July 25, 2005 [LINK]
Day trip to Todd Lake
We spent a pleasant, mostly sunny Sunday picnicking, swimming, and hiking up at Todd Lake, a U.S. Forest Service-maintained recreation area in the mountains about 20 miles northwest of town. (Click HERE to see a scenic photo.) There were a few interesting birds in and around that area, including:
- Red-tailed hawks
- Cedar waxwings
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher
- Blue-headed vireo (very vocal)
- Chipping sparrows
- Worm-eating warbler
- Cooper's hawk (prob.), juv.
- Goldfinches
- Blue jays (very vocal)
- [Great blue heron]
We also heard a pewee in the woods and a kingfisher [where the stream enters] the lake. The most interesting nature finds, however, were the many kinds of colorful mushrooms we saw on the trail above the north side of the lake.
UPDATE: Here is a montage of the best ones we saw yesterday. ("But wait, there's more!") Identification of some of these species is still pending, so I won't post the individual photos on the Mushrooms page until later. As always, stay tuned...
Saturday morning we saw a pair of Broad-winged hawks circling over Gypsy Hill park, screaming intermittently. There was also a female Wood duck at the pond, plus the usual hoards of Mallards and mixed breed ducks.