Onion Valley

David tackles the Robinson Lake walk (34) soon after breakfast (a forty minute grunt up the hillat the back of the campsite) and Tracey & I wander about photographing and birding in the area of the Onion Valley campground. I have some splendid views of an adult male Mountain Bluebird a species that I have seen briefly each of the past two evenings, but the individuals on those occasions have always been drab plumaged females or immatures. It looks as though a family party must be in residence. This particular male flew past me very close and settled for a short while on a roadside post. The other highlight was finding 20 or more Rufous Hummingbirds in a patch of Larkspur Delphinium glaucum. Excellent views!

Larkspur

It was during my wanderings earlier this morning that I got to grips at last with the Green-tailed Towhee and satisfied myself that it was a Song Sparrow that was singing in the campgrounds. He moved about a lot and sang from high in the firs. Later, I was amazed at how many samples of different species of sparrow song I could Google-up on the internet! Over the next day or so these sound files were invaluable in clinching this one! Also seen well in the same area most of the time was White-crowned Sparrow. afew individuals. We set off for home at 1130 with a stop in Lancaster for snacks and we were back by 1800. On the way I saw my first duck of this trip - a couple of Mallard and the first American Kestrel. Also seen today, but not for the first time, were Brewer's Blackbirds often seen near settlements along the freeway and a Great-tailed Grackle in Lancaster.

In the evening we installed a new hummingbirds feeder (Humm-Zinger Ultra with Nectar-guards inserted). At the end of the day we had some good views of a Nuttall's Woodpecker working a small area of bark on a Sychamore tree in the back garden. It tapped away persistently in several places just below a fork. It seemed not to make major gouges in the tree and worked the area for some time. Just on dusk a Sharp-shinned Hawk suddenly shot out of a dense bush at the top of the garden pursued by a small songbird suggesting that it had possibly missed its target. Late in the evening, well after dark, a pack of Coyote burst into loud yelping calls just outside the back fence (about 2300hr).