Lesser Mountains

As I complete my monotonous tasks in the air-conditioned comfort of the Color Lab throughout the week, I wistfully remember last summer and the excessive time I spent in various mountain ranges. Hikes were had, scrambles up rocky slopes were not uncommon, and plunges into icy mountain streams and lakes provided welcome diversions from birding. I decided that I would have to get into some mountains this weekend, even if they were just the lowly Santa Ana Mountains. I was decidedly unenthusiastic about this decision when I arose at four-thirty this morning, but I dragged myself to the Trabuco Canyon Trail and began hiking before six. After six hours and thirteen miles, I had seen a nice selection of montane birds, including Mountain Quail, Olive-sided Flycathcer, Hairy Woodpecker, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and this Western Wood-Pewee.



The primary motive fueling this hike, however, was not birds--it was other forms of life. These other forms of life--especially butterflies--abounded, much to my joy.


Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon)


Acmon Blue (Plebejus acmon)


Tailed Copper (Lycaena arota)


Dotted Blue (Euphilotes enoptes)


Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus)


Gabb's Checkerspot (Chlosyne gabbii)


Leanira Checkerspot (Thessalia leanira)


Red Rock Skimmer (Paltothemis lineatipes)


Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer)

Sagging Spirits

Orange County's lowly Santa Ana Mountains are generally ignored by birders in favor of the bigger, more exciting mountain ranges like the San Bernardinos or San Jacintos. For a legitimate reason, too: the Santa Anas do not rise high enough to host specialties like White-headed Woodpeckers, Dusky Flycatchers, or Cassin's Finches. In comparison with their taller neighbors, the Santa Anas are downright boring.

But!

Upper Silverado Canyon, only a twenty-minute drive from my house, offers a nice serving of mountain birding within Orange County. It seems that I stumble upon something exciting every time I head up there--Green-tailed Towhee, Painted Redstart, breeding Olive-sided Flycatchers, Lewis's Woodpecker...

But...

I haven't learned my lesson. I kept intending to visit the canyon all summer, but I kept putting it off, figuring there was nothing new to see. Boy, was I wrong.

It was shaping up to be pretty average morning. Sure, a few highlights: Canyon and Rock Wrens, a whole mess of Western Screech-Owls before dawn, and several Olive-sided Flycatchers. All neat birds, and some of them extremely local in Orange County in the summer. Still...this is a tad disappointing, I thought as I gazed out over the canyon to the fog-shrouded lowlands below.

Tik, tik. Whaaaaat...?

The bird was invisible, so I blast it with my most irresistible pish mix.

Pssshhh psh pssshhhhhhhpshhhpshhh PSSSHHH PSSHHHHHHHHHHH

My opponent hesitated for a moment, and then popped up and launched itself at me. It landed in a bush about fifteen feet away. It was a sparrow, it was a....

HOLY SMOKES, A SAGE SPARROW!



I've lived in Orange County for three years without seeing one. Legends of their continued existence deep in impenetrable tracks of the Santa Anas constantly circulate, but finding one borders on impossible. A most excellent way to save the morning, no?

Thomas Jefferson looked upon my success with stern approval.



I built a stone cairn to mark the spot in case other birders wished to search for this phantom sparrow. Tommy did his part.



A side effect of my pishing assault was an infestation of spunky Blue-gray Gnatcathcers. This bright-eyed little gnome landed at arm's length.



By late morning it was hot, dusty, and I was more than ready for lunch, so returned to my (err, my mom's) extremely rugged Subaru and coasted down the mountain. Driving this battered dirt road is fun--you just have to watch out for steep drop-offs, random boulders in the road, and suicidal Mountain Quails.

I wasn't hungry enough to skip a brief search for butterflies lower in the canyon. The paucity of butterflies this late in the summer is yet another reason why I should have visited the canyon earlier. Ah well, you learn from your mistakes...right?



California Dogface



California Sister

Roadtrip Photos

You may have noticed that my previous post about my road trip last week lacked bird photos. Well, here they are! Enjoy!



Whoops, that's not a bird--but it's still a really cool find! It's a San Emigdio Blue, which has a very restricted range. Tim had a secret cluster of the staked out near the local grape juice place.



"Thick-billed" Fox Sparrow



Red-breasted Nuthatch--these guys were delightfully common in the mountains!



Hermit Warbler



Another butterfly, one of my favorites: California Sister



Though it was allegedly a birding trip, we spent a lot of time hunting down insects as well. Several stops along the Kern River produced massive numbers of puddling butterflies, some of which Tim got very friendly with.



Pileated Woodpecker. We saw several of these, including one in the Greenhorn Mountains, which is the southernmost location where this species occurs in the West.



Red-breasted Sapsucker



Lark Sparrow



Sage Sparrow



White-headed Woodpecker--always a crowd-pleaser!



Our first night of owling only produced a single screech-owl, but our second night netted us a gorgeous Northern Saw-whet Owl. It completely compensated for the two a.m. wake up time!



Williamson's Sapsucker was one of Tim's top target birds for the trip. After spending an entire afternoon failing to find one, we were overjoyed to find several drumming males as well as this female the next morning.



Garter snake.