We hiked several miles in the mountains between Angwin and Aetna Springs, basically in awe of Murray and seeing birds, about 25 or so species, that you couldn't imagine seeing on such a poor weather day. For starters, Murray tooted on an old rifle shell casing to mimic a pygmy owl. Within a minute we got hoots back, and a pygmy owl appeared through the mist and watched us from a branch. Shortly after that we saw a small group of mountain quail. These aren't your everyday California quail, but the elusive, rarely seen mountain quail. Wow! And so it went, until around noon when the rain got harder and we called it quits. Oh yeah, we also saw several piles of fresh bear scat - a nice touch!
Basically, birding by sound, as visibility made most birds look gray, if you could see them at all.
Basically, birding by sound, as visibility made most birds look gray, if you could see them at all.
Binoculars don't work well in the rain either. Here we are heading back to Wild Lake where we ate lunch in the cover of what looked like a spooky old bunkhouse. We asked ourselves, "If you could pick any day of the year for an annual bird count, why would it be January 1st?" Anyway, it was a real privilege to have Murray as our personal expert.
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