On another part of the trail, I came across another small group of kids (each of whom was allowed to go on a solo walk before rejoining their group). When the kids were grouped together, they were right near where I was, so I told them that if they looked up into the tree across from them on the trail, they’d be able to see a Bushtit nest that the little birds were actually in the process of building. They couldn’t make it out at first, so I used the laser-pointer I had (I always take one on my walks) to point out the nest.  They oooed and awwwed, and at the same time a mature couple walked up, asked what we were seeing, and stopped to take photos.

A little further up the same trail, there was a large tree in a shallow meadow, and it was being visited by Western Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, an Anna’s Hummingbird, and Audubon’s Warblers. I swear, I should have just set a chair up there and spent the day watching that tree. Lots of photo ops.

CLICK HERE for the album of photos.

I saw some deer today, mostly small groups of does and a handful of buck (most of them having lost their antlers by now). In one spot, I came from behind a tree on the trail where there’s an open field – and a coyote was standing out there, right in the open. For some reason, my brain freezes when I first see the coyotes, so it takes me a couple of seconds to realize what I’m looking at… and the coyotes usually use those seconds to turn their back on me and lope away as did this one. Dang it!

One of the does was sitting down almost obliterated from view by grasses and shrubbery. She was in an area where, last year, one of the does had her fawn.  I wonder if this was the same doe…

There were a few flowers starting to come up in the grass, and the Interior Live Oak trees are dripping in catkins right now, so spring is springing.  Another few weeks, warm weather permitting, it should be super gorgeous out there.

I walked for 3 ½ hours and then headed back home.

Species List:

1. Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus
2. Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna
3. Audubon’s Warbler, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Setophaga coronate auduboni
4. Bewick’s Wren, Thryomanes bewickii
5. Blue Dicks, Dichelostemma capitatum
6. Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus
7. California Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma californica
8. California Towhee, Melozone crissalis
9. Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus
10. Coyote, Canis latrans
11. Eastern Fox Squirrel, Sciurus niger
12. Elfin Saddle, Helvella lacunosa
13. Giraffe’s Head Henbit, Henbit Deadnettle, Lamium amplexicaule
14. Golden-Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla
15. House Wren, Troglodytes aedon
16. Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizeni
17. Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos
18. Manroot, California Manroot, Bigroot, Wild Cucumber, Marah fabaceus
19. Miner’s Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata
20. Mole, Broad-Footed Mole, Scapanus latimanus
21. Mugwort, California Mugwort, Artemisia douglasiana
22. Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus
23. Nutthall’s Woodpecker, Picoides nuttallii
24. Oak Titmouse, Baeolophus inornatus
25. Oxalis, California Wood Sorrel, Oxalis californica
26. Periwinkle, Vinca major
27. Poison Oak, Toxicodendron diversilobum
28. Red-Shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus
29. Red-Tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis
30. Rio Grande Turkey, Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia
31. Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus
32. Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor
33. Western Bluebird, Sialia mexicana
34. Western Redbud, Cercis occidentalis
35. White-Breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis