Mid-April means taxes to many people and it makes them kinda grouchy. Mid-April means Mines Road to me, and nothing could make me happier.
For nearly 20 years now, I've made the trip to this wonderful road in the southeast Bay Area - often more than once. Yesterday was the day.
This late-departing sparrow shows why he's called a Golden-crowned. In a matter of days, they should be out of here and headed to points north.
The wildflowers were in full bloom - even though our winter was scary-dry, we had a late season rain about two weeks ago that was perfectly timed for all the emerging plants.
One attraction of Mines Road, to me, is that it feels like a very "Old California" place. There are a lot of very old ranches set on very young hills (geologically speaking). The terrain is rugged in many places, not the kind of place you can put in a smoothly contoured four-land road, way too steep for subdivisions, so it's been left alone for the most part. Our trip takes us down Mines Road, south of Livermore, up to a junction with Del Puerto Canyon Road, at which point Mines Road becomes San Antonio Valley Road. SAV Road marches up the back side of Mt. Hamilton and down into San Jose; we explore the first few miles of that road, then double back and take Del Puerto Canyon to its end at I-5.
You can never get totally away from the impact of people in the bay area, as this Acorn Woodpecker knows. But a place like Mines Road is still a quiet, unpaved pleasure on a spring day.
Over the years that I've been going, there has been explosive population growth in the surrounding area. The fields and hills north of 580 were open rangeland even ten years ago; now each visit shows the inexorable creep of housing ever higher up the hillsides. Looking north now, it's paved almost to the ridgelines. The far end of Del Puerto Canyon Road seemed like it would be immune from development because it was so far from everything. But as Bay Area communities sprawled past Altamont and into Tracy and beyond, the area out there went from orchards to homes. And now development is creeping into the far end of our sanctuary.
Red-winged Blackbird puts on a show. All day long, we saw birds strutting their stuff, claiming territories and trying to impress potential mates. It was glorious... it was spring.
Normally a rather elusive bird (at least around here), we had great looks at Rufous-crowned Sparrows today. They hopped on fenceposts, perched on wires, sang and came in surprisingly close. One thing that made the day extra fun was that I'd gone with a friend who'd heard about Mines Road for years but never visited - it's always great to see a familiar place through new eyes. She had never seen a Rufous-crowned Sparrow before, and thought it was a great little bird. I hate to tell her that it's generally not that easy.
Not everything elusive is rare - Cal Towhees are perhaps better described as "secretive" or "reclusive", but they were extroverts yesterday. They came up from the leaf litter to sit in the sun, sing their song and chase each other all day long.
We also got great looks at Lawrence's Goldfinch, but no photos - our closest encounters happened at a spot much earlier on the road than I'm accustomed to seeing them. A trio flew onto a willow in front of us, not 20 feet away. After enjoying them for a moment, I thought I've got to try to get a photo and went back to the car for my camera. Of course they were long gone. But they called a lot as they moved around the tree, so my friend got to learn their "tee-dink" call and picked it up later in the day when we heard another flock further down the road.
Another sometimes elusive bird who put on a great show for us - Lewis' Woodpecker. We pulled up at the first place where I generally look for them, and I was starting to describe what we'd want to look for - a bird who looks like a crow at first glance but doesn't fly or otherwise act like a crow - when a bird flew across the road and into a tree near us. Our first Lewis' of the day and we hadn't really even started to look. A little further down the road, we found another group in a tree with these apparent nest cavity openings. There were 3-5 flying in and around the tree, calling almost non-stop.
We had a look at a soaring Bald Eagle, a bird dot really. Later, we were blessed with much better looks at a pair of Golden Eagles. This one came off a hillside and did some lazy circles to gain elevation, passing above us as it went.
At one point, it crossed paths with its (presumed) mate, who flew past carrying a few sticks... maybe in the direction of a nest?
Toward the end of the day, we were looking for Costa's Hummingbirds (with no success) when we encountered a number of Western Kingbirds. They were chattering non-stop and putting on a great show, chasing each other around bushes, trees and fences. Great birds.
Great day.
