Laguna Mountains, Etc.

I spent Saturday morning hiking around Laguna meadow with my wife.  Much to wife's dismay I actually had great success photographing many of the continuing rarities up there including the CLARK'S NUTCRACKERS, PINYON JAYS, MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS, PRAIRIE FALCON, and even a wayward Ferruginous Hawk.  Photos on ebird here:

Just before sunset on Saturday, after dropping the wife off at the outlets, I managed to find Tito's continuing female SCARLET TANAGER at Buddy Todd Park in the ficus by the parking lot.  It's a noisy, busy place there on the weekends so it could certainly still be around despite at least one negative ebird checklist today.

Today I checked out Colina Del Sol park this morning for any sapsuckers, but I couldn't find any noticeable sapsucker tree marks.  Otherwise it was very birdy, but I didn't find any rarities.  I then missed seeing any pipits at the fiesta island dog run, which were evidently there a few hours later.  I guess I focused too much time looking at/ petting dogs :).

Not that it's really chase-able, but I was surprised to see a LEWIS'S WOODPECKER in the heart of San Diego a couple of week's ago after arriving home.  Unmistakable large all black woodpecker with grey on the upper breast.  Looking on ebird I see at least one other coastal record from old town, but it's unusual to see one in such an urban, coastal landscape.

On a completely different note Flickr's policy changes will inevitably lead to it's overall demise among bird photographers and others in similar communities.  I suppose Instagram is the new alternative? I guess most people will abandon it, and I certainly won't bother to catch up on my uploads to the platform, but until January rolls around feel free to enjoy some of my photos online here:

A bit of a long post, but hopefully it wasn't too rambling.

Tom F-H

San Diego, CA