Birding Festival - part 5 - Sunday's field trip

Sunday's field trip was to the east side of Pinnacles National Monument, located within the Gabilan mountain range, in San Benito county. This side of the park is where the visitor center and campgrounds are located. We drove down to Watsonville where we checked in with those in charge. Once we were all accounted for we were told which roads/highway we would take to get to Pinnacles. But first we wanted to stop and get ourselves a lunch for later. We stopped at a Safeway in Hollister and bought some ready-made sandwiches and some fresh fruit. Red and Dave also wanted to fill up their mugs with Starbucks coffee, which was located at a kiosk within Safeway. The rest of the birding group planned on stopping somewhere in Panoche Valley to pick up another person or two who were registered for this field trip. Meanwhile, we continued on to Pinnacles. When we arrived at the visitor center/campground nobody was there yet. So while waiting we walked around the area to see what there was to see. One of the first things I saw was a yellow-billed magpie (lifer!). Don't forget to click on the pictures to get a larger image.

Isn't this bird beautiful? He really didn't mind posing for me, especially after he realized I kept trying to get a closer shot of him every few seconds. He was perched on the fence surrounding the campground's swimming pool.
As for flora around the area there really wasn't that much. This is sacred datura, aka western jimson weed. It closes up in the daytime/sunlight and actually blooms at night. Click on the link to read more about this plant.

Here's a view of some higher peaks seen from the visitor center/campground.

Did we see any California Condors? Well, sort of. Way off in the distance in this pine tree are 3 condors. Click on the photo so you can see a larger image. And about halfway down you can see three dark spots near the main trunk. This was the best I could get with my camera. Some folks had scopes and I did get a better view. One woman had a 45x and I could make it out that there were 3 large birds in the tree. Another woman had a 60x and it was so much better. I could actually see the ID tags on each of the birds. That was really cool to see the birds. I just wish I could have seen them flying. But maybe next year, or another time when Red and I can go visit the area on our own.

Most of the group chose to hike up a trail I think was called Bear Gulch trail. A couple miles up the road would be a picnic area where we could stop for lunch. There were a number of bird species spotted along the way, but I was never able to get any pictures. Once we got to our destination we were greeted by a few stellar's jays and California ground squirrels. My pictures of the squirrels came out too dark, but I did get a few good shots of this stellar's jay. This was my best shot. Now this bird is NOT a lifer for me because I used to see them all the time when my husband and I used to live in Colorado and go camping on weekends in the Rocky Mountains. We used to see plenty of Clark's Nutcrackers, too, as well as hundreds of chipmunks.

While walking back down the trail toward the visitor center we encountered a couple of deer. I wasn't standing in the right place at the right time, so this was the best I could get. As the photo shows, this doe was grazing. Once she saw several of us she moved on.

Once we got back to the parking lot we were tired and wanted to call it a day and head back home. The scenery on the way home was so pretty. The picture below is a glimpse of part of the Gabilan range, possibly north of the Pinnacles. In the foreground you can see vineyards growing on the rolling hills.

Here is another view of part of the Gabilan range looking southwest, possibly looking in the direction of where the Pinnacles could be. And in the foreground there's a freight train heading south. Again, you can see the "golden hills" of California behind the train.

As you can see in this view, a beautiful blue clear sky, with the dark green off to the right which is another vineyard at the base of more "golden hills." And way out in the far distance is the southernmost part of the Hamilton range. The Hamilton range is the set of mountains to the east of San Jose (aka Silicon Valley).

Overall, we really enjoyed this birding festival. There is such a variety of geographic possibilities which gives one a wide variety of bird species to be found. I recommend this birding festival to anyone who plans on visiting central coast California in late September. And almost guaranteed great sunshiny weather.