On the family vacation at Stinson Beach.
Tawnia and I went for a long walk. We drove Alvin up to the Sky Trailhead near Point Reys, and walked back towards Bolinas in a meandering all day hike passing the Alamere Falls and Bass Lake. Fred picked up Alvin, and met us as we walked out the dirt road past the Bird Observatory.
Fog-rain wet to start, with smells of deep forest and rain from fog....eerie bird calls echoing in the halls of the tall trees...and then clear blue sky- you could see the Farallon Islands in detail.
We saw:
Birds:
- Piliated Woodpeckers - 2 near the trailhead
- Bewick's Wren
- Winter Wren
- Western Gull
- California Gull
- Turkey Vulture (including many munching on some large beached animal - whale? sea lion?)
- Osprey
- Wilson's Warbler
- Cliff Swallow
- House Sparrow (just one, out in the wild too)
- Red Tailed Hawks
- Yellow Warbler
- Orange Crowed Warbler
- Brown Pelicans
- Cormorants - Pelagic I think.
- Woodpecker like? Generally dark - red on the head with a yellow (white) vertical back stripe.
- Bushtits