Laguna Mountains

Dan Jehl and I visited the Lagunas this morning (Friday). Lovely day with almost no breeze and very comfortable temperatures.

We first visited Desert View Road. Recently Jim Palicki reported what seemed to be large numbers of Townsend Solitaires (8 in one spot!) feeding on manzanita berries on the desert slope of the mountains. I looked around and found several on Desert View Road. This is the first turn north of the Desert View Picnic Area on Sunrise Highway – it is not marked on the street. Google calls it Desert View Road. We saw 4 Solitaires there this morning.

We then hiked down to the meadow from Mile 19 of the Sunrise Highway. Williamson’s Sapsucker female was seen within a ¼ mile of the parking area, right along the trail, as was another Solitaire, Pine Siskin and pink-sided Junco. Evening Grosbeaks were seen almost at the bottom of the trail, feeding in the trees to the left of the cow guard hump device on the trail. They called sporadically and drew attention to themselves. They did NOT come down to the water at the trough. We did have two Red Crossbills come to the trough. We had heard others, even at the parking area, but no way to tell if there more than two in the area, or if we were seeing the same two over and over. Two Cassins Finches were near the trough. The Lewis Woodpecker continued in the dead tree right over the trail just past the trough area.

Desert View Road checklist https://ebird.org/checklist/S64216128

Mile 19 checklist https://ebird.org/checklist/S64216087

Nancy Christensen

Ramona