Red Tailed Roost, Mt Laguna Trail #4

This past Wednesday, I was pretty sure I saw a White-Breasted Nuthatch on a palm tree in our neighborhood, but only had an iPhone video of it. Unsatisfied, I went back with the camera several days in a row, but didn’t see it again. (The neighbors were so curious.) We drove up to Mt. Laguna for a run and birding yesterday and got out of the car at the Red Tailed Roost Trailhead next to a tree with three of them! And they were there the whole day! Of course…

Plus a special surprise:

Alison reminded us that the bird we often hear from the chairlift while skiing at Mammoth is the Mountain Chickadee and it could be in this area. Within minutes of parking the car we heard the familiar call. Nostalgia defined!

Contributing most to the cacophony in the forest were the Acorn Woodpeckers. They spanned the whole trail at the top of the mountain. More than we could count.

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Swallows seem to never sit still so when I saw this one and he sat there longer than I could hold the new lens without a rest, I wondered what was up. Then I noticed him watching a female a few feet away feeding (?) into a hole in the tree.

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I was sitting in the driver’s seat of the car adjusting the autofocus setting on my camera, when this bright one walked by:

The Nuthatches, Chickadee, Junco, Swallow, Stellar’s Jay, and American Robin above are new for our 2021 list. The Acorn Woodpeckers, Western Bluebirds, Song Sparrow, and Scrub Jay are repeats. Peter saw a Quail, but we can’t confirm which. We heard Turkeys, and saw a couple hawks, but no photos.

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A successful day!

-Blair