Belgatos Park and trail

Early in March, Red and I took advantage of the beautiful spring weather we were experiencing. We went to visit a nearby park that neither of us have ever visited before, yet I knew that local birders frequently visit. The park is located in Los Gatos, about a couple miles southeast of where we live. The park itself is nestled in a residential neighborhood at the foot of Blossom Hill, and the trails take you up around Blossom Hill where there is more housing with larger lots. Albeit, these homes are where the "wealthier" folks live. Homes around here can sell for more than $1.5 million.

The weather that day was perfect - a perfect temp for hiking uphill, and visibility was great as you will see in the photos I've posted here (near the end). As we headed up the hill Red and I would occasionally look back to get a view of where we started from. At one point Red noticed some deer grazing. So we took advantage of getting some shots. Take note there is a house just on the other side of the park boundary where the deer were located. (Don't forget to click on the photos so you can get a larger image.)

As we headed further up the hill we noticed quite a bit of bird activity. Some birds we saw but I did not get pictures of were a spotted towhee and a pair of hawks (we think they were sharpies). Other birds that were difficult to get were cedar waxwings. As you can tell from my photos the lighting was a challenge -- we were in a shaded area where the waxwings kept flying into. And as you can see in these two photos we dealt with a bright sunshiny day in the middle of the day.

Here is a chestnut-backed chickadee we saw on the trail. Actually there were several of them flitting around, but this one was a bit more cooperative as a photo op.

We also saw bushtits flying around with the chickadees. This was the only decent shot I could get. These little birds are much like chickadees and titmice - they don't sit still even for a second.

And the clowns of the bird species were there in abundance -- acorn woodpeckers. Here are a couple of photos I took of them. Isn't that a beautiful blue sky behind them?

And this is a shot of a woodpecker granary. See all the holes in the branches? Isn't that cool?

Here is a shot of Lick Observatory located on top of Mt. Hamilton, which is about 20 miles away as the crow flies.

And here is a shot of downtown San Jose with the Mt Hamilton range in the background. Downtown San Jose is probably about 8 miles away as the crow flies.

Rancho San Antonio County Park - Los Altos/Cupertino California

A month ago, the first Sunday in October, Red and I visited one of the county parks here in our area. Rancho San Antonio is located in the foothills of Los Altos, although I always considered it part of Cupertino, the city where we used to live before moving to San Jose. It was a pleasant afternoon with temperatures around 70-75 degrees. Click on the link to read a little more about this park which has quite a bit to offer visitors, such as horse trails, biking trails, and a farm where children can pet the animals. There are also picnic grounds and most of the trails are well used, especially on weekends.

Above is a thistle plant I saw while walking around the picnic ground area. And below is one of the oldest Bay Laurel trees in this park. As you can see in the photo it was fenced off. I had to walk back quite a distance to get the entire tree into the photo.
Red and I didn't have a lot of time, but walking around we did see a few birds. Below are acorn woodpeckers. There were quite a few of them all over the area where we were walking. [Be sure to click on the photos to get a larger image.]

Another species we saw were starlings, quite a few of them.

As we were leaving the park, driving right outside of the entrance, we caught a glimpse of white, actually black and white. It was large and so we had to find a place where we could pull off the road. When we finally did, we watched in awe as this big white bird hovering above the ground and then take a dive. Both of us finally realized we were looking at a White-tailed kite. We saw it fly back up into a tree and then realized a short distance away from this bird was another kite perched in another tree. Photo op? You bet! Did we get a photo? Nope! We already had everything packed away in the trunk and we needed to get home. Well, at least we know what to look for when we return to this park. For the short length of time we spent there we certainly found some very interesting birds to enjoy. And just to note, the acorn woodpecker was a lifer for me.